A man arrested with a guillotine in the bed of his pickup truck near the US Capitol told officers it was "the real deal," according to an affidavit.

Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, California, was arrested Tuesday and charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, US Capitol Police said in a news release. Le appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to online court records.

Police said officers spotted the pickup truck shortly after 3 p.m., parked illegally along the East Capitol Street, a small street that runs next to the Supreme Court and steps from the US Capitol building. USCP shared photos showing the massive guillotine.

According to court documents, Le said the 10-foot-tall wooden guillotine with a metal blade was the "the real deal" when asked by an officer if the weapon was fully functioning.

Le stated he "wasn't there for any specific reason" and "didn't have issues with specific members of Congress," the affidavit said.

Lawmakers were not at the Capitol when Le was arrested as Congress is in recess. But the arrest comes amid concerns around the rising threats of violence to members of Congress and the US government.

In 2025, Capitol Police responded to nearly 15,000 "concerning statements, behaviors, and communications directed against Members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol Complex," according to a January press release. This was a more than a 57% increase from 2024.

Police said Le drove from California to Washington, DC. They are going through his background to learn more about his motivation to come to the nation's capital.

CNN has reached to an attorney listed for Le for comment. A status hearing in the case is set for September 24.

An Instagram story posted early Tuesday afternoon from an account that appears to belong to Le showed a video of a man sitting down with a guillotine behind him.

"Outside the FBI building, just eating some cheese pizza," the man said in the video, which was captioned with the words "Guillotine adventures," and "Capital hill next."

The account features other politically charged videos of the same man, including a post on August 12, showing the man with the guillotine, which he says he built. In the video, which contains references to conspiracy theories, he goes after "unelected officials making all the decisions of this place and getting us involved in international conflicts and forever wars," and so-called "people above" them, whose names "our government decided to redact."

"I am not okay with not knowing who these people are, and you shouldn't be either," he says. "The last few months, however, I've been working on a solution. I built a guillotine. I'm gonna drive this f**ker to Washington, DC."

He goes on to to say the guillotine is "strictly for self-defense purposes โ€ฆ I harbor no ill will or intentions of violence towards anyone."

Last month, police arrested a man at the north barricade of the Capitol who they said had a handgun, which is prohibited on the grounds.

Le's brother, Kelvin Le, told the Los Angeles Times that the guillotine was a "symbol of disapproval," adding that Le was unhappy with Democrats and Republicans, and disliked both President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"I don't think he'd hurt anyone," said Kelvin Le, who told the LA Times he was surprised to learn of the arrest.

Whether Le's actions could be protected by the First Amendment "depends on specific factual circumstances," said CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

"Generally speaking, a person has broad rights under the First Amendment, including speech that is aggressive, distasteful or controversial," Honig said, adding, "The decisive question is going to be was the object operational or a symbol. Could a person actually have been harmed? How did he display it? And what did he say about it?"

CNN's Jordan Budney contributed to this report.

This story was updated with additional details.

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