All posts tagged "u.s. capitol"

‘Destined to repeat’: J6 documentary's stark warning as America tries to forget

Five years after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol amidst a blizzard of lies, with the president and his associates falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, January 6th may be a story Americans no longer care to hear.

Homegrown, a documentary that tracks three members of the neo-fascist street gang the Proud Boys from the turbulent summer of 2020 to Jan. 6 2021 and the attack on Congress, has won accolades and enthralled streaming viewers in Europe and South America. But the film’s producers have yet to find a U.S. distributor.

“I really think it’s telling around the narrative, around January 6th that it’s been downplayed and diminished within our national conversation,” director Michael Premo told Raw Story.

“That implies we’re only destined to repeat it.”

‘A self-coup’

Premo, a documentary filmmaker who was previously involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement and Hurricane Sandy relief, thinks Americans have trouble coming to grips with January 6th because it runs counter to what most believe about their country.

“I think Trump is such a distillation of everything America pretends it’s not,” he said.

“That is all wrapped up in what January 6th is.

“If this was a country in the Middle East or South America, we’d be talking about a self-coup. That’s not what we’re talking about. That’s not the popular narrative.”

Homegrown has received positive reviews in Europe and South America, and Premo told Raw Story that for a time it was the sixth-most popular streaming movie in New Zealand.

But Americans who want to see Homegrown will have to rent it directly from the film’s website, from Jan. 6 through Feb.16 — the President’s Day holiday.

“We’ve talked to many distributors, and we’ve gotten confounding rejection,” Premo said.

“They’ve said, ‘We love it, but we can’t take it.’ People have been ‘counter-programming-the-apocalypse,’ is what I call it — just light, happy fare.”

Revelatory portraits

For anyone who followed the news closely from protests for racial justice in the summer of 2020 through the presidential election that November and its chaotic fallout, the feverish pace of the storytelling in Homegrown will summon familiar feelings of excitement, dread and anxiety.

But the portraits of the three men profiled in the film, drawn in full humanity, revealing themselves with flashes of violence, self-reflection and regret, will likely come as a revelation to many.

Chris Quaglin is a father-to-be who vandalizes a Black Lives Matter mural.

Chris QuaglinChris Quaglin shows off ammunition for his various guns. Courtesy Storyline Media

Thad Cisneros is a high-ranking Latino leader of the Proud Boys who forges a cross-ideological alliance against police violence.

Randy Ireland is an Air Force veteran who takes on the unglamorous, behind-the-scenes duties of organizing the group.

All are footsoldiers of the Trump movement, destined to sink back into obscurity once they’ve outlived their usefulness.

In one scene, filmed about a week after January 6th, Quaglin is seen fixing up a room for his son, who is about to be born.

“I got him to worry about,” Quaglin says. “And he’s the reason why I did go to DC — because I feel like something had to be done. But I think that all hell’s going to break loose. Sooner than later. If you think DC was bad, just wait. Just wait.”

Quaglin was arrested about two months after his son’s birth, for his involvement in the January 6th attack.

Convicted of 14 charges, including felony counts of assaulting police and obstruction of Congress, like about 1,600 other defendants, he received a pardon from President Trump shortly after Inauguration Day last year.

In another scene, filmed in Portland, Oregon following January 6th, Ireland laments that newer members of the Proud Boys are interested in “Going to streets and hunting, and they found someone that they suspected and chasing them down.

“We don’t do that,” he says.

The next moment, the Proud Boys leader is seen riding in the back of a pickup wearing a helmet and ballistic vest as others fire Airsoft rifles at a group of antifascists in black bloc formation.

‘They’re waiting’

Now Trump has returned to power, rank-and-file conservative activists who hit the streets in 2020 and up to January 6th have largely faded from view.

They’ve been rendered somewhat redundant, Premo said, as Trump has strong-armed media companies “to capitulate” and brought “universities to heel,” thereby neutralizing institutions that would ordinarily check a president’s power.

The reason activists such as Quaglin, Ireland and Cisneros were “ascendant” in 2020, Premo said, “is they were playing this role that the state is now playing now that Trump in his authoritarian trajectory has so effectively consolidated power.”

Randy Ireland at a rally in support of Jan. 6 defendants in Portland, Oregon in August 2021. Courtesy Storyline Media

Reflecting on the past five years, Premo said he doesn’t see the flare-up of vigilante violence that culminated in January 6th as something to be consigned to the past.

His observation recalls the moment during a 2020 presidential debate when Trump was challenged to condemn white supremacists and right-wing militia groups.

“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said.

Premo said: “The role that’s played by the foot-soldier activist is to be proactive.

“When the state is playing the role that you wanted to play, you have to take a back seat.

“They’re waiting for when they’re needed again. Maybe that happens when Trump refuses to leave office after his term is up.”

Homegrown is available to rent from Jan. 6 to Feb. 16, via homegrown.film/watch

‘Stop the Steal’ organizer hired by Trump campaign for Election 2024 endgame

CHICAGO — Donald Trump’s recent presidential campaign staff shakeup includes hiring a political consultant deeply involved in the “Stop the Steal” campaign that sought to overturn the 2020 election — and culminated with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Alex Bruesewitz, the CEO of the political consulting firm X Strategies, was named an adviser to the Trump campaign — part of a hiring spree last week as Trump struggled to maintain momentum with new Democratic opponent in Vice President Kamala Harris entering the race.

Bruesewitz’s new role in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign underscores how Trump is embracing people instrumental in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

ALSO READ: ‘Absolutely essential’: Son of Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes is all in for Kamala Harris

Raw Story’s review of U.S. House Select January 6 Committee investigation records indicate Bruesewitz helped organize an effort to mobilize Trump supporters to rally at state capitols — and eventually at the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 election.

Bruesewitz also coordinated with members of Congress to encourage them to object when Congress convened to certify the election on Jan. 6, 2021, according to texts and other source materials obtained by the now-defunct January 6 committee.

Bruesewitz appeared before the January 6 committee for a deposition in 2022, but repeatedly declined to answer questions while invoking the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to avoid self-incrimination.

Included among the questions Bruesewitz refused to answer: “Did you have any role or knowledge beforehand about violence that would occur on January 6th?”

