2021 Trump-Incited Insurrection at Capitol Building

[TopHatter]

Jan. 6 rioters the far right claimed were antifa keep getting unmasked as Trump supporters

WASHINGTON — In nearly three years since a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, far-right figures have made a claim that flies in the face of reality: That the Jan. 6 attack was actually driven by far-left antifa activists dressed up like Trump supporters, or by federal agents dressed up like Trump supporters, or by some combination thereof.

The only trouble with the conspiracy? The feds keep arresting these supposedly far-left agitators, and the rioters' own social media posts and FBI affidavits show they're just Trump supporters.

"Suspected ANTIFA trying to break windows at the Capitol," wrote one Jan. 6 participant on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in recent weeks, posting an old video that showed two black-clad men smashing at a window near the lower west tunnel, where some of the worst violence took place on Jan. 6.

This allegation wasn't entirely new. Video of the same two men had been circulated before, with claims that the black-clad duo were left-wing agitators. The rumors about the two men and other secret undercover antifa operatives began spreading on Jan. 6 itself, and were boosted by figures like Rep. Matt Gaetz. Some of the misinformation appears to have originated because other Jan. 6 participants who charged up the inauguration platform themselves appeared to believe that anyone wearing black — or anyone who would smash windows — were de facto members of antifa and couldn't possibly be Trump supporters.

"Boo, antifa!" one Trump supporter yelled in a video showing the two men trying to break the windows. "No antifa! No antifa! No antifa! Antifa are breaking the windows!"

In fact, the two men were not antifa. They were Trump supporters.

One of the men was arrested just last month: William Lewis, a 57-year-old from Illinois who was charged with felony counts of assaulting officers and civil disorder. Lewis was wearing mostly black and used "what appears to be a baton" to smash in a Capitol window, the FBI charges. Lewis also deployed what appeared to be a can of wasp and hornet spray at officers on three separate occasions on Jan. 6, authorities charge.

(Lewis made an initial appearance in federal court in Illinois and was released with an appearance bond of $4,500. He has not yet been indicted or arraigned, his attorney confirmed, so he has not entered a plea, but has another court appearance scheduled for Jan. 18.)

An NBC News review of Lewis' social media presence shows that he is a Trump supporter who disdains President Joe Biden. In late 2020, ahead of the Capitol attack, Lewis' Facebook page featured anti-Hunter Biden memes, a celebration of the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, reposts of both Donald Trump Jr. and then-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, as well as praise for former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany: "Savage, Patriot, Fearless, Warrior ."

The other black-clad man isn't antifa either. He's Jonathan Munafo — a man known as a "Front Row Joe" because he camped out to get prime viewing spots at Trump rallies all across the country in the lead-up to Jan. 6. He was charged in relation to the Jan. 6 attack and sentenced in September to 33 months in prison. In addition to trying to smash the Capitol window, he was convicted of punching a Metropolitan Police Department officer twice and of stealing the officer’s riot shield.

Another recent Jan. 6 arrestee who had also been the subject of claims he was antifa is Paul Orta, who wore a dark-colored balaclava on Jan. 6 and was seen ripping down fencing as the mob began flooding onto the restricted grounds of the Capitol, in footage cited by the FBI. His outfit led many Trump supporters to claim he was a member of antifa.

But Orta, who was arrested and charged with a felony last month, was with a group that came to Washington in a Hippies 4 Trump bus covered in Trump 2020 graffiti. Other body-worn camera footage shows Orta carrying a large blue Trump flag outside the Justice Department while the crowd was en route to the Capitol from the location of Trump's rally.

After taking part in the initial breach of the fencing at the Capitol, federal officials say, Orta yelled, "We're taking that s--- today!" He then helped remove yet another barricade: metal bike racks that he threw over a concrete wall, authorities said. Orta then threw an unknown dark-colored object at police, joined other Trump supporters pushing against police, and advanced further up the inauguration platform.

(Orta made an initial appearance and was released on his own personal recognizance but has not yet entered a plea. His attorney declined to comment.)

Complicating the effort to shoot down conspiracies about the identities of individual rioters is the fact that there are hundreds of Jan. 6 participants who have been identified by online "sedition hunters" but not arrested. More than 1,200 people have been charged in connection with Jan. 6. There are about 1,000 Jan. 6 participants who have been identified but are not currently facing charges, say online sleuths, who have given hundreds of those suspects' names to the FBI.

Trump supporters and prominent GOP politicians have repeatedly pointed to supposed video evidence of alleged antifa operatives at the Capitol, only for reporters and online sleuths to identify the rioters in those clips as arrested Trump supporters.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, recently suggested that a Jan. 6 rioter holding an object in his hand was an undercover federal agent holding a badge. In fact, the man was a Trump supporter currently serving four years in federal prison after stealing items from Nancy Pelosi's office and the item he was holding appeared to be a vape. Trump supporters have also repeatedly surfaced a video of the initial breach of the Capitol, claiming that those masked men who first broke into the building must be antifa. But most of those men have been arrested and identified, like Trump supporter Edward Kelley, who the feds say was wearing the black sweatshirt of an anti-abortion organization when he jumped through a broken window and kicked open a fire door. Kelley has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial next year for allegedly conspiring to kill the federal agents investigating his Jan. 6 case and his co-defendant had admitted the duo conspired to “murder employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

But one of the most popular videos spread by those trying to shift blame for the Capitol attack involves a suspect who had not been arrested. It shows other Trump supporters ripping a man wearing a green helmet with a "Trump" sticker on it away from a Capitol window as he attempted to smash it open.

Online sleuths who have worked with the FBI to identify rioters say they identified the man featured in that photo long ago. The man, according to the sleuths and evidence reviewed by NBC News, was previously charged for threatening a Democratic official in his home state, his Facebook profile currently features the words "MAGA 4 EVER GOD SAVE OUR REPUBLIC " and he appears to have even identified himself by name to a photographer who was on the scene as Trump supporters came back to the Capitol on Jan. 7. Despite the sleuths reporting him to the FBI nearly two years ago, he has not ben arrested.

One of the other rioters who grabbed that man was Ed Badalian, a Trump supporter from California who came to D.C. to "arrest the traitors" with his friend Danny "D.J." Rodriguez, who drove a stun gun into former officer Mike Fanone's neck and was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at Badalian's sentencing in September that Badalian still “can’t let go of the false story of bringing down antifa.”

Judges have regularly dealt with Jan. 6 defendants who are still lost in online conspiracy theories. Many of those defendants, like former Police Chief Alan Hostetter, have latched onto the case of John Sullivan, an “anti-establishment” activist who stormed the Capitol and was caught on tape bragging that he'd "make those Trump supporters f--- s--- up.” Hostetter has said he believes that Jan. 6 was a setup from the beginning and brought up the Sullivan case in court, while representing himself. But he had trouble explaining how the handling of Sullivan's case — Sullivan was arrested, convicted on all charges after a trial last month and ordered detained until his sentencing — was part of some broad scheme by the "deep state."

Last week, Judge Beryl Howell had to deal with far-right attorneys who were asking the government for evidence about “ghost buses,” a term popularized by far-right Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., as he's spread a conspiracy theory that the FBI send busloads of undercover informants dressed as Trump supporters to infiltrate the Jan. 6 mob. (FBI Director Christopher Wray directly rebuffed Higgins' claim at a congressional hearing.)

Howell pushed back when attorneys representing a Jan. 6 defendant brought up the term. “What are you talking about? We are not going down rabbit holes in this case," Howell said. “Let’s stick to the facts in my courtroom, please.”

Even some Jan. 6 defendants who have admitted that they attacked law enforcement that day have blamed antifa for the violence at the Capitol, while others have gotten angry that their fellow Trump supporters were giving antifa credit for their work.

On Wednesday, Andrew Taake pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers on Jan. 6, admitting he attacked officers with both bear spray and a metal whip. But in a discussion with the woman who turned him into the FBI — she'd set up a sting on the Bumble dating app, hoping to elicit confessions — Taake claimed that antifa "incited" the violence and that majority of "the people attacking police" were antifa, even though he himself had attacked police.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Jonathan Mellis, whom online sleuths gave the nickname "Cowboy Screech" due to his cowboy hat and resemblance to the "Saved by the Bell" character. Before Mellis was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on Wednesday, prosecutors played a video of him in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack in which he got worked up over Trump supporters crediting antifa with attacking the Capitol.

“It was Trumpers! We were there, and we were there to be heard, for sure," Mellis said. "We had a goal to occupy that f---ing Capitol building."

Mellis posted a similar message on Facebook after the attack. “Don’t you dare try to tell me that people are blaming this on antifa and BLM,” Mellis wrote, using the abbreviation for Black Lives Matter. “We proudly take responsibility for storming the Castle. Antifa and BLM or [sic] too p----."

In the lead-up to Jan. 6, authorities were primarily worried about a replay of clashes that took between pro-Trump and anti-Trump protesters in Washington, D.C., in November and December of 2020. But the reality on Jan. 6 was that most left-wing activists stayed away, knowing they’d be far outnumbered. Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue later said that open-source intelligence suggested that Jan. 6 "would essentially be a one-sided protest," which was a "relief" because, in their mind, it lessened the potential for violence.

