A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday to arson of a federal building for setting a fire beside the front gate of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland in June.

Trenton Edward Barker, who was dressed all in black in the driveway of the building, took a flare from his backpack, lit it and tossed it toward a pile of debris stacked against the vehicle gate about 9:45 p.m. on June 11, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate Rochat said.

Several seconds after he threw the flare, growing flames were seen on the pile and federal officers used extinguishers to put out the fire after about three minutes, Rochat said.

“Is this true?” U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson asked Barker in court. “Is it what you did in this case and did you know what you were doing?”

“Yes, yo

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