One year ago this week the U.S. Capitol was attacked, not by foreign terrorists or an army as in 1814 when President James Madison actually led the U.S. Army in defense of our young republic against the invading British, but by a throng of misguided Americans inspired by the lies and actions of a president who lost an election. The nation was surprised and shocked. The world was in disbelief. Was this a riot or an insurrection? Was this a protest or an attempted political coup d’etat? And if this was the latter, is the ex-president legally culpable or perhaps criminally liable for seditious conspiracy to foment an insurrection in an attempt to overthrow our democracy?
These are the questions left up to the Congressional committee investigating the incident of Jan. 6, 2021 and the American people.—The Editors (Paul Rosenberg & Terelle Jerricks)
“There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6, and a hitman sent them,” Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn told Congress on July 27. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
There was never any doubt who the hitman was. Donald Trump had been falsely warning of fraud, calling the election illegitimate for months before the first ballot was cast, if he should lose. And on Dec. 19, he tweeted out his invitation, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” More than 20,000 followers responded. Then, after he told them, “You have to fight like hell!” and urged them on to the Capitol, almost 3,000 broke through police barriers, amidst chants of “Hang Mike Pence!”
“He’s got to condemn this shit Asap,” Trump’s own son, Don, Jr., texted Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, as Trump’s supporters battled Dunn and his fellow officers. “I’m pushing it hard. I agree,” Meadows texted back.
Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham were frantic, too.
“Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … this is hurting all of us … he is destroying his legacy,” Ingraham texted.
Yet, that very same night, she painted a drastically different picture. “The Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” she said, setting the tone for a whole year of gaslighting by the GOP and its media enablers, who’ve sought to bury the truth about a day that will, ultimately, live in infamy even darker than Pearl Harbor Day, 80 years earlier. Ingraham also floated the false report that antifa was responsible for the violence, and that only about three dozen people were involved. Yet the live video showed a much different story.
These and other baseless, sometimes contradictory fantasies took root in the GOP base, as reflected in a late December poll from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Not only did it find that 71% of Republicans saw Joe Biden’s election as illegitimate, it also found that only 7% of them blamed Trump for the violence on Jan. 6. Instead they blamed the Democratic Party (30%), Capitol Police (24%), antifa (20%) and Joe Biden (8%).
On that day, Trump’s chief of staff obviously knew better. “I’m pushing it hard. I agree,” he texted back to Don Jr. — not, “Tell that to antifa!” or “Tell that to Nancy Pelosi!” as he would claim later.
One week later, GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy agreed. “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” McCarthy said. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Trump’s Inaction Was A Crime
In fact, Trump’s failure to act was itself a crime, as University of Chicago law school professor of criminal law Albert Alschuler explained in October at the Just Security website.
“By violating his legal duty to do what he could to end the unlawful occupation of the Capitol, Trump became an accomplice to that crime. He is subject to the same punishment as the rioters who entered the building,” Alschuler wrote. This is because “The Constitution gave Trump a clear legal duty to intervene” (‘[The President] shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’) and because he alone had two ways to do this: by moving swiftly to deploy troops to defend the Capitol and by simply telling his followers to stop — which he eventually did, only after a 3-hours-plus delay.
But Trump can also be charged using language specifically used by GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney, co-chair of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, in a Dec. 13 hearing, “Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’ official proceeding to count electoral votes?” That same language has been used to charge about 240 of the 704 insurgents charged so far, according to a tally by the Daily Beast.
The only real question that still requires answering is if Trump can also be charged with another serious crime — the crime of conspiracy to obstruct or impede an official proceeding. The Select Committee has gone to court seeking Trump’s documents and communications with others, as well as close advisors’ testimony, which might seem essential in proving such a case.
Conspiracy to Obstruct
That same charge has already been made against 83 defendants, according to a tally by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) at the University of Chicago. And a look at how it’s been used against them suggests that there’s already plenty of evidence to charge the ex-president as well. His failure to call off the mob obstructed Congress, and others were involved in that delay. That’s all that’s required for a conspiracy conviction.