Many Trump supporters, on the other hand, came to the nation's capital expecting to see antifa around every corner. The fact that the pro-Trump Proud Boys talked about going to Jan. 6 "incognito" and dressed in black only confused more typical Trump supporters, or "normies," as the Proud Boys call them. The constant coverage of Black Lives Matter and anti-Trump protests on conservative media led to a funhouse mirror effect, with Trump supporters saying in videos, social media posts and in court that they were primed to see antifa all over Washington when they were looking at their fellow Trump supporters.

“I was going to be super hard and go punch a antifa terrorist in the face. And I end up being the terrorist," former West Virginia Councilman Eric Barber, later sentenced to 45 days in prison, said in his FBI interview. "Plot twist, huh?”
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[TopHatter]

Ex-GOP student leader's links to Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a neo-Nazi web site

The young man is seen running with the crowd of Trump supporters toward the U.S. Capitol early in the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. He wears a thigh-length dark blue coat, his face almost fully covered with a mask. The bill of an off-white baseball cap pokes out of the hood of his gray sweatshirt.

At 2:35 p.m. and 20 seconds, a security camera inside the Capitol captures the man as he steps across the threshold of the west door of the upper west terrace, holding up his phone, apparently capturing the moment himself. Immediately behind him is the far-right internet personality “Baked Alaska.”

For a few seconds, his distinctive pink Adidas Continental 80 sneakers are visible.

The security footage is among videos released during the trial of another Jan. 6 participant, a member of the Proud Boys prosecuted for seditious conspiracy. In it, and in other photos from the day, his face remains partly concealed behind the mask.

But all signs point to Oliver Krvaric, a young Republican star and scion of a powerful GOP family from San Diego. Krvaric is most notable for his job at the time of the riot.

A USA TODAY review of arrests concluded Krvaric would be the first full-time employee of the Trump administration identified entering the Capitol in the insurrection. On Jan. 6, 2021, Krvaric was working for the Office of Personnel Management on a short-lived Trump executive order that sought to rid federal agencies of certain diversity and inclusion training.

By then, the 22-year-old had built a public persona as an up-and-coming student GOP leader. Even earlier than that, his name had been used to create an identity on a site for white supremacists.

Asked whether he was at the Jan. 6 riot, Krvaric initially told USA TODAY he was not. Pressed about the photos that online researchers say show him that day, Krvaric acknowledged he attended former President Donald Trump’s speech, but said he didn’t go inside the Capitol. Asked about images that appear to show him inside the Capitol, he then said he didn’t remember whether he went inside. Sent copies and links to the footage, he stopped responding.

As for the online persona, an email address in Krvaric’s first and middle names was used in 2016 to create a profile on a neo-Nazi website. That user praised Adolf Hitler, backed deportation of non-white people and expressed disgust of the LGBTQ+ population.

Kvaric said he did not recall the posts. He did not deny making them, and said he did “not particularly” recognize the email address behind them.

“I don’t know if that’s long in the past, or — I wouldn’t recognize anything,” Krvaric said about the posts, which appeared on the now-defunct white supremacist forum “Iron March.” “I just don’t have a recollection.”


Oliver Krvaric, as president of his university's College Republicans, penned a letter to President Trump asking him to cancel all temporary worker visas for foreign nationals. The publicity led to interviews including with then-Fox host Tucker Carlson.

Krvaric led the College Republicans while at San Diego State University. In a 2020 opinion column in the San Diego Union Tribune, he penned a portentous message:“The temporary upheaval that consumed the Republican Party up through the early months of the new administration is nothing like what’s coming should President Trump lose re-election in November.”

The following January brought the insurrection. Since then, more than 1,000 people have been charged for crimes ranging from simply entering the building to seditious conspiracy. But as the third anniversary approaches, hundreds of other participants who may be identifiable in photos and videos remain free.

Online sleuths used high-tech facial recognition software to try matching photos of Krvaric to photos from Jan. 6. That technology pointed toward the man in the blue coat.

But other evidence also places Krvaric on the streets of the capital that day.

Krvaric was working in D.C. at the time, and acknowledges being at Trump’s rally on Jan 6. Others close to him had also heard he was involved in the insurrection, including two former colleagues who told USA TODAY they heard Krvaric’s younger brother bragging about Krvaric storming the Capitol. One of the former colleagues reviewed the photos from the day for USA TODAY and identified the man in the mask as Krvaric.

The man in the blue coat was also photographed waving a flag connected to a far-right group Krvaric has been photographed with in the past.

And then there are the distinctive shoes. A year and a half before the Jan. 6 insurrection, Krvaric appeared in photographs from a San Diego Republican Party event. On his feet in those photos: Adidas Continental 80s. Color: pink.

At the insurrection
A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as a sort of human resources department for federal agencies, confirmed that Oliver Krvaric was employed by the department as a “confidential assistant” from November 2020 to January 2021.

Krvaric also lists his work for the Trump administration on his LinkedIn page. He now works for a security firm, and his LinkedIn page says he’s looking for political work.

In his interview with USA TODAY, where he acknowledged being in Washington on Jan. 6, he initially said he was at work that day, not at the Capitol.

Only after being asked about the photographs of the man in the blue coat in the crowd, holding a Trump flag and a blue “America First” flag connected to the far-right extremist “Groyper” movement, did Krvaric acknowledge he was on the streets of the capital that day. He said he attended Trump’s now-infamous speech at the Ellipse, where the former President called on protestors to march to where the votes from the 2020 election were being certified.

“I was not in the Capitol. I did not go into any offices, I didn’t wander the halls,” he said. “I was not in the premises.”

Then asked if that meant he truly never crossed the threshold of the building, he said, “What do you mean by ‘the threshold’?”

Told of the surveillance video from inside the Capitol, Krvaric said: “I don’t know about that, I’d have to see it.” USA TODAY sent him a text message with a link to that footage in early December. He has not responded.


Security footage from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 shows a man in a blue coat and hooded sweatshirt entering the building at the same time as a high-profile livestreamer.

In the footage, the man in the blue coat walks down a corridor toward a second door, looks inside and nods his head enthusiastically, before retracing his steps. As he heads toward an exterior door, a camera catches him in full frame: ball cap, blue coat and pink Adidas shoes.

It’s unknown whether he went elsewhere in the Capitol. Mere presence inside the building has been enough for a charge in other cases. Among the 1,000-plus people charged for events that day, one of the most common charges is “entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds.”


Capitol security footage from Jan. 6. This angle shows the man in the blue coat, who is also wearing pink shoes, turn around and walk back down the corridor.

Anthime Gionet, the far-right extremist influencer known as “Baked Alaska,” who livestreamed video online as he walked into the Capitol at the same time, was charged with knowingly entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and disorderly conduct. In January he was sentenced to two months in prison and ordered to pay $2,500. Other rioters who committed vandalism and violence have been sentenced to harsher sentences.

The idea that Krvaric participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol raid has circulated in political circles in his hometown.

Two former colleagues of Oliver Krvaric told USA TODAY Krvaric’s younger brother, Victor, bragged to them that Oliver had entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. Two other former colleagues said they heard this rumor from people Victor told. All four sources asked not to be identified because they still work in local politics.

Victor Krvaric declined comment for this story.

One of Oliver Krvaric’s former colleagues said she was concerned enough to alert the FBI in late 2021. She’s the one who was shown the footage of the man in the blue coat and commented that it showed Krvaric’s “very distinctive face” – which is long, with close-set eyes.

“Oh yes that’s him,” she wrote in a message.

The FBI, asked whether it had received a tip or was investigating Krvaric, declined to comment.

The man in the security footage is not apparently included on current FBI “wanted” lists. However, as USA TODAY reported earlier this year, even among those whose faces have been published on FBI lists, many have yet to be charged. A USA TODAY report in March identified two such people; the FBI arrested them in August and November – nearly three years after the insurrection.

House speaker Mike Johnson has promised to release tens of thousands of hours of security footage from the Capitol in the coming months.

Research about Krvaric was first provided to USA TODAY by a member of the Sedition Hunters, a group of volunteer sleuths who have used facial recognition and other research to identify hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Kevin Bowyer, a computer science professor and expert on facial recognition, said because the man in the blue coat’s full face isn’t seen in footage and photographs, any facial recognition match is a starting point for further research.

USA TODAY reviewed the surveillance videos, photos from outside the Capitol, social media photos identifying Krvaric, and the leaked online data and public records that linked him to the email address for the profile that made the white-supremacist online posts.

Working for the federal government
The list of people already charged or convicted for activity inside the Capitol that day includes numerous active-duty military members, and at least one political appointee, but does not so far appear to include regular federal employees.

The details of Krvaric’s work as a federal employee aren’t clear. The spokesman wouldn’t discuss his work at the federal agency beyond confirming dates of employment. Krvavic’s LinkedIn page says he was hired by the OPM “for immediate assistance with enforcement and implementation of Executive Order 13950.”

That order, signed by Trump on Sept. 22, 2020, purports to “promote unity in the Federal workforce, and to combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating.”

