#SeditionHunters - one of the first Capitol perps hashtagged in January was finally arrested today - #ProudBoyCowboy, not just a fighter but an organizer. Charging docs (link to follow) suggest FBI is working out how to charge perps who assisted the attack in more subtle ways. 1/
#ProudBoyCowboy is Joshua Portlock of TN, identified in April by a co-worker - but #SeditionHunters helped detail his many activities. Portlock fought on the Plaza - bodycam shows him helping #BullhornLady pull barricades, & pushing police with plywood. 2/ justice.gov/usao-dc/case-m…
Besides new views from bodycam, charging docs show insight in describing Portlock's activities at the tunnel. As one of first to enter, he was at the front of police lines, where his cowboy hat got knocked off, revealing his Proud Boy beanie. But he's not the most violent.. 3/
Like most organizers, he let "normies" do the dirty work. So FBI carefully describe other ways he contributed: "his continued presence allowed other rioters to fight" and "precluded MPD Officers from closing the second set of doors"; he "leans in with his body weight..pushing" 4/
Charging docs note that #ProudBoyCowboy exited after the initial tunnel push failed, but remained at the scene and got mixed up in BOTH officer draggings, over an hour apart - not a coincidence. A key for the attack to succeed was keeping violence just enough in check... 5/
Other attackers are also involved in both officer incidents - for example #SilverSoOverIt races to intercept Fanone, shouts "make way", then also appears in Officer Miller's rescue 1 hour later. Watch in multicam video. #ProudBoyCowboy is 1 min later... 6/
After Fanone is returned, #ProudBoyCowboy arrives to get an update from officers. Many around him in this picture are also playing an org. role. Experts tell us: a hallmark of a 'hybrid warfare' attack is to seize a building without deaths, to keep the public on one's side. 7/
#ProudBoyCowboy's actions don't mean he's a nice guy - they mean he stayed at a violent attack for 1.5 hours and acted responsible for regulating it. FBI seems to know this, describe these interactions to show his authority.
For early tunnel, see also 8/
This election won't see another Jan 6 - Trump can't raise a crowd. But there will be something new; his backers are desperate. In 2020 TX AG Ken Paxton was one of Trump's main allies. Now, 2 weeks before the election, Paxton previews a plan: to contest the Texas vote. 1/
The scariest players in 2020 weren't Proud Boys; they were rogue state attorneys general, led by Ken Paxton: elected officials all in for sedition. It was Paxton for Texas who sued to reject the votes of the swing states. What will he do this year? 2/ docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
On January 6 morning, as the mob gathered at the Capitol, Ken Paxton spoke at Trump's rally: "Texas fights...Twelve straight lawsuits...", claiming Trump won deep red Texas only because he averted fraud. What will he do in 2024 for Trump and Ted Cruz? 3/
Peter Thiel's sidekick Chuck Johnson is now accused of posing as an intelligence asset to defraud businesses. So let's ask: how in 2023 did SEVEN news outlets print Johnson's story that he and Thiel were working for the FBI, without calling his bs? 1/ semafor.com/article/10/16/…
The two outlets who named Johnson as their source are Business Insider and The Atlantic, but their stories were picked up by 5 others, and MANY outlets did worse: they printed versions of the story over April-Nov 2023 without naming sources. It was all bullshit - a campaign. 2/
When Johnson started calling reporters to say he and Thiel were Super Secret FBI Sources, they should have have known this was 1) bs and 2) a PR campaign by Thiel. They should have asked: why would Thiel do this? What is his goal? Every leak has a goal. 3/
People shocked by Evie magazine's article fawning over JD Vance's "classic beauty" and "blue laser beam...eyes that sent women swooning", please realize this is the same outfit that launched a menstrual cycle tracker funded by Vance's patron Peter Thiel. 1/
The propaganda efforts aren't even subtle. Evie (started 2018) is a pitch for the horseshoe left via a "wellness" magazine. The period tracker was spun up in 2022 ("women were tired of the pill"); they claimed they'd have 1M users in a year. They don't. 2/ futurism.com/neoscope/peter…
Evie's use of "blue laser beam eyes" for Vance is funny since that phrase is borrowed from the parody ZDF did of Peter Thiel using the James Bond theme song: "Immortal libertarian, so refreshingly Aryan... with blue laser eyes into human demise..." 3/
Skimming the Jack Smith filing, seems that Ken Chesebro (CC5 here, p. 53) was openly telling people his fake elector plan was a gambit to let Congressmen make false claims disputing the election. He seems to be clearly aware the votes were illegal. Not a good look. 1/
On p. 58: again, Chesebro knew the fake electoral votes were just a "pretext" for a fake fight to deny Biden the presidency. Interestingly, the same para says Trump was in "almost daily" contact with someone whose podcast spread the false claims - who? 2/ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
On p. 59 we learn that Trump spoke directly and privately to Ken Chesebro (CC5), and that someone else closely involved (CC6) warned Chesebro to not talk about the plan in chat groups and to text about the fake electors to just a few people. They knew it was illegal. 3/
Today DOJ revealed a $10M op to use US podcasters to push Russian propaganda, since 2023. Let's remember that Lauren Southern, "Commentator-5", went to Moscow in 2018 to make a film to "correct " "America's irrational fear of Russia". This stuff has been going on for years. 1/
Today's indictment doesn't claim Southern knew her recent funders were Russian. But in 2018, she must have known. Daniel Lombroso says that when Southern got to Moscow, she was so dismayed that she dropped the film. So it wasn't her idea. Whose was it? 2/ archive.is/L0AOb
In 2018, Lauren Southern pivoted her film project to another favorite Russian theme: the danger of Islamic immigrants. Just when Scott Presler was starting an anti-Islam speaking tour at US colleges. Why are their talking points coordinated? Because someone's paying for them. 3/
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/