A retired lieutenant was one of the insurrectionists who took over the Capitol Wednesday, and it wasn't hard ID'ing him because of the gear he chose to wear during the invasion.
Larry Rendall Brock is an Air Force vet from Texas who was on the Senate floor during the chaos. He was decked out in body armor, a military helmet and a tag with a Punisher skull. That tag has been embraced by QAnon.
He was grasping zip-ties as he left Nancy Pelosi's office. Brock told the New Yorker he wasn't breaching the Capitol at all ... he says he thought someone had put the welcome mat out for the group. What he didn't explain ... if the group was so welcome, why did they smash windows, overtake the cops and storm the building? As for the zip ties, he said he found them in the building and was holding them to return to the cops.
He also said he came to Washington because "The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important."
As we reported ... at least 2 men inside the Capitol had zip ties, which are substitutes for handcuffs. As you know, Congress was in session at the time of the attempted coup and the members literally fled for their lives. The question -- were they on the verge of becoming hostages, or worse?
Law enforcement also found explosives that were ready to detonate.
TMZ broke the story ... the FBI believes this could have been an inside job, and they are investigating the Capitol police and other staffers in the building. The reason for the suspicion is partly due to the fact the rioters somehow traversed the maze inside the building and almost immediately found Nancy Pelosi's office.