#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/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Everyone's talking about the bribery part of Trump's gift of a $400M superluxury airplane from the Emir of Qatar but no one's covered the security risk part. Trump will be doing private meetings in a vehicle provided by a foreign government. 1/ abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump…
Is it likely Trump's folks can effectively sweep that plane for listening devices? Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff just walked into a meeting with Putin using a Russian intelligence officer as his translator. They're not the sharpest pencils in the box. 2/
OK, some are raising security fears, just not in the published articles. Garrett Graff calls it an "unmeasurable risk" and points out: the president can't even accept a helicopter ride from a foreign government. He travels with his own helicopter. But sure, use a Qatari plane. 3/
Ed Martin just got named Trump's "Pardon Attorney" (plus Associate Deputy AG). He does know the subject - in 2020, Martin brokered a pardon for Michael Flynn in exchange for Flynn's speaking at Stop the Steal rallies. Martin knows how to cut a pardon deal. 1/
This 2023 thread covers the story. Nov. 4, the day after the election, Ali Alexander spun up Stop the Steal with Ed Martin as a top recruit. Nov. 7, Martin reaches out to the White House with a deal: pardon Flynn and he'll help with "base-rallying". 2/
People like to think of Michael Flynn as a villain but in 2020, it was Ed Martin leading. Flynn would do nothing til he got that pardon - a straight quid pro quo. But Ed Martin was all-in from the start, busily working to overthrow the rule of law. 3/
Trump just declared Harvard ineligible for all grants and the NYT botches the story. It's not that "Harvard.. relies on federal money..[for] its projects". It's the federal government that relies on Harvard for its projects. Harvard provides services for you, the taxpayer. 1/
The NYT's phrasing is as dumb as saying gosh, your plumber relies on your money for HIS plumbing projects! What happens is the federal government puts out a call for research in some area, on YOUR behalf. Individuals then submit proposals to do that work. Just like plumbers. 2/
The NYT article is astoundingly backwards. You'd think @alanblinder, an education reporter, would know better, if he'd ever lifted his head beyond admissions grievances and culture wars to consider what universities actually do. Unpaywalled link. 2/ archive.is/Mcwtc#selectio…
Reporters: yes, alt-right gadfly Ivan Raiklin says crazy stuff, but what's most interesting about him is the backstory, how he was groomed to be an influencer. Because Raiklin is of Russian origin: parents are Russian emigres, brother a Russian scholar, wife a Russian teacher. 1/
Ivan Raiklin could have been on a list since his summer in Moscow in 2002. His brother Ben would be known from his PhD ("Stalin’s Documentary Filmmaking Industry, 1926-1946"). And Ben's insecure little brother, an officer in the National Guard, would be such a tempting target. 2/
We have to stop pretending far-right influencers appear spontaneously. They have histories: normal childhoods, then they're recruited into the game. It's rarely natural. Always ask: how did this person become known, who set them onto this new path? That's the bigger story. 3/
Stephen Miller confirms what anyone who studies Jan 6 knows: Trump's government wants to control education and impose a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It was OBVIOUS this was coming: Trump promised this in 2020 in exchange for support for his coup. But pundits ignored it. 1/
This account first called it in 2022. THE DAY BEFORE THE ELECTION Trump set up a commission on patriotic education. The people who led it - from Hillsdale & Claremont - then wrote his election-fraud lawsuits, arranged fake electors. They met on Jan 5. 2/
Education was Trump's barter with the religious right: public funds for private religious schools and a national 'patriotic' curriculum. It could have been stopped: Michigan should have indicted Larry Arnn, Hillsdale president, 176 Commission leader. 3/
Our new Navy Director of Communications watched the action at the Capitol on Jan 6 for Breitbart News. Her worst post might be this one: she flippantly captioned a video of people attacking the North Doors: "Things got a lil sporty here". To her it was a joke. Video tk. 1/
Here's Wong's video of the attack on the North Doors. She can claim she was just a reporter, but her caption shows that she thinks an attack on our Capitol and officers is funny. @SECNAV: is this the message you want to send to the troops, who swear to uphold the Constitution? 2/
Actual reporters, not Breitbart hacks, should ask @SecNav John Phelan: why was Kristina Wong picked? Is this the right message to send the US Navy? That attacking our own Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power is just "a lil sporty"? 3/