lamotta, antonio vets for T

<div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx pix</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> co-founder and an ambassador for the Vets for Trump group were arrested Friday in Philadelphia on weapons charges, according to District Attorney Larry Krasner.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Joshua Macias, 42, and Anthony LaMotta, 61, both of Chesapeake, Virginia, were taken into custody by Philadelphia Police</b> outside a polling place at the Convention Center on Friday night following a tip that “armed individuals in a silver Hummer were heading to Philadelphia, possibly for a reason related to the ongoing canvas of votes,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” Krasner said in a statement.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Police spotted the Hummer SUV with Virginia license plates left unattended at around 10:20 p.m. and located the two men about seven minutes later, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Both men were arrested after being found armed with handguns. They had concealed carry permits from Virginia, which are not recognized under Pennsylvania law.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Investigators also found an AR-15 style rifle with hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside the vehicle. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The silver Hummer was flying an American flag and had stickers and a hat on the dashboard promoting the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy movement, which believes the president is battling the “deep state” and a cabal of Democrats and billionaires who are Satan-worshipping pedophiles</b>. A 2019 FBI intelligence bulletin described QAnon as a domestic terrorism threat.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The men were charged with carrying a concealed firearm without a license, a felony, and carrying a firearm on public streets or public property, a misdemeanor.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This alarming incident is still very much under investigation regarding additional charges,” Krasner said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to The Washington Post: </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">People who know the men arrested in Philadelphia defended them Friday, suggesting they drove there to look at the scene and did not mean any harm. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Macias was a co-founder of the group Vets for Trump but left it several months ago t<b>o spend more time with his family, </b>Vlad Lemets, the group’s chairman and executive director, said i</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n an interview. Macias remained friendly with Lemets and others within the group, speaking to Lemets by phone Friday.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Macias and LaMotta went to Philadelphia intending to do surveillance and see what was going on, Lemets said. The woman in the car who was not arrested was Macias’s mother, he said. The men brought their guns because that is how they travel, Lemets said, adding that the pair believed they could legally carry their weapons and did not realize they would be violating local laws.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The arrest of the two men came as votes were still being counted in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election which was still too close to call on Friday evening. After days of vote-counting, the state went to Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday morning, giving him the 273 Electoral College votes needed to secure the presidency.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Macias co-founded the Vets for Trump group in 2016, a “grassroots MAGA movement” that claims to be the “largest vets for Trump resource online.” On Oct. 12, Macias posted about a QAnon conspiracy theory on his website alleging that Biden had orchestrated the murder of SEAL Team 6 to cover-up the “fake” death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, calling it the “best detailed analysis” he had seen.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Trump retweeted an article outlining the baseless conspiracy theory that same day.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘Vets for Trump’ co-founder arrested in Philadelphia on weapons charges</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">LaMotta, who is listed as a Vets for Trump ambassador, is a dedicated QAnon promoter, according to The Daily Beast, which reviewed social media posts on Facebook and Twitter from the man that were described as featuring some of the darkest and most anti-Semitic ideals of the baseless ‘Q’ conspiracy.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“QAnon is a positive military operation that is working to take down the deep state,” Lamotta wrote on Facebook.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A judge set bail for both men at $750,000 each. Their next court date is Nov. 23.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related: Meet the ‘Boogaloo boys,’ the violent extremists attracting members of the US military</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Paul Szoldra is the Editor in Chief of Task & Purpose. Since October 2018, he has led a talented team of writers, editors, and creators who produce military journalism reaching millions of readers each month. He also founded and edits Duffel Blog, an influential satirical newsletter for the military. Contact the author here.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/one-loud-voice-capitol-riot/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/one-loud-voice-capitol-riot/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">raw story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">o</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ne of the most crucial questions for both the FBI investigation into

the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and the House Select Committee

inquiry is the connection between President Trump and the militant

groups that carried out the attack.</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next hearing of the

January 6th Committee, scheduled for July 12 and led by Rep. Jamie

Raskin (D-Md.) and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/05/us/politics/jan-6-hearings.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">reportedly</a> “plans to detail known links and conversations between political actors close to Trump and extremists,” according to the <em>New York Times</em>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While

it is not clear what evidence the committee will present, a network of

operatives surrounding retired Lt. General Michael Flynn — an

inspirational figure for rank-and-file Trump supporters protesting the

outcome of the election — helped build an infrastructure for months in

advance that stoked anger, called on the president to invoke the

Insurrection Act, and amplified his call to supporters to be in

Washington for a “wild rally” on Jan. 6.</font></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the initiatives

that sprung up around Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor

who was seeking a pardon after the US Department of Justice dismissed

charges for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian

ambassador, was called Operation Voter Integrity.</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Felisa Blazek, a

New Hampshire-based event planner with ties to the QAnon community,

outlined plans for the initiative in an interview with Tamara Leigh, a

podcaster active in the campaign to vindicate Flynn, and Brent Hamachek,

the executive editor of the right-wing publication<b> Human Events.

