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No bond for Calumet man charged in riot

A man Reported to be Karl Dresch stands with a Trump flag in the U.S. Capitol in a Facebook screenshot included in a U.S. District Court FBI search affidavit.

CALUMET, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man charged in the riot at the U.S. Capitol will remain in custody after FBI agents found guns and ammunition at his Upper Peninsula home, a judge said Friday.

Karl Dresch of Calumet is not accused of specific violent acts in Washington on Jan. 6. But he’s a convicted felon who can’t possess firearms or ammunition under state or federal law, said U.S. Magistrate Judge Maarten Vermaat in Marquette.

It is “conduct that could be the basis for new charges,” Vermaat said.

The issue was whether to release Dresch from a Michigan jail while he awaits hearings in Washington.

Defense attorney Elizabeth LaCosse noted that the court’s pretrial services office believed Dresch could be released under certain conditions.

“He has some strong political views, but he’s not a violent person,” she said.

Dresch is charged with being in the Capitol without permission and two other crimes.

His felony conviction was related to a 2013 chase involving police that topped 140 mph, Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore Greeley said.

Greeley drew the judge’s attention to a Facebook comment Dresch made the day after the storming of the Capitol, in which he called then-Vice President Mike Pence “traitor scum”: “We have your back. Give the word, and we’ll be back even stronger.”

Two large Trump flags, one in red and another in blue, are stretched across the front of Dresch’s home. His late father, Stephen, was a dean at Michigan Technological University and a Republican state lawmaker in 1991-92.

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