A Michigan man who has modeled for the covers of several romance novels was arrested for his involvement in the Capitol riot of January 6 thanks to his hilariously Zoolander-esque Instagram thirst traps.
Logan Barnhart, a self-described "pipe layer" (lol) and bodybuilder from Lansing, Michigan was arrested yesterday by the FBI on suspicion he helped beat a police officer during the riot.
Barnhart was identified by internet sleuths using facial recognition software.
This led them to several of Barnhart's extremely thirsty Instagram and Facebook posts, like the one below.
Or this hilariously on-the-nose one we cannot believe is real.
Earlier this year he was working out at a very appropriately named gym. pic.twitter.com/Q8wiWHQbmv
— Michigan Tea (@MichiganTea) August 17, 2021
The online sleuth community Sedition Hunters dubbed Barnhart "Cat Sweat" because of the sweatshirt he wore to the insurrection, which featured the logo for Caterpillar, the heavy equipment manufacturer.
In addition to bodybuilding and "pipe laying," Barnhart has also worked as a machine operator for his father's construction company.
But his most, shall we say eyebrow-raising job is modeling on the covers of romance novels, like the evocatively named Stepbrother UnSEALed: A Bad Boy Military Romance in which—as you might guess from the title—the main character sleeps with his stepsister.
Logan Barnhart of Michigan #catsweat has graced the cover of AT LEAST three romance novels. pic.twitter.com/j2htXPWq8e
— Michigan Tea (@MichiganTea) August 17, 2021
Sedition Hunters, a group of private citizens who've been working to identify insurrectionists from the mountain of footage and images from January 6, had been trying to identify the man they called Cat Sweat for quite some time.
Finally, they found an image of Cat Sweat without sunglasses on, and before long they were sifting through myriad photos of a barely clothed Barnhart on bodybuilding sites, online portfolios and, of course, romance novels about incest and whatnot.
But while the circumstances are hilarious, the crux of Barnhart's story is anything but. The FBI believes he is the man seen in footage from January 6 wearing a Caterpillar branded sweatshirt helping to drag a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer down a staircase, where he was then beaten with an American flag on a pole by another suspect, Peter Stager.
On Twitter, people applauded the apprehension of this thirst-trap domestic terrorist.
Barnhart appeared in court in Michigan on Tuesday, where he was assigned a court-appointed attorney and released on house arrest and $5000 bond.
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