The man wore a fedora, a long white scarf and trench coat. He leaned on a cane and watched a gallows rise over the grass, then he disappeared into the dawn.
This is not the end of a gothic film noir, it’s a description of a wanted Jan. 6 rioter as described in a new Republican-led House subcommittee report.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) released Friday an update on the investigation into a gallows and noose erected on Jan. 6, 2021, just hours before furious supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“These actions raise more serious and troubling questions,” Loudermilk said in a statement. “Why have the individuals never been identified? I plan to get to the bottom of this."
The mysterious man Loudermilk professed himself determined to find arrived at Union Square near First and C streets NW about 6:30 a.m., according to the congressman’s report.
Three passengers emerged from a white van with a large bundle of lumber on wheels that they rolled across Constitution Avenue, hauled onto the grass before beginning to construct the gallows.
Two more people arrived in a cab and started to help.
The leader of the group pulled one of his gallows contractors away and the pair disappeared down Third Street, heading north, according to the congressman. They returned a few minutes later with coffee, then the group of five disappeared.
The five would return about 1 p.m. when their leader, now sporting a baseball cap, put the final touch on the gallows: orange rope tied into a noose.
According to Loudermilk, they have never been found.
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But the gallows they built spurred chants of violence after the U.S. Capitol was breached and the mob began to scream “Hang Mike Pence," the congressman notes.
“Later, witness Cassidy Hutchinson told the Select Committee she overheard a conversation where Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said President Trump agreed with the chants to hang the Vice President,” Loudermilk's report reads.
An Australian journalist turned the remains of the gallows over to the FBI, the congressman said.
The group appeared to have vanished entirely, until CBS's Scott MacFarlane uncovered a press release buried in the website for the Oversight subcommittee of the Committee on House Administration and shared it on X.
His followers were quick to compare the mysterious man to film villains such as the Penguin from Batman flicks, Carmen Sandiego, Boris Badenov and Keyser Soze.
"Unusual suspects," replied @MLCintheHills.
