The District of Columbia police released photos of participants in the storming of the Capitol, which was preceded by a rally in support of Donald Trump. As you know, a reward of $ 1000 has already been promised for information about everyone who gets on the pictures. Meanwhile, the identities of some of the protesters have already been identified. We found out who were the people who took part in the seizure of the US Congress building.
Some of the participants in the riots, whose identities have been identified, have already lost their jobs. For example, one of the employees of Navistar Direct Marketing from Maryland participated in the storming of the Capitol without removing his work badge. The company said that they respect the right of employees to freedom of speech, but “behavior that poses a threat to the life and health of others is incompatible with further work in the company.”
Investigative journalists have identified a range of nationalist and far-right groups as well as conspiracy theorists, many of whom have previously been active in rallies in support of the incumbent United States president.
One of the most notable participants in the assault was a man in bright makeup, a helmet with horns and furs over his naked body, photos of which quickly spread on social networks. It turned out to be Jake Angeli, a well-known supporter of QAnon, a conspiracy theory about the world behind the scenes of pedophile Satanists. Its adherents believe that it is the current American leader Trump who is fighting Hollywood stars and government officials who are selling children and want to destroy the United States.
Angeli himself calls himself a “shaman”. In November 2020, it was he who made a speech about fraud in the presidential elections. The man’s Facebook page is filled with images and memes related to all sorts of conspiracy theories.
Meanwhile, Angeli was not the only representative of this conspiracy movement. Some of the protesters also wore “Q” symbols on their clothes.
During the storming of the Capitol, members of another far-right group, the Proud Boys, which emerged in 2016, were also spotted. She fights immigrants and leftist activists. It is noteworthy that only men are her supporters.
Earlier, two representatives of the “proud guys” were convicted of attacks on Antifa activists in New York, and the leader of the group on the eve of January 6 was banned from entering Washington.
A popular social media supporter of Donald Trump and far-right blogger Tim Gionet, known as Baked Alaska, also broadcast live from the Congress building. His live broadcast from the Capitol, hosted on a niche gaming platform, was watched by more than 16 thousand people. Some of them in the comments suggested hanging all members of Congress.
Last year, YouTube deleted his channel for videos in which he entered premises without a mask, contrary to the rules for preventing the spread of coronavirus, and refused to obey employees. For such actions, he received donations from his fans.
In the chair of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a resident of Arkansas, 60-year-old Trump supporter Richard Barnett, now known as the “Capitol rebel”, was photographed during the assault. An ordinary hard worker, an independent contractor who lost his livelihood during a pandemic. However, in April last year, he was lucky enough to get a loan of almost $ 9,500 under the Small Business Assistance Program. Then the American said that the loan “will help him keep one job,” presumably his own.
Barnett himself calls himself a “white nationalist”, is photographed with a firearm, and is also an adherent of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. Leaving the building of Congress, the man told The New York Times that he took the envelope from the speaker’s office and left her “an unpleasant note.”
“If you don’t like it, send someone for me, because I’m not going to give up easily,” he told reporters.
According to the local newspaper Westside Eagle Observer, a group affiliated with Barnett even held a fundraiser in October, and the proceeds went to buy body-worn video recorders for the local police department.
As the events unfolded, many social media users claimed that provocateurs from the far-left Antifa movement were involved. A number of prominent Republican politicians have argued that the riots began when a group of protesters “infiltrated” his activists, “disguised as supporters of Trump.”
At least one of the protesters held the Confederate flag, which many Americans see as a symbol of racism. Another came in a sweatshirt with “Camp Auschwitz” on the chest and Staff on the back – a reference to the concentration camp in which the Nazis killed over a million Jews.