At the time, a national debate was raging over the teaching of so-called “Critical Race Theory” in schools, colleges and places of work, and this order was widely seen as Trump’s contribution to the pushback. President Joe Biden revoked the order the day he was inaugurated.

For Krvaric, the brief stint working in Washington perhaps couldn’t have been a better fit with his own worldview. It also aligned with a profile that had been created, years earlier, on the notorious neo-Nazi forum “Iron March.”

Posts on a neo-Nazi forum
On Sept. 12, 2016, a new user posted on Iron March. The newcomer used the handle “NeoSvensk.” “Svensk” means “Swedish” in the Swedish language. Tony Krvaric, Oliver’s father, emigrated to the United States from Sweden.

Three years after the post appeared, Iron March was hacked and the site’s data was posted online for all to see. The data reveals that the NeoSvensk account was created by someone using an email address that begins “OllyIvan.” Ivan is Oliver Krvaric’s middle name. The IP address connected to the account was geo-located in San Diego.

The username NeoSvensk was also used to create an account on the instant messaging app Kik. That account’s profile picture is a stylized photograph resembling Krvaric.

In Iron March posts obtained by USA TODAY, NeoSvensk – applying to join the forum and meet like-minded white supremacists – bragged of his Swedish ancestry. He talked openly of his admiration for Hitler and fascism and his disdain for multiculturalism, and used a derisive term for gay men, whom he described as “utterly revolting.”

Other details from those accounts all show alignment between Oliver Krvaric and the person writing as NeoSvensk: The poster said he was 18 — Krvaric’s age in September 2016; that he was attending university and living in California — Krvaric lived in San Diego at the time and graduated from high school that spring; and that he has a grandmother in Malmö, Sweden — where Krvaric’s father grew up.

“I understand working from within the current system is frowned upon but it’s the only way I know,” the NeoSvensk account wrote.

Five years later, Oliver Krvaric was working inside the federal government.

Asked about the posts on Iron March, Krvaric said he didn’t recall making them. But when he was asked directly if he recognized the “OllyIvan” email address used to create the online accounts, Krvaric said, “Not particularly.”

At San Diego State University, where he was the president of the College Republicans, Krvaric was instrumental in pushing the group to become more conservative.

“In order to mobilize and win the trust of their voters, Republican candidates must increasingly demonstrate their commitment to ‘MAGA,’” he wrote in a July 2020 opinion column in the San Diego Union Tribune.

The same year, Krvaric’s SDSU College Republicans penned a letter to President Trump asking him to cancel all temporary worker visas for foreign nationals. The controversial letter earned Krvaric an interview on Tucker Carlson Tonight and on a local news station.

When Carlson asked Krvaric what he thought about the H1-B visa program, which allows foreign nationals to work in the United States, Krvaric responded:

“Personally, I think it’s unconscionable … American patriots, going back to the 1990s and even further on, have repeatedly sounded the alarm on the guest worker abuse that’s displacing American workers.”

On Iron March, NeoSvensk had discussed immigration in other terms, expressing a particular admiration for the British fascist Oswald Mosley.

“[T]he accomplishments of white Europeans and their frequency vastly and significantly outweighs anything ever produced or built by those of any other race or continent,” a typical post reads. “I have no qualms with forcibly deporting and repatriating all non-whites from Sweden,” adds another post.

In interviews with USA TODAY, Krvaric stressed his conservative values and doubled down on his support for former president Trump. He disputed the categorization of his politics as “extremist.”

“The left will consider any conservative platform not entirely focused on lukewarm fiscal policy to be extreme,” he wrote by email. “They would prefer the GOP to be a defanged party.”

A family history
Tony Krvaric, patriarch of the Krvaric family, has been well-known in political circles in California for decades. While he no longer heads the local GOP, the elder Krvaric retains political power behind-the-scenes, said Larry Remer, a political consultant based in San Diego.

“He’s still a player in Republican politics,” Remer said. “He’s one of the local wise men of the Republican party.”

In 2020, an old animated video surfaced of the then-chairman of the San Diego Republican Party. The video, produced decades earlier, features photographs of Hitler doing a Nazi salute and swastikas, interspersed with photos of a young Tony Krvaric wearing dark sunglasses. It also depicts one man with a swastika drawn on his neck.

The elder Krvaric did not respond to phone calls and text messages from USA TODAY requesting an interview, but he condemned the video in an August 2020 interview with the San Diego Union Tribune, and said it was created as part of a smear campaign against him.

"Of course it's in bad taste and it's offensive," he told the newspaper. "All those things go without saying."

Last year, Victor Krvaric, Oliver’s younger brother who was a Marine reservist and now works for the family investment business, was investigated by the Marine Corps for alleged ties to white supremacist groups including the extremist Texas-based group Patriot Front.

Krvaric was separated from the Corps in May 2022, a Corps spokesman told USA TODAY.

According to copies of Patriot Front’s online chats, which were leaked online by the journalism collective Unicorn Riot, Victor Krvaric allegedly told a recruiter for the group that he was introduced to right-wing literature by his older brother.

On one topic, however, Oliver and Victor's father, Tony Krvaric, has made a public comment: On Jan. 7, 2021, he retweeted a tweet from USA TODAY calling for help identifying people who broke into the Capitol the day before. He added a caption:

“I’m 100% on board with prosecuting everyone who broke the law yesterday.”
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[TopHatter]

Trump loses presidential immunity appeal to block Jan. 6 lawsuits from Capitol Police officers


Pro-Trump supporters clash with law enforcement on the west steps/inauguration stage of the U,S. Capitol as people gathered on the second day of pro-Trump events fueled by President Donald Trump's continued claims of election fraud in an to overturn the results before Congress finalizes them in a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

A three-judge panel at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia affirms a lower court’s ruling that former President Donald Trump can be sued by U.S. Capitol Police officers seeking to hold Trump financially liable for the Washington riot that took place on Jan. 6, 2021. The ruling is the latest loss for Trump, whose lawyers continue to argue in court that presidential immunity shields him from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits. Here is the latest legal news involving the man who hopes to win reelection to the White House in 2024.

Civil lawsuits seeking to hold Trump liable for Capitol riot can proceed, appeals court rules

Key players: United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judges Sri Srinivasan, Bradley Garcia and Judith Rogers; Trump lawyerJohn Sauer; special counsel Jack Smith

• On Friday, a federal appeals court affirmed a district court’s ruling that Capitol Police officers can proceed with lawsuits seeking to hold Trump liable for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building, Law & Crime reported.
• In multiple cases, Trump’s lawyers have argued that since Trump was still president on the day his supporters attempted to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, all of his statements and actions should be viewed as part of his official duties and are therefore protected from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.
• The three-judge panel disagreed, siding with the lower court’s ruling issued on Dec. 1 that presidential immunity claims did not protect Trump from civil lawsuits seeking damages for his alleged role in the Capitol riot.
• “When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act,” the lower appeals court wrote in its decision.
• Trump’s lawyers are also seeking to have Smith’s election interference case dismissed on similar grounds.
• Last week, Sauer wrote in a brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that no president could face a criminal prosecution “based on conduct for which he was acquitted by the U.S. Senate” despite a majority vote to oust him from office.
• On social media, Trump has said he was “doing my duty as president” by claiming the election was rigged against him.
• The D.C. Circuit will hear oral arguments in that case on Jan. 9.

Why it matters: Friday’s ruling means that lawsuits filed against Trump by Capitol Police officers can proceed, and it sets the stage for the next presidential immunity battle on Jan. 9.
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[TopHatter]

"Extreme sabotage": Trump rants about new "10,000 soldiers" conspiracy theory on Truth Social


Former President Donald Trump spent a portion of his New Year’s holiday blasting perceived political adversaries on his Truth Social platform, on the heels of his Christmas rant in which he told special counsel Jack Smith, President Joe Biden, and others to “ROT IN HELL.” On Monday evening, Trump unleashed an invective targeting former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and once again at Smith.

“Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney, who suffers from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), and was defeated for Congress by the largest margin for a sitting Congressman or Congresswoman in the history of our Country, ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits," Trump wrote. "THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME. All of the information on Crazy Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to guard the Capitol Building, and beyond, is gone. The ridiculous Deranged Jack Smith case on Immunity, which the most respected legal minds in the Country say I am fully entitled to, is now completely compromised and should be thrown out and terminated, JUST LIKE THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS DID TO THE EVIDENCE!”

While Trump’s public and online bashing of political rivals is hardly a new phenomenon, this most recent post contains traces of conspiracy theory rhetoric — that any exonerating evidence is mysteriously “gone” — is something that his followers could latch onto," Mediaite noted. Conspiracy theories such as this work because they cannot be proven false,” wrote Mediaite’s Colby Hall, referencing Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020. “But this is where we are at the moment,” Hall added, “and it appears that Trump has resorted to the ‘they lost my homework’ legal strategy, which may reveal just how desperate he actually is."
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Still blaming Nancy Pelsoi for Jan 6

For turning down "10,000 soldiers"

That didn't exist in the first place

Which was a "peaceful protest"

Committed by "antifa"

And entirely incited by "Ray Epps"

Sounds like someone is shitting their diapers a lot these days.

But at least he's given his followers something else to latch onto.

