#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/
#SeditionHunters - a must-read, deeply researched WaPo piece on the lead-up to the Jan 6 Capitol attack. Confirms its origins well before the election. Confirms that EVERYONE KNEW the danger: DHS even alerted hospitals to prep for mass casualties Jan 6. 1/ washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
"While the public may have been surprised by what happened on Jan. 6, the makings of the insurrection had been spotted at every level, from one side of the country to the other. The red flags were everywhere." 2/
The article is hyper-cautious on one point: does not raise even a hint that lack of preparation could mean complicity. But this is the journalism we have been waiting for, for months. Wide-ranging, meticulous, and with the horsepower to grasp the scale of events: 16 reporters! 3/
#SeditionHunters have worked for months to understand the order & organization under the seeming chaos of the Capitol attack. New analysis suggests: U.S. democracy hung by a thread for critical minutes. And we owe an immense debt to the men and women who fought to preserve it. 1/
New public resources include detailed timelines of the Jan 6 attack, backed up by hours of synchronized video; and a heartbreaking study of the fight for the “tunnel” door, & one of its heroes, by Emmy-award winning director Consuelo Gonzalez. Watch it. 2/
To understand why the tunnel was so important, pull back & consider patterns on Jan 6. Beneath the chaos are ordered motions, directed by people with bullhorns. The seeming plan: to hit multiple entries at once, flood the building, & block police reinforcements. But it failed. 3/
#SeditionHunters - while the depth of foreign influence on the Jan 6 Capitol attack remains unclear, hopefully will get clearer soon... because FBI just raided the DC mansion of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, connected to Trump advisor and potential J6 figure Paul Manafort 1/
As a reminder, Manafort's company, Event Strategies, arranged the Jan 6 Ellipse rally. Longtime lobbyist and fixer for dubious figures: helped get pro-Russian strongman Yanukovich elected in Ukraine in 2010, then managed Trump's 2016 campaign. 2/ time.com/5003623/paul-m…
After Manafort was convicted of election-related crimes, The Atlantic wrote "That he would be accused of helping a foreign power subvert American democracy is a fitting coda to his life’s story." But it wasn't a coda - pardoned by Trump Dec. 23, 2020.. 3/ theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
The report - all 400 pages - covers actions by Acting Asst. Attorney General Jeffrey Clark. It includes the shocking finding that on Dec. 28, senior DOJ leaders threatened to resign en masse if Trump carried out plans to use to DOJ to pressure states to appoint new electors. 2/
The report explicitly links Trump's attempts to "weaponize" the DOJ to the January 6 attack: they "created the disinformation ecosystem necessary for Trump to incite almost 1,00 Americans to breach the Capitol in a violent attempt to subvert democracy" 3/
#SeditionHunters - is this the downfall of Alex Jones, the “king of conspiracy” (CNN), the most famous figure at the Capitol attack? He’d tormented the Sandy Hook parents for years; last week lost by default their multi-$M lawsuit. Will the law come for him for Jan 6 too? 1/
Alex’s reel shows how central he is on Jan 6: VIP section at the rally, marched w/ entourage to the Capitol (trailed by shouts: “Alex Jones!”), speechifed from the E. steps..& then decamped to a rented rooftop overlooking the besieged Capitol. He KNEW. 2/ rumble.com/vndge8-alex-jo…
Alex films himself so much we had to edit to keep the reel to 17 mins - but he must hate our reel since it keeps getting banned from YouTube. It's on Rumble now; hope to repost on the ‘Hunting Insurrectionists’ YT channel (itself shadowbanned -use link) 3/ youtube.com/channel/UCboWX…
#SeditionHunters - today's arrest of former Green Beret & Florida Congressional candidate Jeremy Brown suggests that FBI now has a strategy for going after the semi-organized groups who arrived armed and ready on Jan 6, but remained on the edges waiting. 1/
Brown's Signal chat (L) shows intent to storm the Capitol; he called his group "Ground Force One". But, on Jan 6, while he was on the E. Plaza, he didn't attack. (The pic at R is him shoved BY police). How to avoid a defense of `selective prosecution'? 2/ extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/…
Brown's charging documents start with 11 pages describing the Capitol attack in detail as an attempt to stop certification of the election. Only on p. 12 do "facts specific" to him appear. He's quoted as telling police they're "violating the laws"... 3/