Daniel Warmus: Jan. 6 Conviction and Auditing Erie County

Daniel Warmus is a Western New York man known for two overlapping reasons: he was convicted for breaching the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and he runs a YouTube channel called “Auditing Erie County” on which he films inside government buildings and police stations, generating a steady stream of confrontations, criminal charges, and civil rights lawsuits across New York State.¹

The January 6 Conviction

Warmus entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Doors at roughly 2:17 p.m. on January 6, 2021, and prosecutors said he was among the first people to reach the Rotunda. Security footage showed him wearing a “Trump 2020” hat and a “CNN is fake news” sweatshirt, and carrying an anti-Antifa flag.¹²

The FBI opened its investigation after receiving an anonymous tip on January 12, 2021, that Warmus had bragged about being inside the Capitol and had shown someone a video he recorded there. Agents matched him to footage using DMV and passport photos and confirmed through a warrant that his cellphone had connected to a cell site consistent with the Capitol’s interior.²³ Warmus was arrested on May 18, 2021. On May 23, 2022, he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of willfully and knowingly parading, demonstrating, or picketing inside the Capitol. The case (No. 1:21-cr-00417) was handled in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Judge Paul L. Friedman.¹⁴

On September 27, 2022, Judge Friedman sentenced Warmus to 45 days in jail, two years of probation, 60 hours of community service, and $500 in restitution. Prosecutors had asked for 30 days. The judge went further, and he explained why on the record. Friedman pointed to Warmus’s ongoing “First Amendment audit” videos, in which he entered government buildings and police stations to film public employees, and called that activity a “significant factor” in the longer sentence, describing it as evidence of “brazen disrespect” for law enforcement and the rule of law. The sentence also prohibited Warmus from entering any law enforcement building without permission.¹ According to the Daily Freeman, President Donald Trump granted Warmus clemency on January 20, 2025.⁵

The “Auditing Erie County” YouTube Channel

Warmus operates a YouTube channel called “Auditing Erie County.” The channel had roughly 18,000 subscribers in mid-2022, grew to about 73,000 subscribers and more than 22 million views over 300 videos by mid-2023, and reached approximately 174,000 subscribers by early 2026.⁶⁷⁸

His method is consistent. He walks into a government building with a camera, films employees and their surroundings, often refuses to identify himself when questioned, and sometimes photographs police vehicles at close range. The confrontation that follows becomes the content. He publishes the videos and assigns each audit a “grade” based on how officials reacted, and he has described the goal as testing public servants’ knowledge of the Constitution and providing “checks and balances” on government.⁶

A recurring pattern once the videos are online is a wave of hostile calls, emails, and threats aimed at the officials in them. In July 2023, the Town of Hamburg Police Department reported that its non-emergency lines were “inundated” with frivolous and sometimes threatening calls after Warmus posted a video about the department.⁷

The Probation Fight Over Recording

His federal probation created an unusual overlap between his Capitol conviction and his auditing work. Federal probation officers asked U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo to bar Warmus from recording and posting audit videos of government buildings as a condition of supervised release. Judge Vilardo refused, finding such a restriction would violate Warmus’s First Amendment rights.⁹

After the Hamburg complaint, Vilardo did impose narrower conditions. On July 13, 2023, he prohibited Warmus from engaging in non-criminal violations of harassment or disorderly conduct while auditing, and the existing ban on entering law enforcement buildings without permission remained in place.⁷

Lawsuits and Criminal Charges From Audits

Warmus’s auditing has produced a running series of legal encounters, some as a defendant and some as a plaintiff.

Erie, Pennsylvania (April 2022)

After photographing police vehicles outside the Erie Police Department, Warmus was handcuffed and held in a cell for over 50 minutes without being charged. He said an officer twisted his arm and wrist and applied handcuffs tightly enough to break the skin. He was released without charges and said in May 2022 that he was weighing a civil suit alleging First and Fourth Amendment violations, though no filing was confirmed in the available reporting.⁶

Wyoming County and Hamburg/Blasdell (2022)

In June 2022, Warmus was detained at a Wyoming County government building after refusing to sign in with his real name and filed a civil rights complaint alleging the sign-in requirement was unconstitutional. Wyoming County later stopped requiring visitors to sign in.¹⁰

On July 11, 2022, he said officers from the Town of Hamburg and Village of Blasdell searched, handcuffed, and detained him on Route 5 “without suspicion of a crime,” releasing him with only a parking ticket. That episode produced a federal civil rights suit, Warmus v. Town of Hamburg et al (No. 1:2023-cv-00790), filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the Western District of New York.¹⁰¹¹