Prior to testifying before the January 6 committee, Bruesewitz spoke to “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where he complained that the committee was harassing “conservative activists, innocent people for doing nothing but standing with President Trump until the finish line.”

ALSO READ: Why Kamala Harris may get a big convention polling ‘bounce’

He added that he planned to “go on the offense… because at the end of the day the American people deserve to know the truth about what happened on January 6th.”

To date, 1,488 defendants have been charged with offenses related to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, including 547 charged with assaulting law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

At least seven people died on or shortly after Jan. 6, either from injuries or suicide and 140 officers were injured. The siege of the Capitol resulted in damages totaling $2.8 million.

january 6 broken doors Trump supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Sebastian Portillo/Shutterstock)

Since refusing to answer questions from the January 6 committee, Bruesewitz has not spoken publicly about his involvement in the Stop the Steal campaign or his activities on Jan. 6, 2021.

Reached by phone by Raw Story on Aug. 17, Bruesewitz, who now lists himself as a "Trump Campaign Advisor" on his X social media account, said he was at an event and was unavailable to talk, and then suggested reaching out to him by email.

Since then, Bruesewitz has not responded to Raw Story’s emails and messages left through the contact form on his company website. Voicemail message have also gone unanswered.

The Trump campaign could not be reached for comment for this story.

Others recent Trump campaign hires include Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager who will serve as senior adviser; Tim Murtaugh, who served as communications director for Trump’s campaign in 2020; former Trump aide Taylor Budowich; and former Fox News producer Alex Pfeiffer.

Evading questions about Jan. 6

Bruesewitz, who has this week used his X social media account to amplify Trump campaign messages to his more than 439,000 followers during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, has not been charged with a crime.

Bruesewitz has also publicly denied going to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

But private texts obtained by the January 6 committee indicate otherwise.

A congressional investigator cited an interview Bruesewitz gave to “Super Talk Mississippi” after learning that he had been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee.

In that interview, according to the investigator, Bruesewitz claimed he didn’t go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and did not organize any of the events that day. The investigator noted that Bruesewitz was not under oath when he gave the interview.

Later, the investigator confronted Bruesewitz with the fact that, on Jan. 6, 2021, he had tweeted: “See you at the Capitol in a few minutes.”

Text messages obtained by the committee from another Stop the Steal leader, Ali Alexander, also strongly suggest Bruesewitz was at the Capitol.

ALSO READ: Sen. John Fetterman violates financial law with botched corporate bond disclosures

In one text on Jan. 6, Alexander wrote to Mike Coudrey, another Stop the Steal organizer who was attempting to start a rally at a permitted space on the Capitol grounds: “We are about to send over 50,000 people over there. We are on the front side of the Capitol trying to D escalate.”

Coudrey wrote in response: “They broke the barriers they’re going inside.”

Alexander replied: “I know we are now two minutes away.

“Alex and I are talking to the police,” he added, apparently referring to Bruesewitz.

Bruesewitz appears to have also personally directed Trump supporters to come to the Capitol to attend the rally organized by Alexander.

“I urge EVERY patriot in Washington DC to march to the Capitol building and join @StopTheStealUS on the southside!” he wrote in a tweet that was archived by independent Jan. 6 attack researchers before Bruesewitz deleted it.

The post is part of a series of tweets reviewed by Raw Story that have not been previously reported.

The time stamp for the tweet is 2:10 p.m. By 1 p.m., Trump supporters had broken through the barriers and moved on the Capitol grounds. At 2:13 p.m., they would break out windows and stream into the building.

ALSO READ: 21 worthless knick-knacks Donald Trump will give you for your cash

At 2:32 p.m., Bruesewitz tweeted: “What the hell did people expect? The Democrats took everything from these people! Now they’re stealing the election from the ONLY politician (@realDonaldTrump) that cares about them! I don’t support ANY violence. But this isn’t surprising!”

In another tweet at 2:50 p.m. that appears to reference the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt, Bruesewitz wrote: “First they rig and steal an election? Now they’re tear gassing and possibly even shooting @realDonaldTrump supporters? What the hell is happening to our country! Be peaceful! Stay safe!”

An archive of Alex Bruesewitz's tweets on Jan. 6, 2021 shows him calling on Trump's supporters to come to the Capitol.Courtesy J6 Capitol Insurrection database

Then, at 3:36 p.m., Bruesewitz signaled that the mob should stand down.

“My friends @StopTheStealUS have left the Capitol grounds,” he wrote. “We don’t support ANY violence. Never have. Never will. A group of bad apples have hijacked such an important fight! Shameful!”

While Alexander, for his part, played a prominent role in marshaling right-wing social media influencers to help overturn the 2020 election, he has largely faded from the public eye following a revelation in 2023 that he had asked teenage boys to send him nude pictures.

A White House visit and coordination with members of Congress

Among the questions congressional investigators were keen to answer: why Bruesewitz visited the White House on Jan. 5, the day before the Capitol siege.

White House logs show that Bruesewitz visited Camryn Kinsey, an external relations director for the Presidential Personnel Office between August 2020 and January 2021, according to her LinkedIn page.

Bruesewitz wouldn’t say why — he pleaded the Fifth when asked about the visit.

Bruesewitz also declined to talk about members of Congress with whom he spoke immediately before Jan. 6.

The congressional investigators then showed Bruesewitz a Twitter direct message chat named “Stop the Steal leadership,” which included Bruesewitz and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

Bruesewitz asked Gosar if he coordinated with other House members committed to objecting to the certification, according to a transcript of Bruesewitz’s deposition.

“As best as possible,” Gosar replied.

Later, at 5:15 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Gosar reported in the “Stop the Steal leadership” chat: “We’re still on lockdown in the congressional office.”

Bruesewitz’s deposition also indicates that he talked about his efforts to secure support for the objection from Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) and then-Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), who is now the junior U.S. senator from North Carolina.

Bruesewitz’s own remarks during a speech outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 5 suggest he was on a phone call with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other lawmakers to discuss the plan to object to certification the election.

Bruesewitz said he had “been working with a few brave patriots” that work in the Capitol, adding that “dozens” of House members and “a couple of the senators that I work with are objecting tomorrow.”

But he singled out Graham as a holdout.

