#SeditionHunters - in ancient Rome, the elite Praetorian Guard kept overthrowing the emperors they were assigned to protect. In DC this January, seems the “1st Amendment Praetorians” had similar ambitions - intrigue is timeless. Here’s a 1st thread on 1AP & the Willard Hotel 1/
#SeditionHunters have been tracking 1AP since Jan; the 1/5 Freedom Plaza rally permit says: “...1st Amendment Praetorian Group will provide...security.” Founded 2020 by messianic Green Beret Robert Patrick Lewis who now hangs with the VIPs. They recruit from former military... 2/
...& now also police & intelligence officers. RPL is now on the speaker circuit. On Dec 12: ntd.com/former-green-b…
On Jan 5 in DC, warned that U.S. kids may "grow up in a communist hellhole" "This is our chance...take back the country." Listen to it. 3/
1AP speeches are crazy enough but videos are worse - the Oct. 2020 “What is 1st Amendment Praetorian?” ends with RPL saying “we’ve activated the counter-insurgency” against fellow Americans. They’re so scary #SeditionHunters had kept quiet about them. 4/ facebook.com/RobertPatrickL…
Now that 1AP is getting some press, tho (Daily Beast, Vice) it’s time to shine the spotlight - & they’re crawling all over DC on Jan 6. So we’ll post several threads. This one covers RPL’s associates on Jan 6, and their circle. 5/ thedailybeast.com/1st-amendment-… vice.com/en/article/4av…
On Jan 6, RPL headed to Trump’s rally with two companions. We call the tall one #TallWillardGuy; he’s easy to see above the crowd. They watched from the VIP section with other A-listers. 6/
On 1/5 both were in the VIP tent at the Freedom Plaza rally. Here’s #TallWillardGuy wearing an earpiece, near Roger Stone & election-fraud conspiracist Joe Oltmann. (Joe’s data/marketing co.: “We start conversations & make sure that they’re going in the right directions.”) 7/
On 1/6, after Trump’s speech many VIPs headed to the Capitol. RPL isn’t seen there yet, but tweeted 1:18 PM “Today is the day true battles begin.” #TallWillardGuy ended up at the Willard Hotel in Rudy Giuliani’s hotel suite, in the famous photos found by @BitsButterfly... 7/
...from the Insta of CT lobbyist & Ukraine schemer Robert Hyde. Call it the Sore Loser room: it holds 3 failed Congressional candidates (Hyde, Eastman, Ramsland) + the son of a 4th (Daniel Bostic, dad is Curtis). Seems like a political / propaganda group, not military ops... 8/
Rudy couldn’t book the right 4 Seasons, much less run a coordinated crowd attack! Election-lie promoters include Oltmann, Ramsland (Allied Security Group), Eastman (ex-law prof), Bobb (OANN, ex-DHS), & Ryan (Rudy’s girlfriend). Bostic is pals with Ali Alexander since 2013… 9/
Note Bostic’s signature haircut. Bostic & Ali’s schemes include “a cryptocurrency project, a listless consulting agency, a defunct MAGA gossip blog, & a scam donation project created with R-wing trolls Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer”. And now sedition. 10/ salon.com/2021/01/19/how…
On 1/6 Bostic sat up front at the rally, then walked to the Capitol in a “stack” of 15+ VIPs, OathKeepers, and security guys. Most went to the East side; 6 entered the Capitol & have been arrested (red text). 11/
Bostic, Courtney Holland, & Megan Barth of Stop the Steal went West instead, arriving on Capitol grounds at 2:53 PM just in time for the Giant Flag drop. (Finds & analysis by @bennybryant17) 12/ youtube.com/watch?t=102s
So Bostic was at the Capitol late, & the Willard Hotel photos were taken after 3 PM, maybe even the “night” of 1/6, as Hyde writes, after police cleared the Capitol building. We don’t know yet what the Willard group were doing, but the timing is important. 13/
Multiple 1AP figures are seen on Capitol grounds, so stay tuned for more threads.
