Retired NASCAR driver from Pennsylvania, son charged in Capitol riot
The Justice Department has charged more than 1,400 people from across the country — and more than 100 from Pennsylvania — with playing a role in the historic attack.
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Retired NASCAR driver Tighe Scott and his son became on Wednesday the latest Pennsylvania residents charged with playing a role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S Capitol.
Federal prosecutors say Scott, 75, of Pen Argyl in Northampton County, and his 48-year-old son, Jarrett Scott, of Saylorsburg, tussled with officers outside the building who were attempting to keep at bay the violent mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Police body-cam footage from that day shows the elder Scott punching at one officer’s riot shield and attempting to rip a shield out of the hands of another. His son, wielding a golf club, pushed back against police lines, according to government court filings.
When that officer shoved the former professional driver away, knocking him over, the younger Scott unleashed on police with a string of profanity-filled invective and crude references to female anatomy.
“F— you, you knocked down my father,” he yelled, according to footage quoted in court papers. “F— you all … you fat motherf—.”
FBI agents arrested the Scotts on Wednesday morning along with two others — Scott Slater Sr., 56, and Scott Slater Jr., 26, both of Saylorsburg — also accused of felony counts including impeding officers and interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder. All four men now face up to five years in prison on the most serious charges against them.
It was not immediately clear from court dockets whether any of them had hired attorneys.
Court filings reveal their arrests — more than three years after the unprecedented attack which caused millions in damage, left scores of officers injured and threatened the peaceful transfer of presidential power — came after substantial assistance from the amateur community of online sleuths who have dedicated themselves to identifying riot participants, as well as members of the Scotts’ Northampton County community.
As early as January 2022, when the FBI first posted an image of the elder Scott in a camouflage Trump 2020 hat with an American flag brim and asked for public assistance in identifying him, an area resident recognized him immediately, according to an arrest affidavit filed in the case.
The tipster did not know Scott but said he recognized him from his NASCAR career.
Scott competed in dirt racing events before moving into the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Though he recorded no career wins, he made multiple top-10 finishes and raced in the Daytona 500 on several occasions, including in 1979, the first race to be televised nationally, when he finished in sixth place.
» READ MORE: The Bucks County man behind the moment that kicked off the Jan. 6 Capitol riot convicted at trial
Agents said they further confirmed the identification by comparing a scar Scott has on his chin to a similar scar seen on the photo of the man they were seeking to identify from Jan. 6.
Others identified the elder Scott as a frequent presence at Northampton County youth sporting events he attended to support his grandchildren.
Another tipster provided a social media photo he’d been sent of Scott’s son taken from Fox News footage of the Capitol attack. It showed him mugging for a news camera and hovering in the background of a reporter’s live shot, smoking a cigarette and making obscene gestures.
“Is that J. Scott on Fox smoking a dart?” the caption read.
As for the Slaters, who traveled with the Scotts to Washington on Jan. 6, agents managed to track their movements from the “Stop the Steal” rally that morning at the Ellipse, just south of the White House, to the out-and-out brawl that erupted outside the Capitol building.
Though neither they nor the Scotts appeared to enter the building, police body-cam footage showed the younger slater hurling a flag pole and an “Area Closed” sign at officers on the Capitol’s Northwest Terrace struggling to maintain their police lines.
The elder Scott wielded a golf club and at one point appeared to be preparing to strike an officer in the head.
» READ MORE: A Jan. 6 rioter’s Philadelphia Eagles beanie helped FBI agents identify and arrest him
Interviewed by FBI agents months later at his home in Saylorsburg, he insisted he hadn’t witnessed any violence outside the Capitol and hadn’t assaulted anyone that day, according to court filings.
In all, more than 1,400 people across the country — including more than 100 from Pennsylvania — have been charged with playing roles in the riot.