“I was sitting on a phone call with one of the senators — I’m not gonna say names — I’ll spare Lindsey and this person the embarrassment,” Bruesewitz said. “But I hear Lindsey Graham’s voice — his stupid voice. He goes, ‘You guys are going to cause a civil war if you object.’

Then, Bruesewitz exhorted the crowd.

“You’re not starting a civil war,” he said. “We’re going to end it.”

In the same speech, Bruesewitz recounted how Alexander had enlisted his help to mobilize Trump supporters across the country to protest supposed election fraud one day after the election — when votes were still being counted in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.

“On November 4th, I got a text from my good friend Ali Alexander, and he said, ‘Something terrible’s happening. They’re gonna steal this thing. We must stop it,’” Bruesewitz recalled. “And so what we did is we put together a coalition of patriots and we started flying them across the country. Within hours, we had thousands and thousands of people in Arizona, hundreds of people across different state capitals across the country. And we said, ‘We are not going to let the Democrats steal our country.’”

Since 2018, Bruesewitz’s political consulting firm has performed work for several other pro-MAGA political candidates and committees, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The firm received $54,120 from a pro-Trump super PAC then known as the Committee to Defend the President. Other clients, per federal records, include Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).

WATCH: Netanyahu protesters descend on U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON — As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress inside the U.S. Capitol, demonstrators both inside the chamber — including Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) who held up a sign reading “war criminal” — and outside the chamber protested his high-profile visit.

Inside the Capitol, Raw Story witnessed Capitol Police arrest five protestors for defiantly wearing yellow pro-Palestine tees during Netanyahu’s address.

Nearby, outside the Capitol's perimeter, protestors marched around the building decrying the prime minister as a war criminal and President Joe Biden as his enabler. The marchers were mostly peaceful, but police at times clashed with some protesters, with law enforcement overheard saying they used pepper spray.

Here are some of the scenes from this afternoon:

Thousands of people protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu march near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 24, 2024. (Video: Matt Laslo / Raw Story) roar-assets-auto.rbl.ms

An anti-Netanyahu protester moves toward the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024. (Matt Laslo / Raw Story)

Police stand watch outside the U.S. Capitol and anti-Netanyahu protesters march on July 24, 2024. (Matt Laslo / Raw Story)

Law enforcement officials, including New York Police Department officers, form a security perimeter near the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024. (Matt Laslo / Raw Story)

Trump in Washington to woo Republican lawmakers

Donald Trump returns to Washington on Thursday to rally support from Republican lawmakers and the business community following his historic criminal conviction in his New York hush money trial.

The former president, who is running to unseat Joe Biden in November, will have separate closed-door sessions with House members at a private club near the US Capitol and with senators at their campaign headquarters nearby, and address dozens of CEOs.

“The speaker and the House GOP Leadership look forward to hosting President Trump on Thursday morning to discuss growing the House Republican majority and the 2025 legislative agenda,” a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Johnson told AFP.

It will be Trump’s first meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill since leaving the White House in 2021 and his first trip to Washington since he was convicted in New York in May on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The party has circled the wagons around its standard-bearer since the guilty verdicts, with numerous lawmakers denigrating a justice system they baselessly claim is biased against conservatives.

House Republicans face an uphill battle to reclaim the lower chamber from the Democrats in November’s elections, which are expected to be tight from the presidential race down through many of the key House and Senate contests.

Senate Republicans have a much more favorable map, and are confident of flipping their 49-51 minority in the upper chamber.

At least five centrist senators have yet to commit to attending on Thursday, although Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not spoken to Trump since berating him from the Senate floor over the 2021 insurrection, has said he will be there.

‘Anti-business’

Trump was impeached for inciting the attack, when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to Biden, who beat Trump by more than seven million votes.

“I said three years ago, right after the Capitol was attacked, that I would support our nominee, regardless of who it was, including him… And of course, I will be at the meeting,” McConnell told reporters.

Thursday’s events are expected to be more of an effort to boost morale and ensure the party is moving in one direction ahead of the election than to drill down on specific policy proposals.

But Trump is likely to be quizzed on plans to extend the tax cuts he implemented in 2017, as well as his proposals for a tough illegal immigration crackdown and his view of the war in Ukraine.

The conflict has exposed fissures between Trump’s isolationist “America First” movement and more traditional conservatives who want to see Russia’s Vladimir Putin defeated with the help of American weapons.

The former president is also due to make his case for a White House return to chief executives at a meeting of Washington lobby group Business Roundtable.

Political news outlet Axios quoted a source familiar with Trump’s expected remarks who said the former president was likely to focus on his plan “to immediately reduce inflation and roll back anti-business Biden regulations.”

An election forecast model combining state and national polls with economic indicators, out Wednesday from The Economist, gives Trump a two-in-three chance of winning reelection. The same model four years ago had Biden at 83 percent.

Revealed: Lawmaker who gave J6ers a Capitol tour targets ex-Capitol Police intel head

The former assistant director of intelligence for the U.S. Capitol Police, who issued a stark warning about the threat of extremist violence days before the Jan. 6 attack, expects to be called to testify before a House subcommittee led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) that is focused on shifting blame away from former President Donald Trump.

Julie Farnam told Raw Story she expects “to get a subpoena any day now,” and anticipates that she will be called to testify behind closed doors before Republican members of the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee on June 21.

Farnam said she received an email from subcommittee staff today telling her to expect a subpoena following discussions with her lawyer about scheduling her deposition.

Farnam said she believes the subcommittee is compelling her to testify as a ploy to distract attention from Loudermilk’s actions in the lead-up to the attack.

Loudermilk led a group of would-be J6ers on a tour of the U.S. House buildings complex — including security checkpoints and the entrance to the tunnels leading to the Capitol — on Jan. 5, 2021. Loudermilk ignored requests from the now-decommissioned House Select January 6 Committee to explain why he gave the tour.

ALSO READ: What Trump's weird WWE Hall of Fame speech tells us about his presidential debate strategy

“I think he does have some involvement in January 6th,” Farnam told Raw Story, “and these hearings are designed to distract from the truth.”

Farnam told Raw Story she expects to be deposed behind closed doors, but that she would prefer to testify publicly. She said she is working with her attorney to try to get her own court transcriber so she can keep a transcript of her testimony. She wants to publicly release the transcript.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re not having me testify publicly,” Farnam said. “They can take what I say and construe it however they want.”