[TopHatter]

Liz Cheney schools Trump over false claim Jan 6 committee evidence was destroyed

Liz Cheney has responded to Donald Trump’s repeated false claims that she destroyed most of the evidence from the House select committee investigating the events leading up to the Capitol riot on 6 January 2021.

The former president alleges this was done to stop him from preparing a defence case for his upcoming federal election interference trial for the charges brought against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

That trial is still scheduled to begin on 4 March 2024 in Washington DC. Mr Trump continues to claim his actions are covered by presidential immunity and arguments will be heard on 9 January regarding that.

The former president made his most recent claim on the evening of 1 January, writing on Truth Social: “Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney, who suffers from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), and was defeated for Congress by the largest margin for a sitting Congressman or Congresswoman in the history of our Country, ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits.”

He continued, in his characteristic shouty, all-caps style: “THIS ACT OF EXTREME SABOTAGE MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY LAWYERS TO PROPERLY PREPARE FOR, AND PRESENT, A PROPER DEFENSE OF THEIR CLIENT, ME.”

Further, he wrote: “All of the information on Crazy Nancy Pelosi turning down 10,000 soldiers that I offered to to guard the Capitol Building, and beyond, is gone. The ridiculous Deranged Jack Smith case on Immunity, which the most respected legal minds in the Country say I am fully entitled to, is now completely compromised and should be thrown out and terminated, JUST LIKE THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS DID TO THE EVIDENCE!”

Ms Cheney, perhaps one of Mr Trump’s fiercest critics in the Republican Party, responded on Tuesday morning (2 January), noting that the committee’s full 800+-page final report and all of its supporting materials are available online for anyone who wants them.

She wrote on X: “Seems like someone is starting 2024 hangry. @realDonaldTrump - you and your lawyers have had the J6 cmttee materials (linked below) plus the grand jury info & much more for months. Lying about the evidence in all caps won’t change the facts. A public trial will show it all.”

Ms Cheney quote-tweeted a post from August 2023, which further said: “No surprise Trump doesn’t want you to see the J6 Committee evidence. Here’s the GPO website with transcripts, documents, exhibits & our meticulously sourced 800+ page final report. Also links to our hearings. Might be a good time to watch those again.”

The former lawmaker from Wyoming was one of two Republicans who participated in the January 6 committee, alongside former rep Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
_________

[TopHatter]

Prosecutors recommend prison time for Marine vet in Capitol riot case



Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended a six-month term of imprisonment for a man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol — an attack that he has admitted to joining.

Ray Epps, who is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday, pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on restricted grounds.

Epps, a onetime Donald Trump supporter from Arizona, became the focus of a conspiracy theory that he was an undercover government agent who incited the Capitol attack. Right-wing news outlets amplified the conspiracy theory and drove him into hiding after the Jan. 6 riot.

Epps, who worked as a roofer after serving four years as infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps, has vehemently denied ever working for the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon said during Epps’ plea hearing in September that he was not a confidential source for the FBI “or any other law enforcement agency.”

Epps, 62, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News Channel last year, saying the network was to blame for spreading the baseless claims that led to death threats and bullet casings in his yard.

In videos shared widely on social media and right-wing websites, Epps is seen the day before the riot saying, “Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol ... peacefully.” On Jan. 6, video shows him saying, “As soon as the president is done speaking, we go to the Capitol.”

Epps has said he left Capitol grounds when he saw people scaling walls and never actually went inside the building.

Prosecutors say Epps participated in a “a rugby scrum-like group effort” to push past a line of police officers.

“Even if Epps did not physically touch law enforcement officers or go inside of the building, he undoubtedly engaged in collective aggressive conduct,” they wrote in a court filing.

But they also noted that Epps turned himself in to the FBI two days after the riot after learning that agents were trying to identify him. The false conspiracy theory about Epps not only has harmed him “but also attempts to undermine the integrity of the ongoing and overall federal prosecution,” prosecutors said.

“Epps only acted in furtherance of his own misguided belief in the ‘lie’ that the 2020 presidential election had been ‘stolen,’” they wrote. “However, due to the outrage directed at Epps as a result of that false conspiracy theory, he has been forced to sell his business, move to a different state, and live reclusively.”

The charge to which Epps pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum of one year behind bars.

Epps served as an Arizona chapter leader for the Oath Keepers before parting ways with the anti-government extremist group a few years before the Jan. 6 attack.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack for what prosecutors said was a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison.

More than 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by a judge or jury.
________

[TopHatter]

'How are we going to defend ourselves?' Inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection


Many Americans watched video footage of the crowd attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but few have a firsthand account of what happened inside. Three years ago, Times reporter Sarah D. Wire wrote about her experience, typing it out on a cellphone from the House safe room. She was one of three reporters to make it inside.

Now, with the aid of time and surveillance footage recently made available by the House, along with additional firsthand accounts from Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and freelance congressional correspondent Matt Laslo, Wire provides a more expansive view of what it was like inside the Capitol that day.


Protesters gather Jan. 6, 2021, outside the Capitol, fueled by President Trump's continued claims of election fraud.

I knew there was going to be a massive protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Then-President Trump had been talking about it for weeks. I knew violence was likely. A mid-December MAGA event had become violent. Social media platforms were full of open calls for civil war and revolution, and dozens of news outlets had written about it.

But I worked inside the U.S. Capitol, the safest place on Earth, as I reminded my husband the night before — I was worried about the reporters who would be outside. While I obliged my husband's pleas to wear plain clothes and get into the building as swiftly as possible, I never thought twice about working that day.

There was nothing I loved more than being in the House or Senate chambers for important events, including a ceremonial moment like the counting of the electoral college votes. Many Americans never get to set foot in their Capitol, and I felt a responsibility to tell them what happens there.

I arrived about 11:15 a.m. COVID-19 restrictions had greatly reduced the number of people allowed on Capitol Hill. Rather than the thousands of staff members and tourists who typically fill the building, I passed just handfuls of people on their way to offices or the Capitol.


The protest ramps up as Congress finalizes the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona), worried that protesters might cause traffic, had arrived early. She bought a Boston cream pie doughnut on her way in, a nod to the Día de Los Tres Reyes celebration she would normally have on Jan. 6 with her staff, who were working from home.


Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona) in her office on Capitol Hill.

Since then, she's been unable to eat Boston cream pie doughnuts.

“I have purchased at least half a dozen, and they stay and rot in my bag,” she said.

The joint session begins
settled into my seat in the press gallery above the speaker’s dais at about 12:45 p.m. and prepared to watch the joint session of Congress convene for the electoral vote count. I'll always consider that front-row spot my seat.

Capitol Police lost control of the first barrier on the west side of the building at 12:53 p.m. as senators walked to the House chamber.

Rioters were streaming over fences and barricades by the time then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) gaveled in the joint session of Congress at 1:05 p.m.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Vice President Mike Pence officiate Jan. 6, 2021, as a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the electoral college vote.

Because of COVID-19 precautions, only members chosen to present for their states were allowed on the House floor. Many watched from their offices. Torres joined the members sitting in the gallery above the chamber.

Senators and representatives counted the votes in alphabetical order of states. When they reached Arizona, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) objected to recording the state’s 11 electoral votes. The House and Senate retired to their respective chambers to debate the objections.

I stayed in the House. Just half a dozen lawmakers had spoken when I learned there might be trouble. My phone buzzed at 1:41 p.m. — I received a Capitol Police alert saying House office buildings had been locked down.

Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) said he had no inkling of what was happening as senators headed back to their chamber to debate. He's used to the noise; protests are common on Capitol Hill.

Boozman joked with his old friend Mike Pence before the then-vice president ascended the dais that they needed to go golfing.

“He said, 'Well, I've got plenty of time to do it now,’” Boozman recalled.

At 1:42 p.m., congressional correspondent Matt Laslo noticed Pence’s Secret Service detail in the hallway outside the Senate chamber.

“You could feel their nervousness,” Laslo said.

He watched through a second-floor window as the crowd surged up the steps under the inaugural platform to reach the West Terrace. The Capitol shook with the force of percussion grenades, and smoke rose above the crowd. At 2:11 p.m., Laslo recorded the rioters' first breach of the Capitol, at the Senate-wing doors.

“You felt the roar of the crowd as they entered,” he said.

Meanwhile, inside the Senate chamber, Boozman realized something was wrong when he saw someone whisper in Pence’s ear.


Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough works beside Pence during the certification of electoral college ballots, shortly before the Capitol was stormed by rioters.

“We have lots of drills around here. And there's a difference in having a drill and then looking at the sergeant of arms ... seeing a look of worry on their face,” he said. “You could just tell that they were very concerned.”

Officers scrambled to lock the chamber doors at 2:13 p.m.; Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), third in line for the presidency, was pulled out of the chamber one minute later. Senate staff members scurried to gather their belongings and raced into the chamber. Capitol Police officers barricaded one of the senators-only stairways with office furniture.

Laslo saw Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman tell Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who was leaving the chamber, to turn around because he would be safer inside. Goodman ran downstairs and slowed rioters' ascent to the second floor, buying time to lock the Senate chamber.