While the largest, most high-profile conspiracies involve extremists groups — most notably the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — they represented just a fraction of the crowd. Six out of every seven had no such ties, CPOST found, and the only meaningful indicator of where insurgents came from was from parts of the country experiencing a decline in white population. This is consistent with the dominant “alt right” conspiracist myth, the “Great Replacement,” which Random Lengths has written about before — the myth that white Christian populations are being “replaced” with non-whites and non-Christians by Jewish elites and their allies. Nurturing such fears and fantasies has been Trump’s most consistent focus throughout his political career. But there’s still a significant gap between the larger mass of believers and the hard core extremist groups who were key to how Jan. 6 unfolded.
The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys Conspiracies
In a Dec. 8 summary, legal/security blogger Marcy Wheeler provided the following concise overview of the latter:
“The government is very close to showing that there was a plan — led at the Capitol by the Proud Boys, but seemingly coordinated closely with some members of the Oath Keepers. The plan entailed initiating a breach, surrounding the Capitol, opening up multiple additional fronts (of which the East appears to be the most important), and inciting the “normies” to do some of the worst violence and destruction, making the Capitol uninhabitable during the hours when Congress was supposed to be making Joe Biden President. Until about 4 p.m. — when cops began to secure the Capitol and DOD moved closer to sending in the National Guard — the plan met with enormous success (though I wouldn’t be surprised if the conspirators hoped that a normie might attack a member of Congress, giving Trump cause to invoke harsher measures).”
Indeed, ever since election day there had been chatter about the possibility of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, of going into battle against antifa, being called on by Trump to assist, etc. — all elements of rightwing fantasy that have circulated for decades as distant possibilities.
What’s more, in late December, Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix argued that similar thoughts may have been responsible for the delayed deployment of the National Guard. “Evidence is mounting that the most senior defense officials [particularly General Mark Milley] did not want to send troops to the Capitol because they harbored concerns that President Donald Trump might utilize the forces’ presence in an attempt to hold onto power,” they wrote.
So far, four Oath Keepers have struck plea deals, which have reportedly shaken, but not splintered the organization. The Oath Keepers founder, Stewart Rhodes, hasn’t been charged, he’s merely identified as “Person One” in the indictment, which makes clear that he was involved in planning. But he claims that those who entered the Capitol “went totally off mission,” though that mission appears to be imaginary. At least since a Nov. 9, 2020 online meeting, Rhodes had nurtured the hope of Trump providing cover to act out his violent fantasies. “We’re going to defend the president, the duly elected president, and we call on him to do what needs to be done to save our country,” Rhodes said, “Because if you guys weren’t going to be in a bloody, bloody civil war.” Rhodes was counting on exactly what General Milley was determined to avoid.
The Proud Boys are more tightly organized — into chapters as an organization, and into cells for their involvement in Jan. 6. There are multiple conspiracies charged against them as a result, the two most significant of which involve a group of four leaders (the “leader conspiracy” as Wheeler calls it) and three individuals who led the assault to break into the Capitol (the “front door conspiracy”): Dominic Pezzola, 43, Rochester, NY; Matthew Greene, 30, Syracuse, NY; and William Pepe, 31, Beacon, NY. They were amongst the first to be charged, based on their high visibility in videos of the day. Their indictment charged them with dismantling metal barriers protecting the Capitol, storming past them and breaking into the Capitol by damaging its windows at the west plaza entrance. Pezzola ripped away an officer’s riot shield, and at about 2:13, he used the shield to break a window, allowing rioters to enter the building and open an adjacent door. He entered the building seconds later.
Afterwards, the trio celebrated, according to the indictment, “For example, Pezzola posted a video on social media that depicted him smoking a cigar inside the Capitol and proclaiming, ‘I knew we could take this motherfer over if we just tried hard enough. Proud of your motherfing boy.’”
In sharp contrast to this juvenile self-congratulation, a very different assessment soon arose. As Trump left office two weeks later, doing nothing to protect those who stormed the Capitol on his behalf, disillusion spread. A comment from Proud Boy leader Ethan Nordean, 30, of Auburn, WA, was typical. “I’ve followed this guy for four years and given everything and lost it all,” Nordean wrote in an online chat. “Trump, you left us on the battlefield bloody and alone.”
