“A Kaysville man who formerly worked as a Salt Lake City police officer has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly taking part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Michael Lee Hardin, 50, was taken into custody without incident by members of the FBI’s joint terrorism task force, with assistance from the Utah’s State Bureau of Investigation, for ‘crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.,’ according to a news release from the FBI’s Utah office. A spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed that Hardin was an officer there until his retirement in 2017. He served with the city police for about two decades and was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 2012 for solving a 25-year-old murder case. The FBI caught Hardin by following up on tips from two people who know him, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice” reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

“The first tipster, a friend of Hardin who used him as a financial adviser, said Hardin called Jan. 4 to say he was heading to Washington to fight for the United States. ‘[The first tipster] further claimed that Hardin had sent … text messages on January 6, 2021, stating, ‘We stormed the Capitol, I am in here now!;’ ‘I know you don’t like [Donald] Trump, but He is the rightful President!;’ and ‘We will return until we win!’,’ the statement reads. The second tipster – someone who knew Hardin for more than 20 years, according to the FBI – said Hardin was in the Capitol and gave authorities a photo of Hardin standing next to a bust of Abraham Lincoln, ‘in what appears to be the Capitol Crypt,’ according to the statement. The tipster said the photo came from a relative of Hardin.”