City of Lockport (2023)

In December 2023, Lockport City Court Judge Thomas M. Dimillo dismissed harassment charges filed against Warmus by four city clerks who alleged his presence in their office caused alarm and disruption. Warmus called the charges retaliatory, tied to his effort to obtain police body-camera footage from a February 2023 audit at a Department of Labor office in Lockport. He had sought the footage through a Freedom of Information Law request; when the request was denied, he filed an Article 78 lawsuit.¹²

The Article 78 case settled. City officials acknowledged the footage should have been released but claimed it had been “accidentally” destroyed, and the city paid Warmus’s attorney fees. His attorney, Brittanylee Penberthy, said Warmus “wasn’t pursuing it for money” and that his goal was to “better inform public servants and elected leaders on personal rights.”¹²

The Lockport dispute also produced a federal § 1983 case, Warmus v. Tarnowski et al (No. 1:24-cv-01251), naming the City of Lockport, Detective Lieutenant Steven Tarnowski, the four clerks who filed the harassment charges, and unnamed officers. It was originally filed in Niagara County Supreme Court and removed to federal court in December 2024. As of April 2026, a summary judgment motion was pending before Judge Vilardo, who asked the parties to brief the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 2026 decision in Zorn v. Linton, a 6-3 ruling that strengthened qualified immunity for officers using routine physical techniques to remove passively resisting people from government buildings.¹³¹⁴

East Aurora (December 2023)

On December 29, 2023, Warmus was filming inside the Aurora Senior Center when staff asked him to leave, citing member privacy. He refused, and police were called. He later alleged that Officer Steve Cartwright grabbed his arm and camera equipment and that other officers failed to intervene, and on February 28, 2025, he sued the Village of East Aurora, the Town of Aurora, and four officers in Erie County Supreme Court. A police investigation concluded Cartwright had used his arm to move Warmus out of his line of sight and deemed the grabbing accusation “unfounded.”¹⁵

The Hurley Town Hall Confrontation

On January 8, 2026, Warmus walked into Hurley Town Hall in Ulster County with a handheld camera and told Deputy Town Clerk Jeffrey Mann and Town Supervisor Michael Boms he was “investigating the town” for “misconduct.” Officials repeatedly asked him to stop recording and leave. During the exchange, Boms briefly made physical contact while trying to guide him along, and Warmus said “Don’t touch me” and threatened legal action. A New York State Trooper and an Ulster County Sheriff’s deputy responded, and state police told officials Warmus had the right to be in public areas of the building but could not enter private offices uninvited.⁵

The fallout was heavy for a small town. The video drew more than 57,000 views.¹⁶⁵¹⁷

Where He Lives and Works

Warmus, 43 as of early 2026, lives in the Alden area near Buffalo.⁸ He is the registered agent of Worm-a-Fix Automotive, Inc., an auto repair shop in Orchard Park, New York, that was confirmed operating at the time of his 2021 arrest.³ He monetizes his audit videos through YouTube, and his activities have expanded beyond Erie County to Dunkirk, Lockport, Erie (Pennsylvania), and the Hudson Valley towns of Hurley, Esopus, Kingston, and Hyde Park.⁵

1
WIVB. Alden Man First WNYer Jail Time for Actions in Jan 6 Attack Sentenced to 45 Days Behind Bars
2
NBC News. Man Charged in Capitol Riot After Allegedly Showing Video to Dentist
3
George Washington University Program on Extremism. Daniel Warmus Statement of Facts
4
CourtListener. United States v. Warmus
5
Daily Freeman. Incident at Hurley Town Hall Leads to Threats, Supervisor Says
6
WIVB. How First Amendment Auditors Target Public Servants for Viral Videos
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InformNNY. YouTuber and 1A Auditor Says First Amendment Rights on the Line
8
The Overlook News. Hurley Officials Receive Threats After YouTube Audit Confrontation at Town Hall
9
WIVB. Judge: Man Who Was Convicted for Jan 6 Attacks Can Still Enter Government Buildings
10
WIVB. Erie County Auditor Files Two Civil Rights Complaints Against Police
11
Justia Dockets. Warmus v. Town of Hamburg et al
12
WIVB. Harassment Charges Dismissed Against First Amendment Auditor
13
PACER Monitor. Warmus v. Tarnowski et al
14
SCOTUSblog. Zorn v. Linton
15
East Aurora NY. Court Documents Filed Against East Aurora
16
Hudson Valley One. Confrontation Between YouTuber and Hurley Supervisor Viewed by Tens of Thousands
17
Kingston Wire. Cops Intervene When First Amendment Auditor Confronts Hurley Officials