Feds: Lego set found in Capitol attack suspect's Glenshaw home wasn't 'fully constructed'

The Lego model of the U.S. Capitol found in the home of a Glenshaw man charged in the Jan. 6 attack in Washington was not “fully constructed” as federal prosecutors initially described it.

“Please note that after a review of the photographs from the search, there appears to have been a miscommunication and that statement appears to be inaccurate. The Lego set was in a box and not fully constructed at the time of the search,” Channing D. Phillips, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote in an amended filing Friday.

RELATED: Feds: Glenshaw man charged in Jan. 6 riot had Lego model of Capitol, militia notes

Prosecutors were making written arguments for why Robert Morss, 27, should remain in custody on charges of assault, resisting or impeding officers; civil disorder; robbery of personal property of the United States; and obstruction of an official proceeding.

The charges stem from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Unnamed sources told authorities Morss was a veteran and had attended Penn State University.

He was a day-to-day substitute teacher at Shaler Area School District with a focus on social studies, school district officials confirmed.

The detail about the Lego model was included in a 39-page filing made July 2 in which authorities laid out details of the case against Morss.

It was picked up by media outlets around the world, with some, including the New York Post, making the most of the detail.

“The FBI is building its case against an alleged leader of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot one Lego brick at a time,” the Post reported.

Fox News noted how people on Twitter reacted to the news.

“As any historian worth his weight in little multi-colored plastic bricks will tell you, Legos were used in some of the most significant and evil plots in history,” political satirist Tim Young told Fox.

The story also was picked up by The Sun, a British tabloid, which also explained to its readers why Legos were trending on Twitter last week.

The filing and coverage of it also was mocked by Mark Steyn, a conservative author, who noted the amended filing made Friday by prosecutors.

“There are going to be mistakes made,” said Bruce Antkowiak, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. “Those things are going to occur.”

But it could have a negative impact on the federal arguments in the case against Morss.

A person accused of taking part in the events of Jan. 6 who had a model of the Capitol “would have been an indication of the mindset of the individual,” Antkowiak said.

But there’s a difference between having the model built and having it in a box, he said.

“That’s why the accuracy in these things (filings) has a great deal of importance,” Antkowiak said. “Inferences are going to be drawn.

“You just hope that court decisions are ultimately not based on the mistakes,” he said.

Correcting the matter in an amended filing was the proper way to handle the error, Antkowiak said.

Morss was captured on video on multiple occasions trying to breach the police lines, including organizing a shield wall with other rioters “in the violent attack on officers inside the Lower West Terrace tunnel, and entering into the Capitol through a broken window,” authorities have said.

Video shows him at one point, attempting to grab an officer’s baton away and, in another image, struggling to take an officer’s helmet visor.

Morss is being defended by attorneys from the Federal Community Defender Office. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.