Federal authorities Tuesday morning arrested the embattled Natick town meeting member who drew her neighbors' ire for participating in the siege at the Capitol building in Washington. Also taken into custody was a Malden man on the same charges.
Suzanne E. Ianni, a leader of the anti-LGBT group Super Happy Fun America, was photographed before and during the violent invasion of the building as a joint session of the Congress was moving to give final confirmation to President-elect Joe Biden’s win. The intruders appeared to be supporters of President Donald Trump who, goaded by fraud consipiracies he and other elected officials promoted, questioned the legitimacy of the results of the election last November.
The night before the siege, Ianni’s group tweeted a photo of her, maskless and huddled closed to other passengers aboard a bus. The photo caption indicated the vehicle was one of 11 traveling to the Washington, D.C.
SHFA’s advertisements for the trip promised it would “get wild” and identified Ianni as a coordinator of the convoy.
The next day, as rioters barreled through barricades, smashed windows and beat a police officer, Ianni was photographed outside and inside the Capitol building.
Documents released by the FBI Tuesday show Ianni, 59, was charged with unlawful entry as well as disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds.
Mark G. Sahady, vice president of Super Happy Fun America, was arrested and charged with the same offenses. In 2019, he organized the "Straight Pride Parade" in Boston.
The pair are two of the “more than one-hundred individuals” facing charges in the wake of the insurrection on Jan. 6, according to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen.
The knowledge of Ianni’s attendance and disregard for pandemic public health protocols sent waves of anger through Natick, producing petitions calling for her removal from the volunteer citizen legislature, the town meeting.
Last week, Natick officials announced the town has no mechanism for removing its members, though town moderator Frank Foss has told GBH News fellow meeting members are looking into other public expressions of disapproval such as censure.