Following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Farnam was promoted to acting director of intelligence for the Capitol Police, but resigned in June 2023. Farnam is currently running as a Democrat for a seat on the Arlington County Board in Virginia.

Mary Beth Burns, a spokesperson for the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, which is chaired by Loudermilk, declined to comment when reached by Raw Story earlier today.

‘Members of Congress very rarely give tours’

Loudermilk’s committee is relitigating Jan. 6 at a time when Trump faces multiple criminal charges, including indictments brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis that accuse the former president of conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election.

And it comes at a time when Trump, who is presently on trial in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a sexual affair that could have damaged his 2016 presidential campaign, is again expected to be the Republican nominee for president.

Farnam has been an implicit target of the Loudermilk committee’s investigation for months.

An interim report released in March by the committee includes a three-page section rejecting any notion that Loudermilk’s tour was connected to the events of Jan. 6.

ALSO READ: 'A fantasy of manhood': Are frat boys the new Proud Boys?

Meanwhile, the report alleged that the Capitol Police’s intelligence division, under Farnam’s leadership, “failed to fully process and disseminate actionable intelligence which directly contributed to the overall security failures at the Capitol.”

The House Select January 6 Committee released video of the Loudermilk tour during the second year of its work. At the time, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chaired the January 6 committee, said in a public letter that some of the individuals in the tour group sponsored by Loudermilk were seen at the rally held by Trump at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

Thompson cited video showing one of the individuals on the tour. On Jan. 6, 2021, the man carried a sharpened flagpole and made threats against Democratic members of Congress, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

“They got it surrounded,” the man can be heard saying in the video. “It’s all the way up there on the hill, and it’s all the way around, and they’re coming in, coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, even you, AOC. We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs.”

A report issued by the Capitol Police intelligence division roughly two weeks before the attack, warned about a thread on a pro-Trump message board discussing “tunnels on US Capitol grounds used by members of Congress.” Among the user comments cited in the report, one wrote, “Maybe millions of protesters could simply block all the Dems from showing up to Congress. Block all the tunnel entrance [sic].”

U.S. Capitol surveillance footage shows a man on a tour of the House building complex led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk.House Select January 6th Committee

The Capitol Police subsequently reviewed footage of Loudermilk’s tour, and Chief J. Thomas Manger appeared to clear the congressman of wrongdoing in a letter to former Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), then the ranking member of the House Administration Committee.

“We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious,” Manger wrote.

Farnam, who was serving as acting director of intelligence for the Capitol Police at the time, signaled she doesn’t share the chief’s assessment.

“I don’t buy his excuse for why,” Farnam told Raw Story. “Members of Congress very rarely give tours themselves. That was odd that he was giving a tour, and it’s less likely that a member would give a tour to people that they don’t know. The day that he gave the tour, there weren’t any tours being given. What was he doing and why was he doing it?"

Loudermilk’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“He needs to be questioned,” Farnam told Raw Story. “He needs to be on record about what he was doing.”

Farnam pitted against former Capitol Police chief

The interim report issued by Loudermilk’s committee on March 11 took critical aim at an intelligence assessment written by Farnam on Jan. 3, 2021, three days before the attack on the Capitol.

Loudermilk’s report contends that “significant questions remain about the emphasis of actual intelligence” in Farnam’s assessment “and its distribution to [Capitol Police] prior to January 6.”

The committee has assigned a star role to former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who testified in an open hearing last September that “no intel agencies or units sounded the alarm” despite having significant intelligence about threats against Congress.

“We were blindsided,” he said. “Intelligence failed operations.”

Farnam has vigorously disputed that claim.

January 6 riot at the Capitol. (Shutterstock.com)

Much of Sund’s testimony focused on his requests for National Guard assistance. The interim report dedicates 10 pages to resistance from the two sergeants at arms for Congress. Former House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, who at the time reported to Pelosi, told Sund he was concerned about “optics,” according to the former chief.

Since at least July 2021, Republican lawmakers have been attempting to shift blame for the attack on the Capitol from Trump to Pelosi. The former House speaker has said through a spokesperson that she and her staff had no discussions with Irving about National Guard deployment prior to Jan. 6.

The interim report issued by Loudermilk’s committee deflects responsibility from Trump by painting the House Select January 6 Committee as “a political weapon with a singular focus on promoting the narrative that Trump was responsible for the violence on January 6.”

ALSO READ: NFL drafts Capitol Hill staffers for lobbying retreat

Trump summoned his supporters to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, with a tweet that read, “Be there, will be wild.” During his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, he told them to march down to the Capitol and “fight like hell” because if they didn’t, they “were not going to have a country anymore.” Once Trump learned the Capitol was under attack, it took him two hours and 56 minutes to tweet out a video telling the rioters to go home.

Loudermilk told the Christian nationalist podcaster Lance Wallnau that Trump has privately praised him as a “hero.” Loudermilk said Trump specifically praised him for “exposing all these lies” when the congressman joined him backstage at a rally in Georgia before the state’s primary in March.

‘Congress itself is the target’

Farnam said she expects Loudermilk’s committee to ask her about the intelligence she received concerning threats against the Capitol in the run-up to Jan. 6 and how it was distributed.

“I think it’s going to be related to the intel,” she said. “What did we have? They’re going to accuse me of not doing more.”

While the subcommittee is not commenting publicly on Farnam, her 2021 interview with the House Select January 6 Committee and recent comments to Raw Story provide a preview of what she is likely to tell the Republican lawmakers when she testifies next month.

As the lead author of an intelligence assessment issued on Jan. 3, Farnam noted that the finality of the Congress’ decision to certify the election during the joint session on Jan. 6 would likely raise the stakes for the protestors coming to Washington, D.C. that day.

“This sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent,” the assessment warned. “Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter-protestors, as they were previously, but, rather, Congress itself is the target on the 6th.”

Sean P. Gallagher, deputy chief of the protective services bureau, emailed a copy of the intelligence assessment to the chiefs at U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 3 at 10:40 p.m., while noting that Farnam and her colleague John Donahue at the intelligence division would update commanders during a conference call the following day.

An email provided to Raw Story by Farnam shows that Sund replied at 11:18 p.m. on Jan. 3: “Copy thank you Sean.”

