Investigators are investigating whether the man who tried to breach the F.B.I.’s field office in Cincinnati on Thursday had ties to extremist groups, including one that participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.
The suspect, identified by the officials as Ricky Shiffer, 42, seems to have appeared in a video posted on Facebook on Jan. 5, 2021, showing him attending a pro-Trump rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington the night before the Capitol was stormed.
In May, a Twitter user named Ricky Shiffer replied to a photograph of rioters scaling the walls of the Capitol on Jan. 6 with a message that claimed he was present at the building and seemed to place the blame for the attack on people other than supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.
“I was there,” the message read. “We watched as your goons did that.”
Mr. Shiffer was not charged with any crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.
In another Twitter post, the same user wrote about the far-right nationalist group, the Proud Boys.
“Save ammunition, get in touch with the Proud Boys, and learn how they did it in the Revolutionary War because submitting to tyranny while lawfully protesting was never the American way,” the message read.
