‘I Fed Him To The People’: Trump Fan Indicted For Dragging Cop Into Capitol Mob By The Neck – By Ryan J. Reilly (Huffpost) / April 5 2021
Jack Wade Whitton, known to online Capitol attack sleuths as “Scallops,” helped set off the “Sedition Hunters” community. The feds want him held until trial.
Federal prosecutors have requested an emergency stay to prevent the release of Capitol defendant Jack Wade Whitton, who was arrested last week after he was identified as the Trump fan captured on film dragging a D.C. police officer by the neck down the steps of the Capitol and into a violent mob.
Whitton, who the feds say is the man who wore a “TRUMP 2020” hat as he brutally assaulted officers at the Capitol, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a host of federal charges. The Georgia CrossFit enthusiast was one of the first suspects who became the target of online “Sedition Hunters” who have sought to identify the violent insurrectionists who tried to stop the certification of the election on Jan. 6. They nicknamed the suspect “Scallops” because an overhead photo of him dragging a police officer down a set of Capitol steps by the neck showed him wearing what one online investigator called a “distinctive scalloped grey backpack.”
Magistrate Judge Regina Cannon of the Northern District of Georgia ordered Whitton released pending trial following an initial hearing last week. But federal prosecutors filed a motion for an emergency stay, and have asked a judge in D.C. to order Whitton held until trial.
In a court filing, prosecutors pointed to the role that “unknown Twitter users” had played in identifying Whitton and tracking his movements and actions on Jan. 6 under the #scallops hashtag. “In the photographs tagged, Whitton is seen in various stages of dress during the assault,” they write.