Laslo raced up the stairs to the third-floor windows to take photos of what was happening outside. The hallway was empty; the officers who'd been stationed outside the Senate public galleries had been called elsewhere.

“There was this weird calm before the storm" on the third floor, he told me. "You could tell stuff was happening down there, but up here was just dead quiet."

The Capitol locks down
At 2:13 p.m., I walked into the House press offices in time to hear the emergency radio crackle to life.

“Due to an external security threat located on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building, no entry or exit is permitted at this time," a panicked voice said. "You may move throughout the building[s], but stay away from exterior windows and doors. If you are outside, seek cover.”

I ran back to my seat in the House gallery to alert my editors. I looked over the railing into the chamber and noticed that Pelosi, second in line to the presidency, had been spirited away by her security detail.

Torres received a text at 2:18 p.m.: “Capitol: Internal security threat: move inside office/lock doors, seek cover and remain silent. USCP.”

Behind me, about a dozen reporters were ushered into the gallery from the press offices before police shut and locked the doors. Officers interrupted the proceedings to announce that tear gas had been deployed in the Capitol rotunda. They told representatives to pull air filtration hoods from beneath their seats.


Riot police clear a hallway inside the Capitol.

A staff member handed out more hoods in the gallery, and we passed them down the row until everybody had one.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a former combat Marine, stood on a table and yelled instructions to other members on how to use the hoods.

Suddenly, the doors to the chamber closed one by one. It was about 2:20 p.m.

“When these wooden doors that are 8 foot tall slam, that echo is so disturbing,” Torres said.

Police began to escort lawmakers off the House floor through the Speaker's lobby. Representatives in the gallery were told to get on their hands and knees and crawl. Suddenly there was a frantic demand to get up and run for the center door.

Torres stayed behind to help representatives who couldn’t run. The doors to exit the gallery slammed shut before she and the members could reach them.

“I didn't think we were going to ever leave,” she said. “We started to look for [makeshift] weapons. How are we going to defend ourselves? How are we going to fight back?”

A few lawmakers still on the floor assisted plainclothes officers in shoving a bookcase in front of the chamber’s main entry — the same one the president passes through for the State of the Union address.

Officers on the floor shouted at reporters to move from their seats across from the main doors and get out of a direct line of fire. We scrambled over railings and chairs.

“Crouch on the floor!” an officer shouted. “Get as low as you can!”

I slid to my belly behind a row of chairs in the box where the first lady sits during the State of the Union.

Outside the chamber, Capitol Police were quickly overwhelmed as they fought to prevent access to the building at multiple points on the east and west fronts of the Capitol, while others worked to secure representatives and senators.


A Pro-Trump insurrectionist mob streams into the rotunda of the Capitol after breaking through the east door.

If COVID-19 hadn’t limited the number of people in the building that day, Torres said, there's no telling what might have happened.

"I'm terrified what it would have been like if the gallery would have been full of people, innocent members of the public who come here to see ... magic happen on this floor or to just participate in the ceremony," Torres said. "And every member of Congress [would have been] here. What would Capitol Police have been able to do?"

The Senate evacuates
The Secret Service rushed Pence out of the Senate and down a private set of stairs at 2:25 p.m.

Five minutes later, officers moved the furniture barricading the stairs, and senators and staff evacuated, winding down several flights to reach the subway between the Capitol and Senate office buildings. Officers headed in the opposite direction and into the Capitol building.


Police arrive at the Capitol.

Women took off their heels to run down the lengthy tunnel to the Senate office buildings. Staff members carried large boxes full of electoral votes, preventing rioters from gaining control of the official records sent by the states declaring which candidate received the most votes.

Boozman noticed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who had been deteriorating physically and mentally, fall toward the back of the pack of senators. She was on the phone and looked confused, he said, ignoring a young staff member who urged her to hurry up.

“I could talk to her in a different way than he could,” Boozman said. “So I said, 'Senator, you need to put your phone away. This is very serious. We need to go,' essentially. And so she put her phone away, and I kind of grabbed her and started walking.”

Boozman placed his arm across Feinstein's back and clasped his hand around her upper arm as he led her away.

As they walked down Senate tunnels toward a safe room, Feinstein recounted finding the bodies of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk after they were assassinated in 1978. Boozman had heard the story many times during their time together in Washington.

“She was aware of what was going on in the sense that that immediately came to her mind,” he said.

Two floors above them, at 2:44 p.m., the first rioter reached the door Pence used to escape from the Senate. Realizing the door was locked, the rioter dropped to his knees and began to pray. More rioters arrived and rifled through staff desks in search of keys to get in.


Smoke fills the walkway outside the Senate chamber as rioters are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers.

Soon rioters entered the Senate gallery. They jumped down onto the floor, looked through senators' desks and opened the doors to let the waiting crowd inside.

Leaving the House gallery
Meanwhile, officers were doing everything they could to slow the crowd's progress from the rotunda and buy time for representatives to evacuate the House floor, surveillance footage shows. In a burst of strength, the crowd shoved police officers backward until they reached the main House chamber doors at 2:36 p.m.

The glass on the main doors began to crack and shattered. I peeked over a chair into the chamber as then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) attempted to reason with the rioters who were trying to push their way in.

Inside the chamber, officers aimed their service weapons through the shattered glass.

“Oh, my God, they are going to fire on them,” Torres said in a video she recorded at the time.

An officer told representatives to get as low as possible. There was a frenetic pounding on the second-floor doors to the chamber and to the gallery doors on the third floor.


People shelter in the House chamber as rioters try to break in.

The second-floor crowd expanded, filling the east hallway. The officers guarding the House chamber and the east exterior entrance doors had moved into the chamber. Rioters opened the exterior doors to the throngs outside.

The crowd reached the entrance to the Speaker's Lobby behind the House chamber. The rioters pounded on the glass doors, which had been barricaded shut with antique furniture, and broke the glass with their fists, flagpoles and helmets. Just yards away, more than a dozen members of Congress evacuated through the lobby.

San Diego Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt began crawling through a hole in the glass. She was struck by a single, fatal gunshot to her left shoulder, fired by a Capitol Police officer at 2:44 p.m.

A minute later, officers fired tear gas in an effort to break up the crowd outside the main House doors. After receiving little response, officers fired more canisters. A cloud of gas billowed to fill the hall. Finally, the crowd dissipated.

“You could see the smoke coming up [into the House chamber]," Torres said. "I couldn't believe it, any of it."

The gunshot and the tear gas immediately quieted the crowd. Representatives' prayers and the whine of the air-filtration hood motors echoed in the chamber. That whine would be a constant throughout the day, and still haunts my nightmares.

I crawled over to Torres. She took a photo of me to share online so my bosses would know I was safe. I tried to shake the thought that it might be the last photo of me alive.


Torres took this photo of Times reporter Sarah D. Wire as they were locked in the House gallery and tweeted it to let Wire's bosses know she was safe.

“Can I do the hardest part of my job and ask you what you are thinking right now?” I asked her.

“It’s horrible that this is America, this is the United States of America, and this is what we have to go through because Trump has called homegrown terrorists to come to the Capitol and invalidate people’s votes,” she replied.

Feet from us, in the hallway outside the locked doors, the crowd on the third floor had grown. Security footage shows the rioters pounding on doors, rattling doorknobs and filing in and out of an unlocked office.

Officers started retaking control of the hall by 2:45 p.m.

Lawmakers and police officers argued inside about whether to run for it. One of the doors briefly opened, and a few people made it out before the rioters noticed. Officers locked the door from inside seconds before the rioters reached it.

“We were saying, 'Where are we going to go?' We were scared what was going to be on the other side of the door," Torres said. "The pounding on the doors was horrible.”

Video shot by Torres shows a female officer telling people in the gallery to prepare to move quickly and calmly once the door opened again.

“Wait for the direction. They are going to make sure it is clear first,” the unidentified officer said, her voice rising to be heard.

Security footage at that time shows a phalanx of officers carrying assault-style weapons marching up a flight of stairs and ordering rioters to the ground. One officer pointed a grenade or tear gas launcher at the rioters' heads.


Capitol Police hold rioters at gunpoint near the House chamber.

The evacuation of the House gallery began at 2:51 p.m. I zeroed in on the rioters peering up at us from the floor and was shaken by how close they were. A few feet from me in the crowd, Torres first saw blood on an officer, she said.

Torres and other members screamed when white officers in plainclothes ran toward them, thinking they were rioters.

“I never thought I would be afraid of a person because of the color of their skin or how they look. These experiences were all new to me,” Torres said.

As my foot hit the first step of the marble staircase that was our escape route, I realized that I hadn’t told my husband I was safe.

“I’m ok. Being evacuated,” I texted him at 2:57 p.m., too overwhelmed to give details.

“Big exhale,” he replied. “Ok. Keep me updated. Love you.”

As she started down the stairs, Torres took a phone call from one of her sons.

“I regret so much saying to him that I was running for my life. He's a police officer, and he was watching on TV, and it looked horrible,” she said.

Torres asked staff to update her family the rest of the day. She knew she would lose composure if she spoke to her husband or her other children.

We passed the tear-gas-filled hall on the second floor and made our way down a warren of hallways, a winding staircase and a long tunnel. I interviewed lawmakers on the way.