Despite evidence to the contrary, Sund testified before Loudermilk’s committee last September: “We now know that significant intelligence existed that individuals were plotting to storm the Capitol building, target lawmakers and discussing shooting officers. And yet no intel agencies or units sounded the alarm. We were blindsided. Intelligence failed operations.”

Farnam told the House Select January 6th Committee that during the Jan. 4, 2021 conference call, she conveyed the substance of the written assessment, and then added: “Stop the Steal has a propensity for attracting white supremacists, militia groups, groups like the Proud Boys. There are multiple social media posts saying that people are going to be coming armed, and it’s potentially a very dangerous situation.”

Farnam said that at the end of her presentation she received no questions.

Gallagher told the House Select January 6th Committee in January 2022 that he didn’t recall the “specifics” of Farnam’s presentation, but told the committee it was fair to say that her warning didn’t prompt the Capitol Police to make any operational changes.

Farnam told Raw Story she believes Yogananda Pittman, then assistant chief of protective and intelligence operations, briefed Sund on the conference call, but said there’s no paper trail to prove it.

Pittman could not be reached for comment for this story.

“Chief Sund did NOTHING with the intel — no ops plan, no distro to officers, no canceling leave, no staging equipment — that’s on him, not me,” Farnam wrote in an X post on May 23. “Also EVERYONE knew something was going to happen on #J6. It was planned in plain sight.”

Sund could not be reached for comment for this story.

Farnam said when she testifies before Loudermilk’s committee, she expects to be questioned about a romantic relationship she had with Lt. Shane Lamond, her intelligence counterpart at the DC Metropolitan Police Department around the time of Jan. 6.

Lamond was suspended by the police department in early 2022 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury for obstruction of justice for allegedly leaking sensitive information to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.

Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio (Photo by Chandan Khanna of AFP)

Tarrio, in turn, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The relationship between Farnam and Lamond is detailed in Farnam’s book, Domestic Darkness: An Insider’s Account of the January 6 Insurrection and the Future of Right-Wing Extremism, which was recently released by IG Publishing. Farnam resigned from her position at the U.S. Capitol Police in June 2023, after the agency threatened legal action to prevent her from publishing and threatened to refer the matter to law enforcement.

Farnam told Raw Story she met Lamond at a holiday party in December 2020. They had planned to get together on Jan. 7, but wound up going on their first date after President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021. The Capitol Police knew about the relationship, she said, adding that Lamond “never said anything that would make me think there was anything unlawful going on.”

The day Lamond was suspended from the Metropolitan Police Department, Farnam said she went to the FBI and turned over all of her emails with him.

Farnam said she expects that Loudermilk’s committee will use the relationship to try to undermine her credibility.

She said she doesn’t know if the Democratic members of the committee will be present for her interview.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), the ranking member, and Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), the only other Democrat on the panel, could not be reached for comment.

Although she plans to cooperate with the committee, Farnam said she intends to “answer them as narrowly as possible.”

“I don’t want to speak to them,” she said. “I’m being forced to speak to them. I’m not going to offer any more information than the specific answer to the question.”

Rep. Paul Gosar: I’m off the hook in January 6 probe

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) exclusively told Raw Story he’s no longer under a subpoena in Arizona’s state-level probe of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“They withdrew my subpoena,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Raw Story while walking back to his office at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

While Gosar reports being in the clear in the investigation into the state’s 2020 fake elector scheme, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) says he can’t discuss his own subpoena.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

“In Arizona it is illegal to talk about that. I cannot talk about that under Arizona law,” Biggs told Raw Story on Wednesday.

Last week, Politico first reported that Gosar and Biggs were issued subpoenas by the grand jury empaneled by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. Mayes is expected to drop indictments any day now.

Gosar alerted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of the subpoena back in February, but it remains unclear when or why his was withdrawn.

Gosar’s office didn’t respond to a request for details from Raw Story, and a spokesperson for Arizona’s attorney’s general office said they aren’t allowed to discuss grand juries.

Gosar has previously called January 6, 2021, rioters “peaceful patriots,” said the Capitol Police “executed” Ashli Babbitt as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby that day. He’s also called for a “January 6th Truth and Reconciliation Committee to investigate the members of the original January 6th Committee.”

ALSO READ: MAGA congressional candidate: Michelle Obama might be a man, bring back Aunt Jemima

In the aftermath of now-President Joe Biden winning the 2020 election, Gosar reportedly pushed then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) to investigate the state’s Dominion Voting Systems machines.

“The thing about it is, now I have done nothing at all wrong,” Gosar told Raw Story.

But Gosar, a dentist by trade who’s serving his seventh term in Congress, says he’s clueless as to why his subpoena was withdrawn.

“I have no idea,” Gosar said. “I’m not an attorney.”

For his part, Biggs reportedly called then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and pressured him to support the effort to decertify Arizona’s electors, as Bowers publicly told the Jan. 6 committee.

While he’s maintained his innocence, Biggs says he can’t discuss the grand jury inquiry.

And Biggs tells Raw Story he’s also in the dark as to why Gosar’s subpoena was withdrawn.

“I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Biggs said.

“But they haven’t done that with you?” Raw Story asked.

“I can’t talk about that,” Biggs said.

“I don’t want you going to jail!” Raw Story quipped.

“Sure you do,” Biggs laughed.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says J6ers didn’t carry weapons. Here’s how wrong he is.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a statement on Friday “to clarify his views” on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — after getting dinged for a fundraising email describing defendants as “activists” who were “stripped of their Constitutional liberties.”

But in doing so, the candidate only dug himself deeper into a hole full of whoppers, particularly the patently false claim that the rioters “carried no weapons.”

ALSO READ: Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war

“I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection,” Kennedy said. “They observe that the protestors carried no weapons, had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government, and that Trump himself had urged them to protest ‘peacefully.’”

Kennedy’s statement about weapons is categorically false.

Update, 6:49 p.m. April 5: Kennedy has formally retracted his statement about Jan. 6 attackers not carrying weapons.

Extensive reporting by Raw Story and a slew of other media organizations, coupled with investigations by numerous government agencies and the U.S. House select committee on the January 6 attack, together provide overwhelming evidence of multiple J6ers carrying multiple kinds of deadly weapons, from handguns to swords to hatchets.

