Beverly Hills Eyelash Store Owner Among 3 Arrested in Capitol Riot Roundup
Three Beverly Hills residents and Trump supporters were arrested Tuesday on federal charges for being part of the mob that stormed the Capitol earlier this month. The arrests included 52-year-old eyelash store owner Gina Michelle Bisignano, who filmed herself during the riot, and gave the cameraman her full name and hometown.
Alongside Bisignano, the FBI arrested 37-year-old John Strand and physician Simone Gold, age 55, for attending the riot. Strand described himself as a “communications director” for the Trump support group Beverly Hills Freedom.
Gold is a doctor that’s advocated for dangerously untested coronavirus treatments, including hydroxychloroquine, and appeared in front of the Supreme Court last year to protest nationwide pandemic lockdowns. Gold also confirmed to the Washington Post last week that she photographed on the Capitol grounds holding a bullhorn.
In several photos, Bisignano is also seen holding a bullhorn and encouraging people to enter the Capitol building through a broken window.
“I do not regret being there,” Gold told the Post, though that sentiment might be different now that she’s in federal custody.
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The FBI is now combing through social media for evidence to use in arresting the rioters, and average tech-savvy citizens have taken to social media to help identify people filmed and photographed breaking into the Capitol. So far the agency has opened over 200 case files and arrested over 100 people, including Bisngano, who made their job easy by essentially doxxing herself at the riot Jan. 6.
The day of the assault on the Capitol, Bisignano, Gold and Strand recorded several times. The evidence was later circulated on Twitter as part of the community effort to identify the insurrectionists. Bisignano gave the FBI everything they wanted to know in the clip saying, “my name is Gina Bisignano, I’m from Beverly Hills. I’m @Gina.BeverlyHills on Instagram, and they doxxed the s— out of me, they tried to ruin my business, they shut me down.”
“I crossed in over there, and they sprayed me in the face,” Bisngano continues in the video, admitting she tried to break into the Capitol. “Jesus is our king, and Trump is our president,” she adds. “I am a patriot.”
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It’s unclear exactly who “they” are — Bisignano would have been mandated to close her eyelash shop and salon in Beverly Hills once the pandemic started, so she might be talking about the California government. She also could be referencing online backlash she faced earlier this year after she was caught on camera hurling homophobic and transphobic slurs at a counter-demonstrator during a protest against California’s coronavirus restrictions.
“I couldn’t breathe. I was having a panic attack. I needed air,” Bisgnano told the Beverly Hills Courier. “Every time I opened my eyes, they were burning. My mouth was burning. Everything was burning, and I couldn’t breathe.”
Bisignano said that the tear gas Capitol Police threw at the crowd caused her to have a panic attack, so she left the Capitol building to “find somewhere safe.” Twitter users were quick to document the irony, and point out that attacking U.S. police usually results in tear gas.
“Who knew insurrection – she’s on video yelling ‘we need weapons, we need strong angry patriots’ – would come at a cost,” reporter Robert Lusetich mused.
Bisignano, Strand and Gold are expected to make appearances in Los Angeles courts Tuesday afternoon, according to the L.A. Times.
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