3 Beverly Hillers Arrested In Connection With Capitol Hill Riot

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Three Beverly Hills residents were taken into custody Monday and Tuesday morning on suspicion of participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the FBI has confirmed to Patch.

Gina Bisignano, 52, who owns Gina's Eyelashes and Skincare on North Camden Drive, was taken into custody by FBI agents at her apartment in the 300 block of North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed to CBSLA.

Agents also arrested 37-year-old communications director and fashion model John Strand, and 55-year-old doctor Simone Gold, known for speaking out against lockdowns and the coronavirus vaccine and advocating hydroxychloroquine as treatment for COVID-19. A report from the U.S. Department of Justice said Gold and Strand were arrested on Jan. 17, but Eimiller said they were arrested Monday.

All arrests occurred without incident, Eimiller confirmed to Patch.

The three suspects were expected to make their first appearance at the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon to answer to federal charges filed out of Washington, D.C., according to Eimiller.

Bisignano was charged with civil disorder, destruction of government property; aiding and abetting; obstruction of an official proceeding; restricted building or grounds; violent entry or disorderly conduct.

Strand and Gold were both charged with restricted building or grounds; violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Two sworn affidavits from the the FBI Washington Field Office's Joint Terrorism Task Force were released Tuesday. According to Bisignano's statement of facts, the FBI received at least six tips identifying Bisignano as a participant in the riots. In a video filmed in the crowd, Bisgnano stated her name and business while speaking into a bullhorn in the crowd, and photos from Instagram and the California DMV have confirmed her identity.

The affidavit also cites videos that show Bisignano taking an active role in the riots. She is at the front of a crowd of rioters physically pushing police in an attempt to enter the Capitol, and is later shown yelling into a bullhorn: "Everybody, we need gas masks, we need weapons. We need strong, angry patriots to help our boys, they don't want to leave. We need protection." According to the affidavit, rioters approximately 10 feet to Bisignano's left are physically assaulting police officers.

As violence against officers intensified, Bisignano stood above watching the crowd, continued to encourage the attack on the Capitol building and shouted anti-Semitic conspiracies. pic.twitter.com/xurSAzryzl
— T (@waterspider__) January 13, 2021

Other tape shows Bisignano shouting, "We the people are not gonna take it anymore ... You are not going to take away our Trumpy-bear, you are not gonna take away our votes and our freedom that I thank God for. This is 1776 and we the people will never give up. We will never let our country go to the globalists. George Soros, you can go to hell." As Bisignano speaks, rioters nearby spray police with fire extinguishers and throw objects at them.

Another video shows Bisignano entering the Capitol through a small square opening, and addresses other rioters, stating, "We need Americans. Come on guys. We need patriots! You guys, it's the way in. We need some people, we need some people."

In an interview with the Beverly Hills Courier published Jan. 13, Bisignano admitted attending the riot but said that she took a passive role and "didn't do anything." Bisignano told the Courier she called the FBI last Tuesday to clear her name, but didn't get through.

"I was being portrayed on Yelp as a terrorist," she said. "I wanted to clear my name. Everyone in Beverly Hills knows I'm not — I am a Christian."

Bisignano, known for her eyelash extensions and brow work and celebrity clients, was a regular at the pro-Trump Freedom Rallies that have occurred in Beverly Hills every Saturday since the late summer, according to The Courier.

In December, she gained online notoriety after a neighbor filmed her going on a homophobic rant at a protest at the home County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. The rant, which makes frequent use of a homophobic slur, was picked up by TMZ, and suddenly her Yelp page was flooded with negative comments. Bisignano later apologized.

She told the Courier that the Capitol was a "war zone" and said that she experienced a panic attack while there. She also told the Courier that she played a passive role in the riots, simply watching with her cell phone and a borrowed megaphone. However, her own videos show her appearing to encourage rioters to enter the Capitol. "We need patriots. You guys, it's the way in," she is filmed saying.

"I was caught up, I was scared, I was excited," she said, adding that she doesn't remember saying the words into a megaphone she was filmed saying. She told The Courier she is afraid of the consequences and said through tears that "my life is over, I'm going to jail," and "I'm going to lose my son."

Meanwhile, the FBI alleges that Gold and Strand entered the building, which Gold has confirmed, but did not instigate violence the way Bisignano is alleged to have done. Gold told The Washington Post in a Jan. 12 interview that she entered the Capitol building not knowing that it was illegal, but says that she "regret[s] being there."

Read also: Orange County Activist Arrested By FBI In Capitol Insurrection

Gold and Strand are the founder and communication director, respectively, of America's Frontline Doctors, an anti-lockdown and coronavirus nonprofit dedicated to "combating the pandemic using evidence-based approaches without compromising Constitutional freedoms" and "fighting medical cancel culture and media censorship," according to its website.

Gold runs a series of blogs and podcasts and is the author of the 2015 book "I Do Not Consent: My Fight Against Medical Cancel Culture." Gold to national attention in July when she and other physicians appeared in front of the Supreme Court to criticize government lockdowns and other efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Video of the event was retweeted by President Donald Trump and viewed by millions before social media platforms took it down, according to The Post.

Gold told The Post that she worked as an emergency room physician but was fired at the event, and has not worked as a doctor since.

She also wrote an open letter to the president in May calling shutdowns a "mass casualty incident" and claiming that she had seen hydroxychloroquine work as a treatment against the coronavirus, a claim debunked by the Food and Drug Administration and numerous doctors and researchers.

The FBI's joint affidavit concerning Strand and Gold said they were identified when their driver's license photos matched several videos of the riot posted to Twitter, CNN and Getty Images. Strand posted on his personal Twitter account @The JohnStrand, "I am incredibly proud to be a patriot today, to stand up tall in defense of liberty & the Constitution, to support Trump & #MAGAforever, & to send the message: WE ARE NEVER CONCEDING A STOLEN ELECTION."

According to the affidavit, CNN videos have shown two people identified as Strand and Gold walking inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and found social media photos of Gold speaking into a microphone.

Gold confirmed that she was at the riot and entered the Capitol Building in a Jan. 12 interview with the Washington Post that she attended the rally, but claimed she did not witness any violence. "I can certainly speak to the place that I was, and it most emphatically was not a riot," Gold told The Post. "Where I was was incredibly peaceful."

Gold said she traveled to Washington to speak at a "Rally for Health Freedom" on the east side of the Capitol on Jan. 6. She was supposed to speak after Trump addressed supporters, but said she was told at 1 p.m. that all speeches were canceled.

Gold told The Post that she followed the crowd into the Capitol, where she seems to have given a speech on the rotunda. Most words are inaudible, except "I'm a mom" and "massive medical establishment."

The FBI continues to search for and arrest attendees of the Jan. 6 riots. The FBI Los Angeles Twitter page asks viewers if they can identify 41 images of riot participants.

The #FBI is still seeking information to help identify individuals who actively instigated violence on January 6 in Washington, D.C. Visit https://t.co/GarxzbSit2 to see images from current cases, and if you see someone you recognize, submit a tip at https://t.co/GTgwaNSfXG. pic.twitter.com/tgmgYldwYL
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) January 11, 2021

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Politico that over 100 arrests have been made.

Last week, a Glendora man was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia with one federal count each of damaging or destroying government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Hunter Allen Ehmke, 20, made his initial court appearance Thursday before a Los Angeles magistrate judge, who granted the defendant's release on a $40,000 bond and ordered him to appear in federal court in the District of Columbia on Jan. 21.

Ehmke is accused of attempting to smash a window at the Capitol during the takeover by Trumps supporters.

— Patch Staffer Michael Wittner and City News Service contributed to this report.