ALSO READ: Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police

In only the most recent of many examples, John Emanuel Banuelos was arrested last month and charged with discharging a firearm outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Guy Reffitt, the first Jan. 6 defendant to go to trial, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for attempting to storm the Capitol while armed with a gun.

Christopher Alberts is likewise serving a seven-year sentence for charging at police with a wooden pallet while armed with a handgun.

Mark Mazza, another rioter, brought two firearms loaded with shotgun shells and hollow-point bullets to the Capitol, and lost one of them at the Capitol. He is serving a five-year sentence.

ALSO READ: Racism, arrests, extreme MAGA love: Meet Lauren Boebert’s primary opponents

The latest update on the Jan. 6 investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia references 122 defendants charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon and 129 individuals who are charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury while assaulting officers at the Capitol.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves reported during a press conference earlier this year that investigations found scores of rioters came to the Capitol armed.

“The evidence has established,” Graves said, “that the following weapons were present at the Capitol on the grounds: firearms, [pepper] spray, Tasers, edged weapons, including a sword, axes, hatchets and knives, makeshift weapons, including destroyed office furniture, baseball bats, a hockey stick, flagpoles and knuckle gloves, and finally police equipment, some of which they stole from officers, others they brought with them because they were law enforcement officers themselves.”

ALSO READ: Who will Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hurt more in Election 2024? History has an answer.

And if one isn’t inclined to believe Graves, there are numerous videos and photographs taken during the Jan. 6 attack that clearly show rioters brandishing and using all manner of weapons.

Not only did the rioters bring weapons with them when they stormed the Capitol, they brought them to the Ellipse for the rally headlined earlier in the day by then-President Donald Trump, according to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Trump expressed anger that event security personnel weren’t letting people through magnetometers with weapons, Hutchinson testified under oath in 2022 before the now-defunct House Select January 6th Committee.

“I don’t f----g care that they have weapons,” Trump said, according to Hutchinson. “They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-----g mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let my people in. Take the f-----g mags away.”

The Kennedy campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment from Raw Story.

This Capitol Police officer has a new mission

WASHINGTON — After protecting – and studying – lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol for the past 15 years, Harry Dunn turned his service revolver over to the Capitol Police at the end of 2023.

He then entered the 2024 race to represent residents of Maryland’s 3rd congressional district, which curls through the suburbs south and west of Baltimore, as a Democrat.

Dunn found his life upended during the 2021 Capitol insurrection as he protected then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staffers from militia group the Oath Keepers and other violent attackers.

ALSO READ: 0-for-1,668: Senators extend their streak of never punishing other senators

In the three years since the Capitol attack, Dunn has made it his mission to raise the alarm about what he sees as the greatest threat to American democracy: former President Donald Trump.

He offered gripping testimony about the day to the U.S. House’s select January 6 committee.

“I was distressed, I was angry, and I was scared," Dunn testified to the select committee in 2022. "During the event, it was just about surviving."

He also became a New York Times bestselling author with his book “Standing my Ground.”

In this Raw Story exclusive, Dunn discusses more than his newfound ambitions as a politician – “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant.” He also pulls the veil back on how his fellow officers reacted to his accidental activism and what he views as the hypocrisy of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago,” Dunn told Raw Story.

ALSO READ: Anti-abortion Florida congresswoman dumps husband’s stem cell stock amid gov lawsuit

The distinguished former Capitol Police officer also discussed his personal interactions with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other lawmakers – “a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there” – including House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has supported imprisoned Jan. 6 attackers and seems to be auditioning to get the vice-presidential nod from Trump.

Raw Story’s conversation with Dunn is lightly edited for length and clarity:

Raw Story: “So now you are running…”

Harry Dunn: “I know. What the hell am I thinking, right?”

RS: “Exactly! You’ve looked at all these politicians from the other side and, to now to be running — how's that change feel?”

HD: “Maybe ‘inspire’ is the right word. I've been up close and personal with them every day of my life for the last 15-plus years, and I feel like I see what they're doing and I'd say, ‘I could do it a little better’ – or not necessarily better but different or more effective. I've watched them. I've heard the things that they said, specifically the MAGA faction of the Republican Party that has kind of downplayed everything since January 6. Now, obviously, Jan. 6 was the catalyst that brought me to this point, but I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things.”

RS: “Even before we jump into January 6, just seeing lawmakers every day, you kind of get a takeaway, like, ‘oh, wait, they're just humans.’”

HD: “I love that part of it, man. Because that's what public servants, to me, are supposed to be: just people – average people that aren't on a pedestal. But my job is to give a voice to the members of the community that I represent, and that's what your job is as an elected official. Your job is to represent those people, and you should be an everyday American because that's what the government should be made up of.”

RS: “Now to get to January 6, especially this year with the anniversary, it just had a different feeling at the Capitol, almost like it never happened.”

HD: “Because that's what Donald Trump wanted. Everything that Donald Trump has said — slowly but surely it starts trickling down into Congress. Everything that Donald Trump has said they are saying – ‘they’ meaning the subordinates of him in Congress parroting his talking points – and that's not how Congress is supposed to work.”

RS: “You'd expect it more – I'd expect it more from someone like MTG – but how is it watching…”

HD: “Do I expect more? At the Capitol, we would see these individuals every day so maybe we expect more from the position that they hold but not necessarily the person. Like, I don't expect more from Donald Trump, I expect more from the presidency. And that's how I was able to do my job. I was able to separate that, the institution of Congress – I marvel at it; I respect it – but a lot of the people that are holding those seats shouldn't be there.”

RS: “I've been with MTG to the D.C. jail for her to advocate for J6 prisoners, and it's been a part of her rhetoric. But now to hear Elise Stefanik – who’s been in Republican leadership – say, ‘January 6 hostages,’ that's new.”

HD: “So what is Elise Stefanik right now? She’s vying for a VP nod, right? So it's anything to stay in Trump's graces. We've seen it all the way from the beginning of January 6 with Kevin McCarthy when later that night he went on the floor and condemned Donald Trump. Few days later, he’s down at Mar-a-Lago changing his tune, right? [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, same thing with him. Elise Stefanik. The list goes on and on and on. He has that much of a hold over the people that it's dangerous and very counterproductive in Congress.”

