Thread by @capitolhunters

Many #SeditionHunters worry about involvement of military in the Jan 6 Capitol attack. Here’s the highest ranked yet: Col. (ret.) Donald G. Rutherford, US Army, former Security Operations Chief for Libya, who watched the violent W. Plaza attack. ID by
@CoryCullington's team. 1/

#SeditionHunters panicked when they spotted his “Pentagon” hat, with an O-6 pin. Like many other ex-military at the Capitol, he was a security specialist, overseas service, now a defense contractor. He posted about his trip to DC on FB... 2/

Rutherford came to DC on an organized bus, stayed over 1.5 hours, & moved TOWARD the violence, from the lawn to the W Plaza to the bleachers where he watched people break into the Capitol. This is his own video; see more in thread: 3/

https://twitter.com/CoryCullington/status/1503063645768409097

Rutherford must have felt shame since he deleted his videos - but diligent #SeditionHunters had archived them. He left up a rambling justification: “We are in a civil war.”, complains about “news networks..spewing dark lies”, blames officers themselves & “ANTIFA instigators” 4/

Rutherford could not avoid seeing the violence around him, but he's oddly dissociated from it. Here he is around 1:30 PM, calmly texting as the crowd panics about tear gas: "I'm feeling like I can't breathe!" You can watch the scene: 5/

Rutherford may not play a role at the Capitol, but it's disturbing how dissociated he is from the violence around him - and that he supports Marine LTC Scheller who publicly criticized his own commanding officers. Coups succeed when the chain of command breaks down. 6/

Scheller was court-martialed & discharged from the Marines for his public insubordination, in uniform in a social media video. Rutherford is retired, likely wouldn't be recalled under UCMJ - but we have to ask what is happening to our senior officers. 7/
taskandpurpose.com/news/marines-l…

Here's the rest of Rutherford's FB post describing Jan 6. He shows no empathy for the battered police, instead blusters about 'the absolute gross incompetence of the pathetic few untrained officers'. Four of the officers who defended our Capitol that day have died by suicide. 8/