Last week's images of celebratory rioters attacking the united states capitol were replaced this week by their mugshots.
The fbi launched a massive dragnet across the country to track down and arrest many of the people who assaulted police officers, killing one and defacing the building in their violent, unsuccessful quest to stop a vote in congress and perhaps to do much worse.
That effort by law enforcement continues this morning with a help of trail of digital evidence left behind by the rioters.
Jo ling kent has our sunday focus.
reporter: the social media platforms rioters used to organize the attack on the nation's capitol have now become a hotbed of evidence that sent law enforcement knocking on their doors.
we have received more than 100,000 pieces of digital media, which is absolutely fantastic.
reporter: after criticism of making too few arrests on january 6th, investigators with the help of social media sleuths are now rapidly piecing together who stormed the capitol.
There's no doubt that this is probably the best documented crime scene in history so far.
reporter: that's because of what former fbi special agent mark pollack calls the staggering number of digital devices at the scene.
What are they leaving behind?
you carry your phone everywhere you go.
It's talking to the network all the time.
The other thing is, i'm not a big fan of twitter personally.
People that are seem to do it as a stream of consciousness.
From an investigative perspective, that's gold.
You are really seeing inside that person's head.
reporter: in over a dozen cases so far, law enforcement relied in part on social media evidence to identify the suspect.
Court documents show the fbi started with these photos inside the senate chamber.
They used his baseball cap, patch on his chest and his unique shirt to match him to a screen grab of a live stream from inside a nearby hotel lobby that captures him before he put his mask on.
From there, they used an image search to find this picture, just outside the capitol building.
According to court documents, the authorities located his social media profile and gathered enough evidence for fbi agents in nashville to arrest him on january 10th.
This woman went live on facebook and boasted about the damage done.
we did break down nancy pelosi's office door.
reporter: the fbi matched her to this photo taken by a journalist inside the capitol.
This man's offensive sweatshirt captured the attention of reporters who posted pictures of him on twitter.
A tipster in virginia recognized it and provided law enforcement with a picture of him inside a store from a month earlier.
It was enough for the fbi to arrest him.
Just as organizing online can manifest into real life action, so, too, can trails of evidence.
That reality, pushing the most extreme voices on more private platforms ahead of inauguration day.
there's a lot of confusion in some of the conspiracy communities.
They have been told for years that there's a plan to trust.
One of the real concerns is that that belief in illegitimacy, in the stolen election will persist and result in further violence.
on saturday, the u.s.
Attorney in nashville announced fbi agents had taken a 56-year-old woman into custody.
She's the mother of the man with the zip ties we highlighted.
She faces several charges as well.
In the court filing, the fbi says social media helped agents find her.
Jo ling kent joins me life.
Social media companies have been pulling extremists off their platforms for ten days or so.
To what extent are they helping law enforcement find people who attacked the capitol?
Facebook and twitter have a long history of cooperating with law enforcement behind the scenes on these types of investigations.
Now facebook announcing it's banning new events from being organized near the capitol as a prevention measure.
The white house or any state capitol buildings as well through inauguration day.
Facebook saying it's not going to allow ads for weapon accessories in the u.s. At least through two days after inauguration day out of what they keep calling an abundance of caution.
A lot of changes right now, willie.
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