'I regret exactly nothing': Woman got Jan. 6 rioter to confess on dating app and reported him to FBI
Andrew Taake — a 32-year-old Texas man who attended the deadly January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol — recently pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom. His impending prison sentence is due to the efforts of an unnamed woman in Washington, DC.
According to NBC News, the woman got the idea to pursue January 6 defendants on the dating app Bumble (known for its feature of only allowing female users to send the first message) after the FBI issued a call to the public to help them identify rioters. The woman changed her political preferences to "conservative" and started swiping for matches. When she came across Taake's profile, she coaxed a confession out of him with what she called "comically minimal ego-stroking."
"It’s been wild to see him still defend that attack all this time and makes me even more glad he was caught for it." the woman told NBC following the news of Taake's guilty plea. "I regret exactly nothing lol."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?
Taake pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon. While his sentence remains unknown, other January 6 defendants who pleaded guilty to similar charges have received prison sentences of several years in length. Earlier this year, New Jersey resident Julian Elie Khater was sentenced to 80 months (nearly seven years) in federal prison on two counts of assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon.
The woman — who was interviewed by NBC News justice reporter Ryan Reilly for his book Sedition Hunters: How January 6th broke the justice system — remarked on how easy it was to get men to admit to committing felonies on the dating app. The woman (who remains anonymous out of fear of reprisal) said her strategy was to simply prod them with comments like "wow, crazy, tell me more."
"I felt a bit of ‘civic duty’ I guess, but truthfully, I was mostly just mad and thinking, f--- these guys," the woman said.
The woman recalled asking Taake if he was "near all the action," with Taake responding that he was "from the very beginning," even sending her a selfie he took after being pepper sprayed by US Capitol Police. Even though Taake was already a convicted felon, authorities found multiple guns at his Houston residence when arresting him (felons are barred from owning firearms). He also has an active case in Harris County, Texas, where he is currently fighting charges of soliciting a minor online.
READ MORE: Jack Smith lining up 3 expert witnesses to link Jan. 6 rioters to Trump's phone data: report