The representatives who had evacuated from the House floor carried gas masks and weapons made from broken furniture or anything else they found along the way. They reached the safe room by 2:50 p.m., security footage shows.

Somehow, I wasn't blocked like other reporters and made it into the safe room, where I continued my interviews.

As members typed on their phones and received updates from security officials, staff handed out snacks and bottles of water.

A member pleaded with colleagues not to give interviews, worried we might accidentally betray our location.

“Lady, I’m in here too,” I thought.

Fleeing the Senate
Meanwhile, in the Senate safe room, senators, reporters and staff watched coverage of the riot happening around them.

“You could actually see on television what was happening to the areas that you just left," Boozman said. "I think that's really when we realized the full extent of what was going on.”

Surveillance footage shows officers clearing Senate staff and reporters from third-floor offices at about 3:20 p.m.

While reporters waited to be evacuated, they pulled down signs on desks identifying the news organizations that used them, turned off lights and hid so they couldn’t be seen through a window in the door.

Laslo hung a blazer over the sign for the radio-TV press gallery. He prepared for the possibility that reporters would have to get out of the building on their own by hiding his press pass and ripping his shirt to expose his tattoos. He armed himself with a wrench and a wooden doorstop that he fashioned into a shiv.

"I was walking around all the booths looking for anything that could be a makeshift weapon," he said.

Laslo took a shot of moonshine from the bottle in his desk and left with another reporter at 3:54 p.m. He spotted a Gadsden flag left behind by rioters and ripped it from its pole, thinking he might drape it over himself to blend into the crowd.

At 4:01 p.m., Laslo passed the Senate-wing windows from which he had filmed rioters breaking in hours before, finding they were blocked with broken furniture. Officers braced the barricade with their bodies as the crowd outside screamed at them through broken panes.

Moments later, Laslo caught up with a group of about 25 staffers who had hidden under a conference-room table for hours as the mob ransacked Pelosi’s suite. Security footage shows officers amassing on the upper West Terrace around the same time to repel rioters who remained on the presidential inauguration stand or the West Lawn.

After police separated Laslo from Pelosi's team, he spent hours waiting in a cafeteria with dozens of other reporters and staffers, watching teams of armed federal agency officers rush down the halls toward the Capitol or up the stairs of the office building to look for rioters hiding inside.

At one point, Laslo climbed out an upper-story window, planning to jump to a nearby tree in order to get off Capitol grounds.

“I was getting claustrophobic," he said. "I needed to be gone.”

An officer at the street level waited for Laslo to finish a cigarette, then ordered him back inside.

In the House safe room, then-Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) repeatedly put her hand on my shoulder as she walked by. I realized I was visibly trembling. It would be hours before I stopped.

Congress finishes its work
Around 5:30 p.m., the House’s top security official announced that the Capitol was secure. He urged members to stay in the safe room until the grounds were cleared. At 5:45 p.m., police regained control of the West Terrace and West Lawn.

At about 6:30 p.m., Pelosi entered the room. She condemned the “mobs desecrating the halls of the Capitol of the United States” and declared that the House and Senate would return immediately to finish their work.

Laslo and others in the cafeteria were allowed to leave at 7:14 p.m. He walked to the edge of the Capitol campus and hailed a taxi. It took him hours to make it home.

Representatives were allowed to leave the safe room at roughly the same time.

On my way back to the House gallery to finish covering the electoral count certification, I slipped in the tear gas and fire extinguisher residue that coated the floors. Custodial staff who had remained hidden for hours as the insurrection raged worked quickly to clean up glass shards, broken furniture, blood and even feces smeared on the walls so that Congress could resume its work.

At 8 p.m., the Capitol complex was officially declared secure.

"Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol," Pence said when he gaveled the Senate back into session six minutes later.


Pence looks at a mobile device from a secured loading dock at the Capitol.

Boozman said he stayed until the very end.

“I think the consensus on both sides was, 'We're going to do our job,'" he said. "'We're not going to succumb to any delay based on that kind of activity.'"

Torres sat in the last row of seats on the House floor as deliberations resumed.

"That's when my skin started burning,” she said. A few minutes later, an officer cautioned members that the tear gas hadn’t been cleaned off the chairs.

Debate continued for hours. Torres headed back to her office around midnight.

"I felt so scared and alone,” she said. “I grabbed a baseball bat from the [congressional] women's softball team, and I cleared my offices with that to make sure nobody was in there, nobody had gotten in there. And once I did that, I sat down and cried, and I finally called my husband.”

At 3:44 a.m., Congress certified Joe Biden's win.
___________

Never forgive, never forget. This was an attempted overthrow of the United States government, instigated by sitting President Donald Trump, carried out solely by his followers that he called Washington D.C. and then dispatched to the Capitol Building to "fight like hell".

[Albany Rifles]

SO many of my emotions that day came back to me reading this. Rage...despair...frustration...shame.

It was much like 9/11 to me...so visceral. Especially as I have been in the Capitol a dozen times over the years and in the Pentagon on 9/11.

God but I never want to live like that again.

[TopHatter]

SO many of my emotions that day came back to me reading this. Rage...despair...frustration...shame.

It was much like 9/11 to me...so visceral.

Couldn't have said it any better.

I feel a little better knowing that Trump's automatons are still being rounded up and sent to prison, but still feeling sick to my stomach knowing he'll almost certainly never face justice...and could very well become President again.

[TopHatter]

Proud Boys member who disappeared after Jan. 6 conviction sentenced to 10 years in prison

A member of the Proud Boys who disappeared after being convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

Christopher Worrell, 52, was convicted last year of seven counts related to his conduct during the riot, including assaulting Capitol Police officers with pepper spray and lying to investigators.

In August, just days before he was originally scheduled to be sentenced, Worrell cut off his ankle monitor and fled his residence, triggering an FBI manhunt. He attempted to “covertly return” to his home after six weeks on the run.

FBI agents found Worrell unconscious on his kitchen floor with an opened bottle of “opioid prescription medication” in his hand. He was transported to a hospital for further treatment, according to his arrest report, obtained by The Hill.

But Justice Department prosecutors said in subsequent court filings that Worrell had “faked a drug overdose” in an attempt to delay his sentencing. They pointed to emails between Worrell and a concerned friend, in which Worrell said the purported overdose was a “stupid delay tactic,” not a suicide attempt.

Prosecutors called the manhunt and alleged stunt an “enormous waste of government resources,” requesting a harsh sentence for the runaway rioter. They originally sought a 14-year prison sentence for Worrell, whom they said plotted with other Proud Boys to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

“He apparently had no intention of ever turning himself in,” the government wrote in its sentencing memorandum.

When Worrell was arrested again in September, night vision goggles, $4,000 in cash and survivalist gear were found in his home, the Tampa field office said in a statement at the time. He had been on house arrest since November 2021.

Dozens of rioters linked to the right-wing extremist Proud Boys have been charged over their role in storming the Capitol nearly three years ago.

Enrique Tarrio, the group’s former national chairman, and three other Proud Boys leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy in May for plotting to stop the vote certification so then-President Trump could remain in power.

Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down in connection with the insurrection.
__

Stand back and stand by for the next decade, asshole.

[TopHatter]

Army Officer Alleges Retaliation over Testimony on Slow National Guard Response to Jan. 6


A colonel who was the top lawyer for the D.C. National Guard during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is accusing Army officials of retaliating against him for disputing two generals' account of why the National Guard was slow to deploy during the attack on the Capitol.

In a whistleblower reprisal complaint filed in October and made public this week, Col. Earl Matthews, now a member of the Army Reserve, alleged he was passed over for promotion and publicly kicked out of a conference he was assigned to for work in retaliation for testifying to Congress that two Army generals were "absolute and unmitigated liars" in how they described the military's response to the insurrection.

"The retaliatory actions taken against Col. Matthews are a textbook example of the vice [the whistleblower protection law] was intended to both remedy and deter," his lawyers wrote in their complaint on his behalf to the Defense Department.

Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith declined to comment directly on Matthews' complaint, which was first reported by The New York Times, because it is an "ongoing action."

But Smith added that "the Army's actions on January 6th have been well-documented and reported on" and that Army officials "stand by all testimony and facts provided to date, and vigorously reject any allegations to the contrary."

During the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump overran the Capitol in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, the National Guard took more than three hours to deploy to help besieged Capitol and D.C. police officers regain control of the building.

Both a Pentagon inspector general report and a report from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack concluded that no Pentagon officials deliberately delayed the deployment. But debate and disputes over the exact events in the Pentagon that day continue to rage.

After the inspector general's report was released in November 2021, Matthews sent a memo to the House Jan. 6 committee and a Senate committee accusing two Army officers of misleading both the inspector general and Congress.

At the heart of the dispute is whether Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt and Gen. Charles Flynn delayed deploying the Guard over concerns about the optics of sending troops to the Capitol. Piatt is the director of the Army staff. Flynn, who is now the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, was a deputy chief of staff at the Army at the time. Flynn's brother is Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who was one of the Trump allies who pushed for the military to seize voting machines after Biden won the election.

