A new report from Rolling Stone reveals that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was warned by "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander to leave the United States Capitol building on January 6th, 2021 before rioters incited by former President Donald Trump breached the building.
Digging deep into the House Select Committee's final report on the January 6th Capitol riots, Rolling Stone noticed a previously unreported text message that Alexander sent to a top Gosar staffer shortly before rioters breached the Capitol.
In the message, Alexander said he had a sense that the mob of Trump supporters massing outside the building could turn violent.
“I think you and your staff should maybe leave,” Alexander told Gosar chief of staff Thomas Van Flein. “This is hell out here.”
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During interviews with the January 6th Committee, Alexander was asked if he had any specific knowledge of planned actions that led him to send Gosar's chief of staff the message.
"I thought that they could potentially be in danger... if this escalated," he said. "I knew a lot of people in Congress. I wouldn’t want them hurt. So I said ‘I think you and your staff should maybe leave.’ Now in retrospect, that’s stupid because where were they going to go?”
The report shows that J6 Committee investigators also pressed Alexander about his relationship with Gosar, though Alexander would only say that the Arizona congressman was a "friend" to his movement and that "Dr. Paul Gosar and I share political beliefs about election irregularities."
