Three years after the Capitol riot, extremists are still pushing the conspiracy theory that many of the rioters were actually Antifa agents dressed as Trump supporters in a false flag operation to frame the right.
But those claims are being debunked as those Jan. 6 rioters are getting arrested and their identities revealed, NBC News reported Friday.
Some of the claims focused on a video from that day showing two black-clad rioters smashing through a window near the lower west tunnel of the Capitol. For years, pro-Trump conspiracy theorist speculated that the men were Antifa agents who infiltrated the crowd.
One of the men seen in the video was arrested last month. William Lewis, 57, of Illinois, was charged with felony counts of assaulting officers and civil disorder. An NBC News review of his social media history clearly shows a Trump supporter who hates President Joe Biden.
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The other man was identified by NBC News as Jonathan Munafo, who was known as "Front Row Joe" because he always camped out before Trump rallies so he could get a prime spot. He was charged for his role in the riot and sentenced in September to 33 months in prison.
"Complicating the effort to shoot down conspiracies about the identities of individual rioters is the fact that there are hundreds of Jan. 6 participants who have been identified by online 'sedition hunters' but not arrested," NBC News reported.
"More than 1,200 people have been charged in connection with Jan. 6. There are about 1,000 Jan. 6 participants who have been identified but are not currently facing charges, say online sleuths, who have given hundreds of those suspects' names to the FBI."
As NBC News points out, even some of the rioters who've been arrested and charged and pleaded guilty in regard to their Jan. 6 roles claim that many of their fellow rioters were Antifa, while others are angry that people are crediting Antifa for what happened that day.
Read the full report over at NBC News.