Local D.C. officials and D.C. National Guard officials have testified Piatt and Charles Flynn expressed concerns about optics during a frantic phone call on Jan. 6 where D.C. and Capitol officials pleaded for help. Piatt has denied ever using the word "optics," but he acknowledged to the Jan. 6 committee that he believed using the Guard was "not my best military judgment or my best military advice." Flynn testified he didn't participate in the call but was fleetingly in the room.

"Gen. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Piatt have been open, honest and thorough in their sworn testimony with Congress and DoD investigators," Smith said in her emailed statement.

But Matthews' December 2021 memo to Congress accused the two officers of providing "perjured testimony."

Since sending the memo, Matthews hasn't been promoted despite a promotion board recommending in November 2022 that he be promoted to brigadier general after finding he was among the "best qualified" of a group of reserve colonels, according to his whistleblower reprisal complaint. The board's recommendation "displeased several senior officers within the Pentagon and the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve," the complaint alleged.

Additionally, the complaint alleged that Army officials had security escort Matthews out of a hotel in February after falsely accusing him of being disruptive at a seminar at the hotel. Matthew was assigned to the seminar as part of his reserve duty, and removing him early resulted "in the loss of military pay and reserve retirement points," the complaint said.

"What plausible reason could there have been to remove a senior colonel, with an unblemished record of service, under such circumstances, except as reprisal for protected disclosures that negatively impacted a serving general officer who had responsibility for the War College?" the complaint said. "There is none."

The complaint asked for Matthews to be promoted to brigadier general and for those who retaliated against him to be reprimanded or otherwise disciplined.

"If public confidence in the integrity of government operations is to be restored," the complaint said, "he must be made whole and the responsible officials appropriately disciplined."
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[Albany Rifles]

Army Officer Alleges Retaliation over Testimony on Slow National Guard Response to Jan. 6


A colonel who was the top lawyer for the D.C. National Guard during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is accusing Army officials of retaliating against him for disputing two generals' account of why the National Guard was slow to deploy during the attack on the Capitol.

In a whistleblower reprisal complaint filed in October and made public this week, Col. Earl Matthews, now a member of the Army Reserve, alleged he was passed over for promotion and publicly kicked out of a conference he was assigned to for work in retaliation for testifying to Congress that two Army generals were "absolute and unmitigated liars" in how they described the military's response to the insurrection.

"The retaliatory actions taken against Col. Matthews are a textbook example of the vice [the whistleblower protection law] was intended to both remedy and deter," his lawyers wrote in their complaint on his behalf to the Defense Department.

Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith declined to comment directly on Matthews' complaint, which was first reported by The New York Times, because it is an "ongoing action."

But Smith added that "the Army's actions on January 6th have been well-documented and reported on" and that Army officials "stand by all testimony and facts provided to date, and vigorously reject any allegations to the contrary."

During the Jan. 6 insurrection, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump overran the Capitol in an attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, the National Guard took more than three hours to deploy to help besieged Capitol and D.C. police officers regain control of the building.

Both a Pentagon inspector general report and a report from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack concluded that no Pentagon officials deliberately delayed the deployment. But debate and disputes over the exact events in the Pentagon that day continue to rage.

After the inspector general's report was released in November 2021, Matthews sent a memo to the House Jan. 6 committee and a Senate committee accusing two Army officers of misleading both the inspector general and Congress.

At the heart of the dispute is whether Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt and Gen. Charles Flynn delayed deploying the Guard over concerns about the optics of sending troops to the Capitol. Piatt is the director of the Army staff. Flynn, who is now the commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, was a deputy chief of staff at the Army at the time. Flynn's brother is Michael Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who was one of the Trump allies who pushed for the military to seize voting machines after Biden won the election.

Local D.C. officials and D.C. National Guard officials have testified Piatt and Charles Flynn expressed concerns about optics during a frantic phone call on Jan. 6 where D.C. and Capitol officials pleaded for help. Piatt has denied ever using the word "optics," but he acknowledged to the Jan. 6 committee that he believed using the Guard was "not my best military judgment or my best military advice." Flynn testified he didn't participate in the call but was fleetingly in the room.

"Gen. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Piatt have been open, honest and thorough in their sworn testimony with Congress and DoD investigators," Smith said in her emailed statement.

But Matthews' December 2021 memo to Congress accused the two officers of providing "perjured testimony."

Since sending the memo, Matthews hasn't been promoted despite a promotion board recommending in November 2022 that he be promoted to brigadier general after finding he was among the "best qualified" of a group of reserve colonels, according to his whistleblower reprisal complaint. The board's recommendation "displeased several senior officers within the Pentagon and the Office of the Chief of the Army Reserve," the complaint alleged.

Additionally, the complaint alleged that Army officials had security escort Matthews out of a hotel in February after falsely accusing him of being disruptive at a seminar at the hotel. Matthew was assigned to the seminar as part of his reserve duty, and removing him early resulted "in the loss of military pay and reserve retirement points," the complaint said.

"What plausible reason could there have been to remove a senior colonel, with an unblemished record of service, under such circumstances, except as reprisal for protected disclosures that negatively impacted a serving general officer who had responsibility for the War College?" the complaint said. "There is none."

The complaint asked for Matthews to be promoted to brigadier general and for those who retaliated against him to be reprimanded or otherwise disciplined.

"If public confidence in the integrity of government operations is to be restored," the complaint said, "he must be made whole and the responsible officials appropriately disciplined."
__________

I made this point to someone yesterday...the chasm chance for promotion between colonel and brigadier general is an Evel Knievel sized chasm. That he was non-select to BG I do not automatically attribute to reprisal. Same with a board recommendation for brigadier general. And the National Guard has some really large chunks of political implications because of its local construct. I am keeping my powder dry on this..

[TopHatter]

I made this point to someone yesterday...the chasm chance for promotion between colonel and brigadier general is an Evel Knievel sized chasm. That he was non-select to BG I do not automatically attribute to reprisal. Same with a board recommendation for brigadier general. And the National Guard has some really large chunks of political implications because of its local construct. I am keeping my powder dry on this..

I would imagine that publicly and loudly accusing your superior officers of being bald-faced liars probably doesn't help your chance for promotion...

[TopHatter]

The Gradual Release Of Jan. 6 Footage Has The Far Right Raging At House Republicans And Speaker Mike Johnson



On one of the internet’s main QAnon forums, Speaker Mike Johnson’s November decision to unveil tens of thousands of hours of security footage from the Jan. 6 attack was greeted with great fanfare. Johnson committed to publicly release the security tapes, which have been something of a holy grail for Capitol attack conspiracy theorists, soon after he took office. At the time, the new speaker framed it as the fulfillment of a “promise to the American people.”

However, in the weeks since, Johnson’s move has not lived up to the expectations of the far-right fringe. A fraction of the promised footage has been released and the slow pace has online conspiracy theorists and pro-Trump activists furious at Johnson and his GOP colleagues.

“Women For America First” co-founder Amy Kremer — who helped organize the Jan. 6 rally on the White House Ellipse where former President Trump spoke and urged the crowd to “fight like hell” as his supporters marched on the Capitol — took to the site formerly known as Twitter on Dec. 4 to write an angry note directed at Johnson.

“ ,” Kremer wrote, adding, “ !!! ?!? I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to be quiet !!!!”

Other right-wing activists including “DC Draino,” the conservative influencer who has been praised by Trump at rallies, have posted similar messages. Among them is Brandon Straka, a pro-Trump organizer who was sentenced to three years of probation in 2022 after admitting he used social media to encourage the crowds that stormed the Capitol, who has also used the site formerly known as Twitter to air his frustrations with Johnson and other Republicans.

“It’s been 41 days since @SpeakerJohnson promised to release ALL J6 footage to ALL Americans. On Nov. 17th, Speaker Johnson gave the public access to 90 videos- which probably accounts for less than 5% of the footage we still have not seen,” Straka wrote on Dec. 28. “Since then, I have put out dozens of tweets asking Speaker Johnson when the public will get this footage. No answer. No update. No explanation. Why will no elected Republicans give us access to this footage?

Spokespeople for Johnson did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The focus on the U.S. Capitol Police security videos comes after years of efforts by Trump and others on the right to deny the violence of Jan. 6 and blame it on others. Almost immediately after the violence broke out, Trump’s allies (including Republican members of Congress) began grasping for evidence that the attack was something other than the pro-Trump riot it so obviously was. Despite the mountains of proof Trump’s supporters were behind the violence, many on the right sought to blame everyone, from “antifa” to federal law enforcement. Amidst this push, the conspiracy theorists held out hope their hunches could be proved correct by the security footage.

In a statement to TPM, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who is chairman of the House Administration subcommittee that begn releasing the footage after Johnson’s announcement, suggested the videos could paint a better picture of what happened on Jan. 6 than the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee that conducted an investigation into the attack from 2021 until 2022.

“The American People deserve to know the truth about January 6th,” Loudermilk said. “The USCP CCTV footage we’ve released so far has given the American people the opportunity to see the full story of what really happened that day, instead of the cherry-picked narrative sold by the former Select Committee.”


