A former Salt Lake City police officer was arrested Friday for allegedly taking part in the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, joining a growing list of current and former law enforcement officers charged in the riot. Federal authorities said Michael Lee Hardin, 50, entered the building with hundreds of other pro-Trump rioters and posed for a picture in the Capitol Crypt, then bragged about his actions in text messages with friends and family. Hardin, who served on the police force for nearly two decades before retiring in 2017, is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building, disorderly conduct, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Investigators say this photo shows Michael Lee Hardin, a former Salt Lake City police officer, posing next to an Abraham Lincoln bust in the U.S. Capitol the day of the Jan. 6 riot. (U.S. Department of Justice)
In a hearing Friday via Zoom, a judge ordered Hardin to self-surrender in the District of Columbia by April 8. Prosecutors didn’t seek to have him detained while his case proceeds, but local media reported that he was ordered to give up his passport and firearms. (…) The arrests have raised alarms about the presence of right-wing extremists among the rank-and-file of police departments across the country. Police leaders, long reluctant to scrutinize their own officers’ extremist ties, are now facing intense pressure to root out staff with links to white supremacist and armed far-right groups.

via washington post: Ex-officer texted ‘We stormed the Capitol’ during Jan. 6 riot, feds say, and tipsters turned him in