A Proud Boys leader is now in federal custody after taking part in the Capitol siege and then claiming he was there as a reporter ... something law enforcement clearly ain't buying.
Nicholas Ochs -- who heads up the Hawaii faction of the far-right extremist group -- was arrested by FBI agents after touching down at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu ... this following his trip to D.C. to storm the Capitol.
According to an unsealed indictment, the feds are charging Ochs with unlawful entry into restricted buildings or grounds -- and they cite evidence they say Ochs himself laid out on social media and CNN ... the later to whom he made the ridiculous "journalist" comment.
The day after the insurrection, he claimed he was there working as a professional journalist, seemingly saying he had a right to be there and was not part of the riot. He also said he didn't break in ... he simply entered without incident.
Adding insult to injury ... the guy also posted a photo of him smoking a cigarette with a buddy, with a caption attached that reads, "Hello from the Capital lol."
The feds go on to list Parler app posts of his, like this one from November ... "Show this tweet to leftists and say they won’t do s*** when he just keeps being president," He adds, “They are getting scared, and they don’t function when they’re scared."