</b>As Blazek described it, the project would deploy GOP activists to

monitor polling places for voter fraud, with pro-Trump groups standing

by to escalate complaints up through a network that she said would

ultimately reach the White House.</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two of the groups mentioned by Blazek, <span style="background-color: rgb(204, 102, 0);"><b>Veterans for Trump </b></span>and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Bikers for Trump,</b></span> would later show up at the Capitol on Jan. 6.</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blazek <a href="https://youtu.be/JXIncRyRcik?t=1725" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">described</a>

a <b>phone tree</b> in which one activist “would just call the head of your

state for Bikers for Trump.” She continued: “One phone call. They

dispatch 20 to 30 people to that precinct. Second phone call, you call

in<b> Veterans for Trump. </b>They dispatch 20 to 30 people. They just show

there and they just stand up, and they just let you know you’re not

alone. The police will come. If the police don’t come, they’re all

trained. We’re just standing by and letting you know that we know.”</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blazek could not be reached for comment for this story.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Two

days after the election, Veterans for Trump co-founder Joshua Macias

and an associate, Antonio LaMotta</span>, were arrested on weapons charges

outside the Philadelphia Convention Center, where election officials

were tabulating votes.</b> Local police made the arrests after receiving an

FBI alert about a possible attempt to interfere with the vote count,

according to the <a href="https://phillyda.org/news/dao-election-task-force-files-motion-to-revoke-bail-on-joshua-macias/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Philadelphia District Attorney’s office</a>.

The police reportedly recovered a semi-automatic<b> AR-15-syle assault

rifle, samurai sword and hundreds of firearms cartridges from the Hummer

t</b>hat the two men drove from Virginia.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Macias and LaMotta could not be reached for comment for this story.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the time, some Democratic officials and voting rights groups <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/trump-election-poll-watchers.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">condemned</a>

President Trump’s instruction to supporters to “go into the polls and

watch very carefully,” saying it amounted to voter intimidation, and the

Department of Homeland Security warned that polling places could be

“flash points for potential violence.”</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both Macias and Blazek were avid supporters of Flynn.</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two

years earlier, Macias had organized a rally to support Flynn outside

the DC federal courthouse</span> at the former general’s sentencing hearing,

where he stood alongside Tamara Leigh, according to a report in <em><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/12/right-wing-groups-michael-flynn-oathkeepers-bikers-for-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Mother Jones</a></em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">. Chris Cox, the founder of Bikers for Trump, also attended the protest to support Flynn.</span></font></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Blazek

had recently organized a two-day QAnon-friendly gathering called the

Patriot Party in Scottsdale, Ariz. that featured Barbara Redgate,

Flynn’s sister.</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During an interview to promote the event, Blazek had <a href="http://qcon.live/joe-stroh-aka-qanon-obiwan-interviews-brian-gamble-chris-jacobson-felisa-blazek/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">said</a>,

“We’re hoping to host General Flynn and his family as our honored

guests. If they would choose to speak, that would be great. But really,

we just want them to come there, and support them.” Blazek added that

the Flynn family was like “the tip of the spear in our movement.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David

Sumrall, a Dallas-based organizer who founded the right-wing group Stop

Hate, similarly extolled the Flynn family in an interview with Redgate

to promote the Patriot Party.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We want to make sure that General

Flynn’s getting a message of support and love and encouragement because

we have his back,” Sumrall <a href="https://www.pscp.tv/w/1BdGYnwnmdAJX" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">said</a>. “We understand what happened to him, and the whole fact that he’s willing to take one for the team.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Soon after Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Blazek and Sumrall, alongside<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Ali Alexander </span></b>and <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/america-restored/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Tomi Collins</a>, began organizing rallies across the country to protest the electoral outcome.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pasquali

“Pat” Scopelliti, a business coach based in Charlottesville, Va. and

frequent contributor on the PardonFlynnNow.com website, praised Blazek

and Macias together in a post-election thread on Twitter. Referring to

the two by their Twitter handles and using hashtags associated with

Blazek’s election mobilization effort and a parallel campaign led by

Alexander, Scopelliti <a href="https://twitter.com/ThyConsigliori/status/1324726387769548802" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">tweeted</a>:

“Both @PatriotAssembly and @JoshuaMacias are on the Field of Fight,

right now. I choose to support them, as should you./ #1LoudVoice/

#StopTheSteal.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The following day, Scopelliti issued another

Twitter thread, declaring that America was at “war,” with “voter fraud”

being the “ultimate weapon,” while speculating that “$1,000 bottles of

rice wine” were “being uncorked in Beijing.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There are three people I must mention,” Scopelliti <a href="https://twitter.com/ThyConsigliori/status/1325072226836680709" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">continued</a>,

recognizing <b>Sumrall, alongside Blazek and<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Macias</span>. “They are:

@HelpStopHate, @PatriotAssembly, @JoshuaMacias. </b>These three patriots

have known in their bones, the nature of this war. And they have joined

forces to lead the ground game of its fight.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scopelliti attached a

digital flier to the tweet with the heading “All 50 State Capitol

Buildings, #1LoudVoice, Truth Rally, 12:00 PM across the nation.” The

flier included URLs for nearly a dozen pro-Trump groups, including

Sumrall’s Stop Hate; Blazek’s Patriot Party; PardonFlynnNow.com; and <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">