As always, research is a crowdsourced effort by many, often anonymous volunteers. @bennybryant17 led on figuring out Bostic’s “stack”. All results go to the FBI first. 14/
Correction, t/y @bennybryant17! Though #AdamWeibling has been arrested, #BrittneyWeibling stayed outside the Capitol doors and has not. So here she's correctly marked in black, not red. 17/
#SeditionHunters - #TallWillardGuy IDd! Nailed by @visionsurreal as Philip Luelsdorff, Director of Business Development for 1AP; he & RPL filed the Sep. 2020 incorporation docs. A small-timer: serial DC business owner, unsuccessful poker player, arrest for theft. So..why him? 18/
He’s a bit overshadowed by mom, who claims she's an exiled Russian aristocrat, Baroness von Luelsdorff; Dad likely a multilingual professor. Philip whined in 2017 to NPR “You are expecting to do as well as your father and you can’t.. It’s emasculating” 19/ pbs.org/newshour/polit…
Mom tells her story in video on Russian site; judge for yourself. Full Luelsdorff OSINT report at link. What does he offer to a wannabe “elite” organization? Besides maybe Russian language, and self-pity, and gambling debts...20/
Now let's find #GreyBlazerGuy! He's in animated conversation with RPL and #TallWillardGuy while walking in, and sticks with them at the Ellipse rally, so #SeditionHunters might look for him in rally footage... 21/
And some video! For people searching for #GreyBlazerGuy, here’s the clip of him walking in, from a Twitch stream (DylanBurnsTV, Protesting in DC.mp4). Next up, a reel of the Bostic “conga line”... 22/
As usual this research is done by many dedicated individuals, often anonymous. @visionsurreal has been tracking 1AP for months, & @StevieG54099097 has put together a video reel with map to help people understand #IamDanielBostic’s walk to the Capitol 22/
And in case you still had doubts about the politics of Philip Luelsdorff aka #TallWillardGuy, here are his tweets, h/t @PabloRedux! Twitter acct. private but many archived. November 2020, ~1 month after 1AP started, ~1 week after election day: "The election is not over." 23/
Dec. 13, 2020, #TallWilllardMan replies to Joseph Flynn (Michael Flynn's brother) thanking "RPL and Yoda and the entire crew of 1AP for taking great care of #TeamFlynn yesterday". 1AP provided security for the Dec. 12 `Defend America' rally in DC, where Michael Flynn spoke. 24/
Here's Michael Flynn at the Dec. 12th DC rally, with Joseph Flynn behind him and his faithful 1AP bodyguard #ShadowFlynn in front. (More on him to come!) 12/12 might seem like a dress rehearsal for 1/6; everyone was there - Proud Boys, militia, right-wing speakers, 1AP... 25/
Watch the 12/12 activities for yourself at link below! Then count how many figures here appeared on Capitol grounds on 1/6. #2 in this pic is currently-serving Army Reserve officer & insurrectionist #IamThomasSpeciale, spokesman for Vets for Trump. 26/
Or, if video is not enough, you can watch 1AP live soon - they're scheduled to appear in Palm Beach FL on July 4th. The July 4 event is run by the "Coalition to Defend America", same folks who put on the 1/5 rally in DC. (More on them coming!) FBI might be watching too... 27/
Still don't think 1AP is scary? Read RPL's Tweet from June 28 calling on "Patriots" to "take back and keep this Republic" by turning into "Old Testament, full wrath of God, destruction of their house and salt the earth beneath them Christians." Hope FBI is watching July 4th. 28/
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This headline about how Trump lied about nearly dying in a helicopter crash gives major deja vu. Sure, today he mixed up Jerry Brown vs. Willie Brown. But there may be a deeper brain scramble going on. Trump famously lied about nearly dying in a helicopter crash in 1989. 1/
In Oct 1989, as Trump's casinos were edging into bankruptcy, 3 of his top casino execs died in a crash of a helicopter chartered by the Trump Org. The rotor simply fell off. Trump soon began telling reporters he was scheduled to be on the flight too. 2/ pressofatlanticcity.com/3-trump-execs-…
