HOMER — The FBI visited a Homer couple on Wednesday morning in what Marilyn and Paul Hueper claim is a case of mistaken identity related to the Huepers’ participation in protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
According to a Facebook post by Marilyn Hueper on her husband Paul’s Facebook page, FBI agents searched their Krueth Way home near Ocean Drive Loop on April 28. The home also is the location of Homer Inn & Spa. Hueper shared on Facebook that they were startled when a dozen armed agents entered their home, quickly handcuffed them and their house guests, began searching their home and interrogating them in regard to their activities Jan. 6 at the Capitol.
Official FBI details regarding the search are not available for public access at this time, but FBI Public Affairs Officer Chloe Martin on Thursday confirmed that “the FBI was conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity at the location.” Martin said she could not comment further and that she could neither confirm nor deny that there is an investigation.
The Huepers did not respond to emails, phone messages or texts by the Homer News seeking comment.
Marilyn Hueper wrote that she was misidentified through photo recognition as a rioter who stormed the Capitol building. In an interview with “On Top of the World” talk show radio host Chris Story on Thursday, the couple said they did attend a protest on Jan. 6 in support of former President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the election was fraudulent. They said they got near the Capitol about 90 minutes after protesters first approached the Capitol and some entered the building. Marilyn Hueper told Story that agents showed her a photo of a woman with similar features to her who was inside the Capitol. She said the agents claimed the photo was of her. However, Marilyn Hueper said the woman in the photograph had different facial features, such as arched eyebrows and attached earlobes.
Marilyn Hueper said she later looked up the photo and that it is photograph #225a on the FBI’s U.S. Capitol Violence Most Wanted website.
According to the interview with the Huepers on Story’s show, they said the FBI had a court-ordered search warrant for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s laptop and any other related items stolen from the Capitol during the riots, but did not present the warrant until hours after the search began. FBI agents confiscated their personal laptops and cell phones in search of evidence.
“This simply feels like a violation of those of us that were there that had every right, as President Trump said, to protest peacefully, so that’s what we did,” Paul Hueper said during the interview. “We were not inside the Capitol building. We didn’t condone any of the violence that took place there whatsoever.”
The Huepers have not sought out legal help concerning the situation yet but are planning to in order to ensure future searches are handled properly.
“We aren’t looking to cause the government a lot of heartache, headache or whatever, but we want to make sure they were being legal with the search warrant,” Paul said. “We definitely do not feel like it was served in clear honor and faith, but we are going to find that out through legal council.”
This is an ongoing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Reach Sarah Knapp at sarah.knapp@homernews.com.