RS: “We see Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party, how would it be serving with those folks?”

HD: “The same way it was for me protecting them. This isn't just something that I'll have to get used to being able to see them and say ‘hi’ to them every day. I did that January 7^th – the day we went back after the attack at the Capitol, because I revere the institution. I hold it in high regard. I think the world of it, and I expect great things to come from Congress. The fact that we haven't been able to doesn't mean that we shouldn't still strive to get greatness out of it.”

RS: “Have you been surprised watching the rhetoric of MTG and that faction trickle into the leadership?”

HD: “I'm disappointed. I'm not surprised, because Donald Trump has this stranglehold over these individuals. It's very important to acknowledge, though, what Congress is supposed to do. I believe in it, and maybe that's crazy on me for believing in something that hasn't functioned well for a long time.”

RS: “How important is this election just for the legacy of January 6, because it feels very tied to Donald Trump and his future?”

HD: “It's very important, not necessarily for the legacy of it, so to speak. I refuse – win or lose this election – to let the story of January 6 and the narrative go in any other direction than the truth. Hell, that's been my mission since I started speaking out three years ago. But I think what this election will show is how important the threats to free and fair elections are and holding on to our democracy is to people. Donald Trump said it himself that [he] wants to be a dictator on day one. He said that. So I think what the election will show is how many people think that what we have now is worth preserving and worth fighting for it.”

RS: “When you were on the force, what was the reaction from Capitol Police brass – but then your fellow officers – to you speaking out?”

HD: “That was tough to navigate, because Capitol Police officers aren't allowed to give press conferences or speak to the media. So when I spoke, I was speaking as a citizen. I wasn't representing Capitol Police. So it was difficult to navigate, because those things are tied together – the Capitol Police and January 6 – so I was in a tough bind. I never went rogue or anything like that. I was respectful to the department. I said, ‘Listen, this is what I want to do. I'm not here to bash the department. I'm here to get the people responsible and hold them accountable.’ Period. There were a couple head bumps about me speaking out. I respect the Capitol Police leadership, and they were great. And obviously, when you talk about frontline — my co-workers — a lot of them were indifferent. A lot supported me, and said, ‘keep going.’ And there were a few that hated it – you know, ‘I'm making it about me’ – which kind of sucks, but it’s expected. If you look, the FOP [Fraternal Order of Police], the last few times Donald Trump ran, they endorsed him, so there's a lot of police officers that support Donald Trump, even after January 6. So I expected all types of mixed reactions. But I know what I'm doing, I'm standing up for what I believe in.”

RS: “What do you make of seeing law enforcement come around Trump or, more so, seeing Republicans still try to wear the mantle of law enforcement when they threw y'all literally under the bus?”

HD: “Does that make me dislike Donald Trump more or does that make me have to face the sad reality of what our country is? I don't think that necessarily makes me hate Donald Trump even more, I think it makes me have an awakening to, ‘hey, this faction exists, and it's not a small faction – it's a large population of people.’ We have to figure out how to navigate that, because they're here and clearly aren't going anywhere.”

RS: “When it comes to the lead up of January 6, have your questions been answered? For one, on congressional leaders – Pelosi and [Sen. Mitch] McConnell — for the pre-planning. But then also the agencies. Are you sure we can’t have a repeat?”

HD: “I don't believe in any conspiracy that McConnell or Pelosi wanted to see the Capitol attacked. I don't believe that at all. I believe in incompetence, versus it was a setup or some s— like that. Somebody dropped the ball, and they need to be held accountable. I don't know where that is, but somebody did. But I don't believe it was the leadership. I think they trusted people that they put in positions to answer for those things, and those people need to be held accountable.”

RS: “Seeing groups like Moms for Liberty take root on the right, are you worried about — maybe January 6 not repeating itself in a physical assault but them kind of taking root at the local level and trying to really take control of the reins of democracy at voting stations, etc.?”

HD: “We have to realize this faction – this chokehold that Donald Trump has – it's not just limited to members of Congress. It's triggered all the way down to local school board elections, like Moms for Liberty. And that's why it's so important to have truth tellers, individuals that really understand what is at stake right now. Obviously, we all want, in the long run, the same things, but I don't think that a lot of people realize the dire situation and how urgently we need to fight for it right now. Because it is a clear and present threat right now and we have to take it seriously. I left my job early. Meaning, I was there 15-plus years, four years short of being able to collect a full pension, because it's that important to me. It can't wait.”

RS: “How's that been going? Because it's hard for me to think of you as a politician, but, I guess, technically on paper, you are.”

HD: “Don't think of me as one! I’m a public servant. You saw me at the Capitol every day. You saw me interacting with people, ‘how can I help you?’ My job was to help people, and that's what I did. I've been doing that for the last 15 years of my adult life, and that won't change.”

RS: “But now you gotta dial for dollars and stuff like that. How's the campaigning?”

HD: “That sucks. I hate asking people for stuff. It’s difficult, but it's necessary. It's not like I'm raising money and putting it in my pocket. It’s for messaging, and I want to reach as many people as I can. Obviously, to win the election, but, the bigger picture, to educate and inform people of what is at stake right now.”

RS: “I'm from Chicago, which is very much like Baltimore, you got these old political machines. How's it been navigating Maryland Democratic politics?”

HD: “It's a lot to learn, but I've cared about politics, so it's not like, ‘who is the lieutenant governor?’ I'm engaged. Before I'm a candidate, before I'm a police officer, I'm a proud citizen of Maryland – and I have been my whole life – who wants to see the people and the state thrive. So running for office or not, that is always how I felt. But being a player now, so to speak, I don't want to lose the essence of who I am, which is a public servant.”

RS: “You obviously get a lot of focus from January 6, but what are the other things you're running on that you think – especially coming from law enforcement – that you can really bring to the table?”

HD: “Since you said it, let’s talk about that, law enforcement and police reform. There's been a long time where Cory Booker and Tim Scott, two black senators, were working together to create a bill to address police reform of criminal justice reform. They were unable to come to an agreement through a consensus, so the talks stalled and now it's just tabled. But the change can't wait … I've been very vocal about mental health. I think we need to reallocate funding to fight the war on mental health right now and the stigma that is associated with it. We all are struggling in some capacity every single day, and we need to make accessibility to mental health way more accessible … Lower health care costs. Obviously, I agree with the majority of the Democratic principles: the woman's right to choose, common sense gun reform. That's the stuff that I agree on, and those issues fall under the umbrella of democracy to me, because, you know, if Trump is elected back into the White House, do those issues even matter? They’ll be gone just like that.”