Cowboys for Trump, led by Couy Griffin, who had attended the Patriot

Party event in Scottsdale. </span>Griffin would later be arrested for his role

in the attack on the Capitol, and found guilty of entering and remaining

in a restricted building.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Veterans for America First, the

successor organization to Veterans for Trump,</b> currently lists Scopelliti

as its community engagement advisor on the organization’s website.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite

being out on a $750,000 bail with pending firearms charges in

Philadelphia, Macias and LaMotta traveled to Washington, DC in early

January for a cluster of rallies culminating with President Trump’s

speech at the Ellipse.</span> Macias was present during a brief meeting between

Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder

Stewart Rhodes in an underground parking garage on Jan. 5, the eve of

the attack on the Capitol. Tarrio and Rhodes both face seditious

conspiracy charges in separate cases related to the attack on the

Capitol.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner noted the meeting during a press conference last month to announce a <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/philly-election-disruptor-joshua-macias-proud-boys-leaders-jan-6-insurrection/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">motion</a> to have Macias held for contempt of court due to his actions at the Capitol.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When

people are planning a bank robbery, when they are planning a mob hit,

they do not let uninvolved people come to that small private meeting,”

Krasner said. “When people are planning serious crimes, the only people

that are going to be there, especially when they’re trying to be

secretive, are people that are seriously involved.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Also present

at the parking garage meeting were Kelly SoRelle,</b> who now serves as

general counsel for the Oath Keepers, and Latinos for Trump President

Bianca Gracia.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Jan. 6, Blazek, Macias, LaMotta, Rhodes,

SoRelle, Gracia and members of a<b> Bikers for Trump faction known as Boots

on the Ground</b> gathered at the MAGA Freedom Rally in front of the

Russell Senate Office Building, a block away from the Capitol.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

an interview with Sumrall last fall, SoRelle said she went back to a

hotel room to eat and get warm, while Rhodes went to the Capitol. Rhodes

took up a position outside the Capitol, while more than a dozen Oath

Keepers members outfitted in tactical gear pushed through the crowd in a

stack and followed a mob into the building. SoRelle said in that

interview in September that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. In

January, Rhodes and 10 other members of the Oath Keepers were charged

with seditious conspiracy — a charge that amounts to attempting to

overthrow the government by force. Two of those charged have pleaded

guilty.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Stewart had guys that were protecting different speakers

at different events, namely Ali Alexander, who was supposed to have been

literally on the Capitol grounds,” SoRelle told Sumrall last September.

“Then everybody’s like, ‘Well, we don’t know where everybody’s at. This

is chaos. Like, what the heck?’ So, that’s why we ended up at the

Capitol. We went down there just to see if we could locate his people.

You know? And then next thing you take it straight to crazy la-la land,

as in everybody’s the mastermind, and whatever.”</font></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sumrall, who used social media to raise money to take a “team” to Washington, DC, concurred with SoRelle’s account.</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sumrall

said he told FBI agents: “Guys, listen: The plan was to get to DC.

That’s where it stopped. That’s where it stopped. You’re never going to

find anything where anybody says, ‘We’re going in the Capitol.’”</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sumrall’s voice can be heard in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJtolPeAvy0/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">video</a>

posted on Stop Hate’s Instagram account that was taken from the west

side of the Capitol. The post is accompanied by a text comment from the

account owner: “We’ve broken down the gates and made it onto the Capitol

grounds.”</font></span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJuA3JzAp0d/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">video</a>

on the Stop Hate Instagram account shows police in riot gear lined up

on the inauguration review stand and the terrace facing rioters, with

the caption, “#StormTheCapitol.”</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Macias and LaMotta also went to the Capitol.</b> Footage recently obtained by NBC News <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1545190492752723968" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">shows</a> LaMotta inside the Capitol. He has not been arrested to date.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With LaMotta standing nearby<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">, Macias addressed the crowd on the east side of the Capitol, </span>according to <a href="https://twitter.com/capitolhunters/status/1516778356976631813" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">video</a> archived by the <b>@capitolhunters Twitter </b>account.</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mike

Pence is a Benedict Arnold,” Macias roared. “We believed in you, Vice

President. We had hope that you would do what’s right for our

Constitution. I stood with you onstage, sir. We believed in you.</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“President

Trump, you have the ability to pass — if you have the strength, sir —

the Insurrection Act is now,” Macias continued. “You have the power,

sir, and we support you 110 percent. Do what’s right, sir…. Defend the

Constitution against foreign and domestic enemies. Those domestic

enemies are here. If you’re not awake, America, be awoke. The enemy is

not at the gates; the enemy is already here.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another person could be heard answering Macias with the<b> QAnon slogan: “Where we go one, we go all!”</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“That’s right!” Macias said. “One loud voice! We are one. We are united.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> I am <b>Josh Macias, Vets for Trump. </b></span>We will never quit.”</font></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div></div>