UNITED STATES – JULY 12: QAnon imagery appears on a screen during the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol hearing to present previously unseen material and hear witness testimony in Cannon Building, on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Appearing from left are, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., counsel, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

Perhaps nowhere had the excitement for the tapes — and the anger over their slow-moving release — been greater than on the QAnon-friendly forum 8kun. A few days after Johnson announced the plan to post almost all of the 44,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage from the Capitol, members of the anonymous forum’s “Qresearch” board created a thread dedicated to parsing the clips. The user who wrote the first post declared that they were “calling all digital soldiers, online sleuths, [and] keyboard warriors” to review the footage.

“ALL HANDS NEEDED!” they wrote.

8kun is an imageboard, a website where users can post content anonymously. The best known imageboard, 4chan, made headlines in the past decade as a haven for conspiracy theories, far-right politics, and extreme content including gore and sexual images. In 2013, a 4chan user named Frederick Brennan founded 8chan, which he envisioned as an imageboard that would have even less censorship than its predecessor. That twisted dream came true, and 8chan ultimately played host to so much child pornography that it was removed from Google search results in 2015. The board went completely offline for three months in 2019 — technological service providers refused to work with it after multiple mass shooters involved in attacks that targeted minorities and Jews were believed to have posted manifestos announcing their crimes on the site. 8chan subsequently re-emerged in November 2019 with a Russian hosting company and a new name, 8kun.

Imageboards played a key role in the spread of QAnon, a paranoid conspiracy theory based on the idea that a high-level source inside the government was working to help former President Trump expose and take down a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who, the theory contends, have substantial control over the worlds of government, media, and finance. The fever dream began on 4chan in October 2017 with the first posts from “Q.” These “Q Drops” ultimately migrated to 8chan and then to 8kun where there is a dedicated “QResearch” board that ultimately played host to the thread dedicated to Jan. 6 footage. Due to the extreme and often illegal nature of the content on the site, TPM will not be linking to it directly.

The Capitol attack footage has been long-sought by online conspiracy theorists and especially by QAnon devotees, who had a visible presence in the crowds of Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol to prevent the certification of his loss in the 2020 election. But those on the internet fringe aren’t the only ones who have latched on to the idea the security videos could somehow exonerate Trump and his supporters for their role in the Jan. 6 attack. Republican elected officials, Trump, and right-wing media have all promoted claims that public release of the footage would somehow change the narrative.

Democrats, on the other hand, have slammed Republican efforts to release the footage and cast them as both a security risk and fuel for conspiracy theories about the Capitol attack. Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Administration subcommittee — called the move “irresponsible and dangerous” in a scathing statement.

“Speaker Johnson may want to erase the facts of an attempted coup and undo the bipartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 Committee, but he can never alter the facts,” Torres said. “Instead, his actions are putting members of Congress, staff, the press and all visitors to the Capitol at risk and further delegitimizing the integrity of this institution.”

Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, gave one of the most prominent Jan. 6 denialists, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, access to over 40,000 hours of the videos for his show last year. Carlson, who has since been fired from Fox, had previously used his platform to promote the idea that Jan. 6 was largely peaceful and that law enforcement riled up the crowd in an effort to launch a “purge” of the right wing. After receiving footage from McCarthy, Carlson focused on selectively airing clips that painted the people who broke into the building as non-violent. Carlson’s broadcast drew praise from former President Trump and prompted at least one January 6 defendant to try to get his sentence thrown out. As the federal judge in that case observed, the Carlson broadcast was “replete with misstatements and misrepresentations” that were “too numerous to count.” In the face of hours of videos that show the violence and vandalism perpetrated by the crowds, the peaceful protest narrative barely held water.


A US Capitol police officer talks to supporters of US President Donald Trump, including Jake Angeli (R), a QAnon supporter known for his painted face and horned hat, that entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. – Demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification.

Though Carlson and his producers were unable to find any bombshells in the Jan. 6 clips, the users of 8kun still had hope following Johnson’s vow to make the footage available to the broader public. One forum user helped make an app designed to allow people to download the clips.

“Hoping this thread gets some action,” the user said, before adding an abbreviation of the QAnon slogan, “Where We Go One We Go All.”

Yet, in the weeks since Johnson’s announcement, the would-be detectives of 8kun have become increasingly frustrated. A CBS News analysis published last month revealed that just approximately 0.4 percent of the 44,000 hours of promised footage has been uploaded.

With the rollout inching along, the 8kun thread where conspiracy theorists planned to scour the footage has devolved into infighting and the abusive pornography for which the site is known. Users suggested that antifa had infiltrated the board, and the original poster of the thread began clashing with the leader of the “QResearch” board before announcing they were “giving up on” the Jan. 6 footage hunt due to the drama and lack of investigative activity.

“I come back two weeks later and there’s no research or review besides regurgitate news articles,” the user said.

While the QAnon devotees have predictably paranoid concerns about the lack of new videos, there are several technical and logistical challenges related to the release. Firstly, there is the sheer volume of the footage. The over 40,000 hours of video needs to be reviewed because Johnson said he wanted to blur the faces of the people who stormed into the Capitol. While the speaker initially attributed that to a desire to prevent them from being “retaliated against” or “charged” by the Justice Department, a spokesperson subsequently clarified and said the blurring was to “prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors.” An aide to the House subcommittee that has been publishing the footage told TPM that further releases are planned as they deal with necessary security precautions.

The clips that have been released are being hosted on the video site Rumble, which has a strong following among conservatives and on the far right. Along with the issues related to blurring the clips, before they can be uploaded on Rumble, the file format must be converted.

A Democratic aide on the House Administration committee suggested the footage rollout was always destined for trouble.

“None of this shocks us. This entire process has been inconsistent, scattershot, and poorly thought out,” said the aide, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, “Whether that’s willful or not I don’t know but we are not surprised they are having difficulties.”


WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 05: A Q-Anon sign is seen as President Donald Trump supporters hold a rally on January 5, 2021 in Washington, DC. Today’s rally kicks off two days of pro-Trump events fueled by President Trump’s continued claims of election fraud and a last-ditch effort to overturn the results before Congress finalizes them on January 6.

Along with rank and file online conspiracy theorists, the lack of Jan. 6 footage attracted the ire of one of the most prominent QAnon promoters, Ron Watkins, whose father is the current owner and administrator of 8kun. Watkins and his father have been identified by linguistic scientists as the likely authors of some of the original “Q” posts. On Dec. 28, Watkins tagged Johnson on the site formerly known as Twitter and complained about the video rollout.

“There are still thousands of hours of J6 footage that has not been released. Will we be getting access to this before year end?” Watkins asked.

While Watkins and his father have denied playing a role in the creation of the “Q” persona, they have reveled in their fringe infamy. In 2022, Watkins made a failed attempt to win an Arizona House seat as a Republican.

Watkins’ shot at Johnson came as he is trying to regain his political footing and plot his next move. Early last month, Watkins made a post on the encrypted app Telegram that included a personal admission and a vow that his unique brand of activism will continue.

“Since I lost my election, I’ve been in something of a rut,” Watkins wrote. “Am currently working on a new project that I am planning to announce soon. … We will take control of our country back.”
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First Fox, now the Republican leadership...This whole "We're gonna release the footage and show how peaceful Jan 6 was!!" narrative is having trouble standing up on its own two feet for some reason...

Guess it's back to accusing Ray Epps of inciting the whole thing.

[TopHatter]

FBI arrests three January 6 defendants in Florida after prolonged search


The FBI on Saturday arrested three people in Florida who were charged in connection with the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, and were considered fugitives after fleeing from law enforcement.

Jonathan Daniel Pollock, Olivia Michele Pollock and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III were taken into custody early Saturday morning, according to a press release from the FBI. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala, Florida, on Monday.

The arrests come on the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. The legal system is still grappling with how to handle the hundreds of individuals who stormed the Capitol to keep then-President Donald Trump in the White House.

Court documents do not list an attorney for Jonathan Pollock. CNN has reached out to attorneys listed for Olivia Pollock and Hutchinson.

On Thursday, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves told reporters that prosecutors have primarily focused “on those who entered the building or those who engaged in violent or corrupt conduct on Capitol grounds.”

Olivia Pollock was set to go to trial on federal charges related to the Capitol riot last March, but did not show up to court in Washington, DC. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, has evaded authorities since he was first charged in July 2021. The FBI had offered thousands of dollars for information on his whereabouts.

Thousands of images are still plastered on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” site for individuals accused of participating in the attack. And more than 80 people are still wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol.

Prosecutors have accused Jonathan Pollock of punching two officers in the face, kneeing a police officer, dragging an officer down stairs, charging at law enforcement with a flag pole, grabbing an officer’s neck and pinning them to the ground and ramming a police shield into an officer’s neck.

Hutchinson, Olivia Pollock and Jonathan Pollock are facing several charges for what prosecutors allege was a coordinated assault on several police officers. Hutchinson and Olivia Pollock have pleaded not guilty. Jonathan Pollock has not entered a formal plea.

Over 1,200 Americans have been criminally charged for their alleged actions during the riot, and more than 890 have been found guilty of federal crimes, according to the Justice Department. More than half of those found guilty have been sentenced to prison time.
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Perfect day for this sort of thing. MAGAts can run but they can't hide.