Nordean was part of the aforementioned “leadership conspiracy,” scheduled for trial in February. But on Dec. 22, Matthew Greene pleaded guilty, “Providing first-hand evidence on the ‘Front Door’ conspiracy” and “Tying the Front Door cell to the Leader conspiracy,” as Wheeler explained the next day, noting that it would also confirm key government contentions that:
- “The goal that day was to intimidate Mike Pence and members of Congress to get them to help Trump’s cause.”
- “Trespassing was one way to serve that goal of obstruction because it was more intimidating.”
- “The damage to the Capitol was a foreseeable consequence of the plan to obstruct the vote count.”
A single cooperative witness won’t be enough to unravel the whole conspiracy, especially because of how compartmentalized the Proud Boys were. But it could virtually ensure convictions, which in turn makes other plea agreements more likely. That, in turn, could unravel everything about the Proud Boys crucial involvement. And Trump clearly fears what a similar dynamic could do to expose his role as well.
The Tasing of Officer Fanone
While the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were key to breaking into the Capitol, their numbers were dwarfed by the larger crowd. Just as Trump’s fantasy of holding onto power enabled them to act, acting out their fantasies enabled others to do the same.
One of them was Daniel Rodriguez, 39, of Fontana, Calif. who was responsible for one of the most notorious assaults on Jan. 6: the tasing of officer Michael Fanone, who testified to the Select Committee in July.
Fanone was dragged from the line of officers defending the lower west terrace tunnel at around 3:18 p.m.. “As I was swarmed by a violent mob, they ripped off my badge. They grabbed and stripped me of my radio,” he testified. “I heard chanting from some in the crowd, ‘Get his gun and kill him with his own gun.’ I was aware enough to recognize I was at risk of being stripped of and killed with my own firearm. I was electrocuted again and again and again with a taser.” Rodriguez, in a tearful confession to the FBI, amazingly claimed he was trying to help Fanone.
“I don’t know if I tasered him to protect him, but maybe just to, like — so he wouldn’t struggle and get hurt, maybe,” Rodriguez said, early in the interview. “If they’re going to beat him up or injure him or, like — I don’t know if they’re going to — I don’t know what was going to happen to him.”
Although Rodriguez acted alone in tasing Fanone — who suffered a heart attack, a concussion, traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder — he wasn’t charged alone. He was charged with conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding along with Edward Badalian, 26, of North Hills, and a third person, whose identity remains sealed. Also involved, but not charged, was Beverly Hills beautician Gina Bisignano [identified as “PERSON ONE” in the indictment], who struck a separate plea deal in July.
Like Rodriguez — and like Trump — Bisignano has expressed a bewildering barrage of contradictory explanations and self-reports of what she had done and why. Most notably, she and Badalian went on the conspiracist Infowars program War Room with Owen Shroyer two days after the insurrection, blaming “antifa” for heightening the violence and breaking windows, which they tried to support with video Bisignano had taken.
“Badalian told Schroyer that the people smashing windows in the Capitol made him angry because ‘that’s like a symbol of America to me,’” militia/conspiracy expert David Neiwert reported at Daily Kos. At the end, “She [Bisignano] concluded: ‘We were clearly there for a peaceful march. And a lot of the people that infiltrated that crowd obviously were not there for that.’”
But, Neiwert notes, “The reality of the trio’s vitriolic violence on Jan. 6, however, is laid bare in their respective indictments.” Bisignano “played a leading role in whipping the mob into a frenzy,” evident both in texts she sent, and in videotaped bullhorn exhortations to the crowd that led to her identification within days. As for Badalian, on the march to the Capitol he texted, “We don’t want to fight antifa lol we want to arrest traitors.” The day before, Rodriguez posted, “There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution.”
A Very OC Conspiracy
These are just three of the 704 people charged as of Dec. 28. Orange County and LA County accounted for more than anyplace else — 15 and 10 respectively. But that’s only because they’re so populous. Still, Orange County shares the characteristic of increasing racial diversity identified by CPOST as a driving factor in participation, which surely played a role in one last conspiracy worth considering: the only conspiracy charge brought against another far-flung extremist group, the Three Percenters (named for the false belief that only 3% of American colonialists supported the American Revolution.)
