'Chaos agent' activist filmed January 6 rioters in 'ploy' to egg them on: prosecutors

Federal prosecutors argued at trial that a Utah activist who filmed January 6 rioters was doing so in a "ploy" to spur them on, reported NBC News on Wednesday.

"John Earle Sullivan, also known as 'Jayden X,' is a self-purported activist and journalist on trial in Washington, where he faces a host of charges including felony obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder," reported Ryan J. Reilly. "Sullivan, who filmed the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt after she attempted to enter the House Speaker's Lobby through a window broken by the pro-Trump mob, has become a cause célèbre on the right for those seeking to blame 'antifa' or left-wing provocateurs for the violent criminal actions undertaken by hundreds of rioters during the breach of the U.S. Capitol."

In the months after the attack, federal investigators seized $90,000 from Sullivan. He was allegedly selling footage of Babbitt's fatal shooting.

"At trial, government prosecutors portrayed Sullivan as 'anti-establishment,' a grifter and a chaos agent — his company was called Insurgence USA — who wanted to 'burn it all down' during the Capitol attack," noted the report. "'I’m gonna side with anyone who is ready to rip this s--- down,' Sullivan said in one quote cited by prosecutors."

More than 1,200 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection so far — the largest number of people arrested over a single incident in the history of the United States.

Most of them have been charged with misdemeanors, but some have been charged with or convicted of more serious offenses like assaulting police officers. A number of leaders of far-right groups that took part in the attack have also been convicted of seditious conspiracy.