RS: “You have a presence, and it's usually a smiley, happy presence at the Capitol, but knowing that you were one of our boys in blue but then if you're wearing a suit and wearing that congressional pin, what signal would that send to the MTGs, the Matt Gaetzes, the Boeberts, the people trying to whitewash January 6^th?”

HD: “That I can't be dismissed. It's easy to dismiss me when I was an officer, right? As just some ‘angry liberal plant,’ right? It's easy to dismiss me as that. But actually, I'm your colleague, now, I'm your equal. You can't dismiss me. You have to listen. I can bring an issue to the table and force it to be addressed.”

RS: “What would the lawmakers tell you like, personally off the record, post January 6?”

HD: “Well, the ones that I got to talk to, the ones who would dare talk to me about it – and that’s how bad it was – a lot of those members aren't in Congress anymore. That’s just a symptom of being a truth teller in a Donald Trump Congress, so to speak. It sucks. It’s unfortunate. But you mentioned MTG, I mean, she was a very friendly person. When I saw her on the Hill, she would always wave. She would always say hello. I don't know if she knew who I was, but she would always say hello. So I don't have anything bad to say about her about that.”

RS: “You get that southern nice but then it seems like some of those policies are very harmful but then they're cloaked in this smile. Like, does that worry you?”

HD: “I think it's disingenuous – smiling without even having your pulse on what's going on.”

Man lit on fire near U.S. Capitol, police seek help identifying suspect

A search was underway in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for a suspect police say lit another man on fire about a mile away from the U.S. Capitol building.

The incident unfolded Monday in broad daylight, around 3:05 p.m., according to a press release from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.

The victim was sitting at a bus stop at the intersection of North Capitol Street and P Street Northwest, not far from the National Mall, when he was approached by a man who doused him with liquid, NBC Washington reported. “The suspect then ignited the liquid,” authorities said. “The suspect then ran off.”

New Jan. 6 video shows U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls in tense Capitol standoff

This article was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

WASHINGTON — New, harrowing video of the Jan. 6 insurrection features U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls in the House chamber, flanked by a Capitol security guard aiming his pistol at rioters on the other side of a door trying to break through.

The video was released Friday by the Justice Department after a request by NBC News ahead of the third anniversary of the deadly riot. The Richmond Republican is seen shouting through shattered window panes.

ALSO READ: Telemarketing ‘scam PAC’ tycoon bemoans his ‘inconceivable’ jail conditions

“I’ve been in law enforcement in Texas for 30 years, and I’ve never had people act this way,” Nehls said to the rioters. “I’m ashamed!” Nehls was wearing a mask with a Texas flag, as masks were mandatory in the chambers at the time.

“We’re coming in one way or another,” a rioter in the video says.

In the midst of the attack, Nehls posted on social media a picture of himself helping barricade the door as he condemned the violence.

“What I’m witnessing is a disgrace. We’re better than this. Violence is NEVER the answer,” he wrote.

But in the two years since, Nehls — who did not respond to request for comment — has downplayed the significance of the historic attack and defended many of the rioters who have since been prosecuted. He has remained a staunch apologist for former President Donald Trump, parroting false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“I was at the doors on January 6, face to face with protestors, and I know firsthand there was NO INSURRECTION,” Nehls posted on social media in October.

Nehls has denied that Trump bears any responsibility for the attack, asserting instead that it was a failure of U.S. Capitol Police to prevent rioters from entering the building. He has blasted a House investigation into Trump’s role in inciting the attack as partisan and plans to defend the former president in a case disqualifying Trump from the 2024 ballot for his role on Jan. 6.

Nehls has also offered qualified defense of many of the rioters in the months after the attack. He said Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who died after being shot by Capitol Police, was murdered and demanded an investigation into USCP’s role in her death. He told Texas Monthly in 2022 that “a majority of the people in the Capitol that day had no intention to turn into criminals or insurrectionists.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, protesters, seeking to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, stormed the Capitol after rallying with Trump blocks away from the building. For weeks, Trump had spread misinformation that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. During the rally that day, Trump told attendees: "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."

Trump’s critics argue the sentence is a smoking gun, showing Trump knowingly incited a riot. His defenders, however, point out that he called on rally attendees to go to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.”

The House impeached Trump for his role in the attack, with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in the move. No Texas Republicans voted for impeachment. Almost all voted to object to the election results just after the Capitol attack, including Nehls.

Trump is currently under criminal indictment for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the attack on the Capitol. His actions led to the Colorado Supreme Court deeming him ineligible for the presidency under the 14th Amendment, which bars from office those who “engaged in insurrection” after taking an oath to protect the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court plans to rule on the state court’s decision.

Nehls has spoken publicly about his efforts to stop the rioters that day, joining with fellow Texas Republicans Pat Fallon, Ronny Jackson and Tony Gonzales to hold the doors shut with Capitol Police. He posted on social media at the time that he was “proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Capitol police barricading entrance to our sacred House chamber, while trying to calm the situation talking to protestors.”

But he also lambasted the House committee investigating the attack as a “weapon against President Trump” and blamed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not securing the Capitol. He urged the committee to instead “investigate the negligent leadership of the Capitol Police.”

Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had nominated Nehls to serve on the committee, but pulled his Republican choices from the panel after Pelosi objected to two of them. Nehls was not one of the Republican members Pelosi opposed, but he became an outspoken critic of the committee’s work afterward.

Nehls wrote a book about Jan. 6, claiming the election and impeachment were rigged to damage Trump. Trump said in a review that the book was “Must Read for All Americans.”

Nehls’ support for Trump goes beyond many House Republicans. He often goes out of his way to praise the former president and herald him as the “leader of our party.” During the fraught search for a new House Speaker following McCarthy’s October ouster, Nehls proposed Trump as the only person who could unified the fractured party and become speaker.

“Donald Trump can do things that are impossible and turn them into reality,” Nehls said in October during the speaker election.

Disclosure: Texas Monthly has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.