Trump's story of miraculously cheating death got a lot of press, even though other Trump execs contradicted his story almost immediately. It was a big deal; it got national-level coverage. In an old man losing his memories, this helicopter story might still remain. 3/
Since Trump has nothing new to offer, he can win only by smears and lies. That's why he hired Chris LaCivita, who "swift-boated" John Kerry with false slurs on his war record. LaCivita is already gunning for Walz. So let's talk about how to counter this swift-boat attack. 1/
Realize; the target of the smear is you. It's harmless if it's confined to Truth Social or GETTR. The goal is to get YOU talking about it. So ideally, we'd just ignore LaCivita's lies about Walz. The problem is, media is now helping them. They're making the smear the story. 2/
The NYT just handed Trump a huge gift, since LaCivita's entire goal is to control the dialogue, to force you to defend against his lie. So the only good response is to stay on offense. Don't let him make you chase the ball. Hit one return and then control the court again. 3/
New info about Jan 6: the DHS OIG report confirms that Secret Service drivers were emailing about rumored plans to take Trump to the Capitol already the day before. On Jan 5, people knew. 1/ oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…
Fliers had circulated for weeks telling people to march to the Capitol. By January 4, Kylie Kremer knows that Trump would call on them to go to the Capitol in his speech. But the DHS OIG report is the first documented evidence suggesting Trump planned to go along too. 2/
The OIG report seems wrong in places. It says Pence was evacuated at 2:12 PM, before the Capitol was breached. But Pence is still there: Sen. Lankford waves at him as he says "vice president". Pence wasn't pulled til 2:13 PM, as the breach was happening. It was so close. 3/
Trump's big flop today asking "is Kamala Black enough?" also shows he's being given talking points. This theme was pushed heavily in 2019 by astroturfed ops, some tied to Russia, many later to Jan 6. It was part of a wider effort to divide the Black community over immigration. 1/
This attack was used against Kamala Harris in 2019 by a chorus of voices including Donald Trump Jr and Ali Alexander. We all knew it was coming back. In this timeline note how it goes with a divisive, astroturfed push for reparations for non-immigrants. 2/
Trump's inept attack today exactly rehashes the 2019 malicious influence campaign, almost word for word. It suggests the same players are at work today. Trump is an instrument for larger forces - some of them foreign. 3/ slate.com/news-and-polit…
Interesting times in the presidential race when JD Vance is going to be IN PRINT praising the plans of Project 2025 author Kevin Roberts. Vance was installed as an avatar of these antidemocratic forces. Trump's campaign is beholden to his backers. Keep the focus on them. 1/
Peter Thiel shows up in the Project 2025 sponsor list, though as usual he tries to keep his name quiet. The "T" icon here is Teneo, started by a Thiel employee and his protegee Josh Hawley - they coyly show only a logo, no name. Leonard Leo now runs it; JD Vance is a member. 2/
All these groups are linked. Next to Teneo is the Texas Public Policy Foundation, led by Kevin Roberts before he went to Heritage. In 2020, TPPF war-gamed out how to contest the election with Thiel avatar Jeff Giesea and the now-indicted John Eastman. 3/
Yesterday's Dem unity is wonderful to see. Fascism may be on its heels. Just realize that the forces against Harris are the same as those against Biden. Here's media from today. The broligarchs won't quit. And Putin's fight is existential now. People must stand up for her. 1/
There's really no daylight between Peter Thiel's crowd and Putin anymore. Elon Musk and David Sacks are spreading direct Russian propaganda. And Putin's only hope of survival is electing Trump/Vance. This set will throw everything against Kamala Harris. 2/
We should be optimistic. But we should also be prepared. What's coming will be ugly: misogyny, racism, lies. And, if the propaganda doesn't work, whatever else Putin can do to hurt the US - whatever divides and demoralizes. Unity and confidence and teamwork is the way to win. 3/