In fact, it was actually a last-minute combination of two groups — a more privileged group of newly radicalized figures who may only have adopted some of the lingo, and an established group of self-identified Three Percenters, who had trained logistically together. If the latter had more in common with the Oath Keepers, with a similar military/logistical orientation, the former exemplified the demographically-driven backlash dynamics cited by CPOST.
The leading figure in this group was Alan Hostetter, 56, of San Clemente, a cop turned yoga instructor after a midlife crisis, who self-radicalized in opposition to pandemic restrictions. He launched the American Phoenix Project as a nonprofit in May 2020, which Russell Taylor, 40, of Ladera Ranch, later joined as a director, as described in a March LA Times story, “Suburban radicals: Inside the resurgence of right-wing extremism in Orange County.” The story also included descriptions of two other directors who were not charged. It also cited Chapman University sociologist Peter Simi echoing CPOST’s findings about the radicalizing impact of Orange County’s increasing demographic diversity, while presenting evidence of a potpourri of different extremist beliefs in response to diverse perceived bogeymen.
“When Obama was elected, it was an opportunity for these folks to start to get organized,” Simi told the Times. “And when Trump came along, it was another opportunity for somebody on their side who was emboldening.” Hostetter and his associates were particularly motivated in reaction to pandemic public health policies. “Hostetter’s social media accounts promoted weekly rallies and street marches against “tyrants” issuing health orders for a pandemic he claimed was not real,” the Times reported. And he joined forces with a seasoned anti-vax crusader, Leigh Dundas, 48, who made a habit of depicting her political enemies as Adolf Hitler: first Orange County’s health officer, then Governor Gavin Newsom. Despite their best efforts to demonize Newsom, he expanded his Orange County margin of victory from 3,096 votes in 2018 to 38,772 last September.
(Dundas went to DC on Jan. 6, but wasn’t indicted, although she did join both Hostetter and Taylor as a speaker at a “Stop the Steal” rally held at Freedom Plaza the day before. Other speakers included Roger Stone, Alex Jones, and Ali Alexander, and American Phoenix Project was listed as a fiscal sponsor of the event, where numerous incendiary threats were made.)
On Jan. 1, Taylor began a Telegram thread joined by more than 30 others called “California Patriots-DC Brigade” to organize “a group of fighters,” according to the indictment handed down in June. This included four men — Erik Scott Warner, 45, of Menifee; Ronald Mele, 51, of Temecula; Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, 47, and Derek Kinnison, 39, both of Lake Elsinore — whom Kinnison identified being “3 percent so cal” in his introductory post. That same day, Taylor asked Kinnison to “take point lead on Comms’’ for the group, and Kinnison responded, “No problem.” That’s how the two groups came together.
The individual crimes alleged — beyond conspiracy and interfering with an official proceeding — aren’t earth-shattering. They entered a restricted area (the Capitol grounds, but not the building itself) while Taylor carried a knife, and they destroyed evidence afterwards. What they did more than anything was agitate, motivate and inspire others to act together to derail the normal transfer of power.
“The people have taken back their house!” Hostetter said on the Upper West Terrace. “Hundreds of thousands of patriots showed up today to take back their government!” he said, according to the indictment, as Taylor yelled, “Inside!” In reality, they were seditious traitors, trying to block the will of the people, and their numbers were only a tenth of what Hostetter claimed.
They would later claim they were unjustly being picked on. “I never went into the Capitol, no violence no damage to property. All this for waving a flag and singing the national anthem!” Taylor complained in a Facebook post, after a visit from the FBI.
Or perhaps the FBI was just paying attention.
“This was the ‘shot heard round the world!’… the 2021 version of 1776.” Hotstetter posted to his Instagram account while still in DC. “That war lasted 8 years. We are just getting started.”
The Jan. 6 Select Committee is preparing to hold public hearings soon with a full report on their findings later this year.
