The accused is 44 years old He tries to smuggle A machete and other knives at the US Capitol On the same day President-elect Donald Trump went to pay his respects as the late former President Jimmy Carter lay in state, he appears to have made a series of anti-Trump posts on social media.
Mel J. Horn faces multiple charges of carrying a dangerous weapon after he tried to enter the Capitol Visitor Center with a machete, folding knives and a box cutter, according to court documents. However, he was released a few days before Inauguration Day.
An account on
The account referred to both the president-elect and billionaire Elon Musk as “bags of s—” while responding to a Trump parody account that asked: “Do you like Elon Musk?”
Mel Horn (Mel Horn/Instagram)
Another post He asserted on New Year's Eve that the two men “behave as consistent enemies of the state.” On December 9, the account posted “F— them!”
Earlier in the day, the account again referred to Trump as an “enemy” but shared a message of prayer.
“I'm praying for all of us,” the post read. He added, “No matter how much of an enemy the American people are, he is our president-elect, so I will certainly pray for his health, well-being and safety, and also that Jesus will actually be able to touch his heart and show him the way.” “
Jimmy Carter Memorial: Suspect identified in security breach on Capitol Hill during Trump's visit
Another post was in response to a tweet about the Capitol Police officer who shot a January 6 protester Ashli BabbittHe called for Trump to be impeached.
“Trump should be prosecuted because he mobilized them and sent them there…” he wrote, adding a pair of emojis. “He sent that girl to die.”
Horn's mother had previously accused him of drug abuse and psychosis and asked the court to remove him from her home and ordered him to go to psychological treatment.
US Capitol Police blocked a man from entering the Capitol building at a security checkpoint after they found a machete and three knives in his backpack. (US Capitol Police)
Other posts included insults directed at Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman and Trump's nominee for director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and the recently acquitted Daniel Binney, who was controversially accused in The case of suffocation in the subway after a man threatened to kill other passengers.
Capitol Police declined to comment on the tweets.
A Fox News Digital spokesperson said: “To protect our cases, we cannot discuss open investigations.”
Mel Horn (Mel Horn/Instagram)
Horn allegedly told Capitol Police that the bladed weapons were landscaping tools after placing them in an X-ray tray at a magnetometer checkpoint at the Capitol Visitor Center, according to an affidavit.
Officers noted that there was more than 6 inches of snow on the ground and that the city had declared a snow emergency days earlier, then asked him when his last landscaping job was.
Read the police Affidavit:
“He (Horn) advised… that he was not coming from or on his way to a landscaping job,” the affidavit continued. “(Horn) stated that he is homeless, and he carries these items wherever he travels.”
Trump, who was attending Carter's memorial service on the same day Horn allegedly tried to sneak the weapons, will be inaugurated for his second term on January 20.
Supreme Court in the capital The judge granted Horne supervised release while he awaits trial, court records show. Details of the conditions of his release were not immediately available to the public.
Another man, Adrian Hinton, was also arrested that day after trying to burn a car near the Grant Memorial. He is scheduled to appear in court later this week.
Horn's arrest report indicates he is a former felon, although the nature of his prior conviction was not immediately clear. He was previously imprisoned in 2019, but the Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital that he was not authorized to release records in this case. Court records show he faced a number of misdemeanor charges in 2004.
A plow clears snow in front of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2025. Horne reportedly told police that the machete he allegedly found was one of his landscaping tools. They noted that the city had just been hit by a snowstorm. (Reuters/Marko Djurica)
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“My son lives in our house (rent-free) and last year he started using a substance to get high or change his mind,” his mother, Brenda Horn, alleged in a civil complaint. “Now he has become violent, and we are afraid and want to get him out of our house.”
She asked the judge to order him removed from her property and force him to undergo psychological treatment.
The case was ultimately dismissed without prejudice, and Horn agreed to stay away from his parents' home for a year, with the caveat that he was only allowed to return to the exterior of the property to care for his bonsai trees, according to court documents.
Fox News' Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
