One year after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection, Joshua Matthew Black, of Leeds is out of jail on his own recognizance and still awaiting a trial date.

Black was charged in federal court with obstruction of an official proceeding, aiding, abetting, entering and remaining a restricted building with a deadly weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct and entering and remaining on the floor of congress. The violent entry charge is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison with no parole.

He was identified after posting a video on YouTube detailing his role in the insurrection. After an anonymous tip to the FBI regarding Black’s identification, the FBI was able to match a photo of Black that had been taken of him in the Senate chambers. 

Court documents identified him in the photo as wearing a red jacket, camouflage jacket and yellow gloves and “appears to bleeding on his left cheek. The wound was caused by a projectile. 

Black said he was led by God to the Senate chamber. “I just felt like the spirit of God wanted me to go into the Senate room,” he said.

The YouTube video has since been deleted. 

During a January 2021 hearing to determine if Black should be released pending trial, a federal judge in Birmingham stated that Black’s actions appeared to be passive that day, but that may not always be the case.

“Just because he was passive in the Senate chambers, will he remain so if God tells him something else?” U.S. Magistrate Judge John H. England, III said. “God could tell him to do something a little more violent, couldn’t he?

Black has pleaded not guilty to all counts.