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Jan. 6 rioter whose Bumble match notified FBI is sentenced to home detention

Robert Chapman had bragged on Facebook that he was "INSIDE THE CRAPITOL!!!"
Robert Chapman stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Robert Chapman stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Dept. of Justice

WASHINGTON — A supporter of former President Donald Trump, who was arrested in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot after a user of the Bumble dating app turned him in to authorities, has been sentenced to three months of home detention.

A screenshot of Robert Chapman telling a person on the dating Bumble that he participated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
A screenshot of Robert Chapman telling a person on the dating Bumble that he participated in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.Dept. of Justice

Robert Chapman of Carmel, New York, was arrested in April 2021, three months after the riot on Jan. 6. He pleaded guilty in December to a misdemeanor picketing charge.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Chapman on Wednesday to 18 months of probation, including three months of home detention with location monitoring. He was also ordered to pay about $1,200 in fines and restitution.

The FBI said it became aware of Chapman a week after the attack when a Bumble user with whom he had exchanged messages contacted law enforcement and sent screenshots of their conversations on the app.

“I did storm the capitol. I made it all the way into Statuary Hall!” he wrote to the user.

“We are not a match,” the user replied, to which Chapman responded: "I suppose not."

Chapman also bragged about his conduct on Facebook, according to prosecutors.

“I’M F------ INSIDE THE CRAPITOL!!!” he wrote in one post, they said.

Chapman contributed to the chaos on Jan. 6 and must be held accountable, but he is unlikely to reoffend, Contreras said.

"I don't expect I'll see you again," the judge said, encouraging him to use his time in home detention "productively."

Chapman told the court that his prayers went out to any people who were injured or negatively affected by rioters.

“I’m hoping as a nation and a country we can begin to heal and bond together and become a much more unified and loving nation,” he said Wednesday.

Robert Chapman, center, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Robert Chapman, center, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.Dept. of Justice

Other Jan. 6 rioters have also been arrested because of users of Bumble, a dating app in which women make the first move.

Andrew Taake, a Texas man charged with assaulting officers with a metal whip and pepper spray, was arrested after a woman in Washington, D.C., hopped on Bumble and sought to draw confessions from rioters.

“They wanted to regurgitate a lot of these ideas to somebody, and I seemed like a willing participant,” the woman, who was identified using the pseudonym "Claire," told HuffPost. “It didn’t take a lot of arm twisting to get them to start talking about it.”

The FBI has made nearly 800 arrests in connection with the Capitol attack, and more than 290 defendants have pleaded guilty. The Biden administration has requested millions of dollars in additional resources to prosecute hundreds of outstanding cases stemming from the attack.