Jake Lang, the former Delaware Valley High School all-star wrestler turned right-wing provocateur, led an anti-Islamic rally outside the New York mayor’s home where two suspects threw homemade bombs Saturday afternoon.
The devices did not detonate.
In social media posts, Lang, 30, and supporters claimed the suspects targeted him and his rally outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.
Authorities charged two men for attempting to detonate the explosive devices, including one that tested positive for TATP, a highly volatile material used in numerous terrorist attacks over the last decade, The New York Times reported.
A criminal complaint shows both suspects made statements displaying allegiance to ISIS, the newspaper reported.
Lang's rally targeted Muslims
Lang billed his event as a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” protest, The Times reported. Lang, with about 20 followers wearing American flag hats and “freedom” sweatshirts, brought a goat, but counter protesters eventually arrived.
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, was not at home during the demonstration.
Pardoned, but unchastised
Pardoned last year by President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Lang has turned into a right-wing social media personality and failed to avoid trouble since the pardon.
He is charged with threatening police in Washington, D.C. and damaging an ice sculpture in Minnesota. Judges released him pending future hearings.
Police: Lang threatened officer
At a Jan. 6 celebration of the riot’s fifth anniversary on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Lang repeatedly warned a Metropolitan Police Department commander keeping an eye on protests that he would face retribution someday.
Lang, now a Florida resident whose full name is Edward Jacob Lang, said the commander is “a pitbull that needs to be put down ... and hung right here in front of the Capitol on national TV,” according to a police affidavit filed in the case.
“We would love to see that,” Lang said.
He said the commander “deserve(s) to be put down like a dead dog.”
“Public execution is the only solution for animals like you,” Lang said.
He also told the commander:
- "Your day will come, and I will be there for it. Look left and right when you cross the street (expletive).”
- "We will need to do more, drag him out by his ankles and throw him in the Potomac (River).”
- "He will get his.”
The incident happened about 3:20 p.m.
The commander walked away, but Lang followed him and other department officers “for several minutes,” according to the affidavit.
A police lieutenant told an investigator he is familiar with Lang because he has monitored many demonstrations Lang attended.
'Artistic expression'
Metropolitan Police charged Lang on Feb. 28 with a misdemeanor count of making threats against the officer.
He pleaded not guilty the same day and is scheduled for an initial status hearing March 24 at 9:30 a.m.
By the day he was charged in Washington, D.C., Lang was already in trouble again amid demonstrations in St. Paul, Minnesota.
On Feb. 5, dressed in camouflage, Lang “kicked over and destroyed the letters” S, E, C, U, T and E in an ice sculpture that said PROSECUTE ICE, according to an arrest affidavit filed by a state trooper the next day. A local group paid to set up the sculpture outside the state Capitol.
The video is available on Lang’s social media.
Removing the letters left the words, PRO ICE, an apparent reference to Lang’s support for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, commonly known as ICE.
In recent months, Minnesota became a flashpoint as thousands of ICE agents moved into Minneapolis and St. Paul to seek immigrants suspected of living in the United States without authorization. Anti-ICE protesters regularly showed up to record videos of ICE arrests. ICE agents shot and killed two protesters, sparking widespread condemnation, but also support for ICE officers, including from Trump administration officials.
After knocking over the letters, Lang got into a Dodge Ram pickup truck and left. State troopers later pulled him over and arrested him.
“Lang said he was on the Capitol ground exercising his ‘First Amendment right to artistic expression’,” a trooper wrote in the affidavit. “When asked if he had damaged an ice sculpture, Lang said the sculpture was made of ice and could not sustain its structure."
Lang overheard a trooper telling a Capitol police dispatcher to save surveillance video.
“And Lang replied that he had great video of the incident,” the trooper wrote in the affidavit.
Lang asked for protective custody and asked officers to relay a message to prosecutors.
“I was creating art,” he said. “I was exercising my First Amendment right to artistic expression.”
In the affidavit, the trooper notes the First Amendment does not extend to “damaging someone else’s property.”
Police charged with first degree property damage, defined as damage that reduces an object’s value by more than $1,000. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.
Group paid for ice sculpture
The Common Defense Organization obtained a city permit to display the sculpture between 6:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. that day. The group paid $6,250 to a local artist to create the sculpture and another $600 for its removal after the permit lapsed, according to the affidavit. The group had planned to donate the sculpture to a local business so it could be displayed longer.
At a hearing Wednesday, a judge found enough evidence to warrant a trial. The trial is scheduled for July 27.
The Jan. 6 riot
Lang was never tried for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, because Trump pardoned him and more than 1,500 others shortly after returning to the White House in January 2025.
Federal agents accused him of "violently engaging with law enforcement officers as they attempted to keep rioters out of the Capitol."
Videos showed him carrying a riot shield over his head and slamming it down on the ground repeatedly near where officers lined up, according to the criminal complaint filed against Lang.
An indictment charged him with assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers; assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers with a dangerous weapon; assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers using a dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury on officers; causing civil disorder; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds or buildings.
Lang is one of several Jan. 6 protesters who have gone to face new criminal charges, including one sentenced to life in prison for child sex abuse, NPR reported last week.
