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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">arrested, 1st to cooperate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see stone</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ex 1st amend praetorian</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">th</font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">e trial of several&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-proud-boys-trial/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">members of the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Proud Boys</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">on&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/proud-boys-trial-2659566418/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">seditious conspiracy charges</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;was thrown into chaos this week after it was revealed that a witness the defense planned to call served as a government informant.</span></font><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-capitol-riot-informant-ce0a1cf20c17c95b1ea3306fb70d93c4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Associated Press reports</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;that Carmen Hernandez, a lawyer for former Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl, called for an emergency hearing after prosecutors informed her that one of her planned witnesses was a "confidential human source" for federal law enforcement officials.</span></font></p><div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="6339868799" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; display: block;" /></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She alleges that prosecutors sat on this information for months and did not spring it on her until Wednesday....</font></span></p></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/michael-flynn-associate-first-wave/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/michael-flynn-associate-first-wave/</a></font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">close associate of retired Lt. General Michael Flynn was among the first wave of rioters who breached the outer barricades at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021</span>, Raw Story has confirmed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Brian Gamble, a US Navy veteran and QAnon promoter&nbsp;</b>who now serves as chief information officer of a nonprofit led by Flynn, showed up at the barricades erected at the entrance to the Northwest Walkway about 30 minutes before a crowd that included hundreds of Proud Boys massed there and eventually overwhelmed police lines. Gamble’s presence has been described in podcasts by&nbsp;<b>Tim Hart, a fellow QAnon promoter who accompanied Gamble on Jan. 6 and is currently facing two felony charges related to his involvement in the attack on the Capitol.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Publicly available video&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/wIFpSg-6HIc?t=909" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">shows</a>&nbsp;Gamble, who was dressed in a black helmet inscribed with the words “Kill the Deep State”, a black tactical shirt and black gloves while carrying a bullhorn and chest-mounted GoPro camera, at the front of the line when three successive barriers were breached, allowing rioters to stream onto the Capitol lawn. Gamble and Hart made their way to the Lower West Plaza, where rioters battled police in riot gear, and eventually rushed up a staircase in the scaffolding erected for Joe Biden’s inauguration.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock.com CEO who has financed a string of election-denier efforts while working alongside Flynn since 2020, told Raw Story that Gamble disclosed his presence at the Capitol when he hired him at the America Project in May 2021. The America Project was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/patrick-byrne-and-joe-flynns-the-america-project-announces-key-hire-301521004.html" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">founded</a>&nbsp;by Byrne, along with Michael Flynn and his younger brother, Joe Flynn.</font></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“On the morning of January 6, Brian decided on this approach: He would walk towards the Capitol until someone told him to stop,” Byrne said in a text to Raw Story. “When someone told him to leave, he would leave. And in between the two, he would do to [sic] keep everyone calm, assist anyone who needed it. And if an opportunity arose to assist the police in keeping things peaceful, he would do so. He followed that plan.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hart said in an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.blogtalkradio.com/bards-logic-political-talk/2022/03/24/red-pill-roadshow-host-incarcerated-for-january-6th-tim-hart" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">interview</a>&nbsp;with the QAnon program Bards Logic earlier this year that the sound was bad at the Ellipse, where President Trump was speaking, and he suggested to Gamble, whom he referred to as “my buddy,” that they should “just walk down to the Capitol” so they could “be the first in line.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hart has described his movements with Gamble on Jan. 6 on different podcasts, along with an interview for Patriot Soap Box, a QAnon-friendly program, that he joined live after he and Gamble returned to their hotel room following the attack on the Capitol.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There was three gates; this is the first one that — basically, me and Brian stayed there for half an hour and just chilled and talked,” Hart explained on the program while showing video footage he recorded. “And then a lot of people got up in there. And then they basically just pushed from behind and we were, uh, I mean, like literally bowling pins and just kind of pushing the gates down. And it wasn’t like I was trying. I was talking to the people, the guards there, and they knew we weren’t the ones pushing.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hart was playing Trump’s speech on a portable radio, and the timing of Trump’s remarks confirms that Hart and Gamble were at the barrier at 12:28 p.m. — roughly 30 minutes before the initial breach.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the interview, Hart suggested that he and&nbsp;<b>Gamble assessed the barricades at the Northwest Walkway for vulnerabilities.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble can be seen in the background of the video as Hart turns to him and says, “They weren’t very prepared, were they? We were like, ‘Man, that looks like a weak spot there.’ We would say it to ourselves, and then it wasn’t two minutes later that they’re — I don’t know."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gamble told Raw Story he was not familiar with the video, and declined to directly address Hart’s statement.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s a shame that people like you are more about division and not unity, and so that’s all I’ve got to say,” he said before hanging up the phone.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While falsely claiming that nothing was destroyed in the Capitol building, Hart said in the Patriot Soapbox interview: “After the results I seen that the bastards did tonight I’m thinking maybe they should have burned it down. Then they could have at least held the vote off.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble can be seen in the video directly behind Hart as he made the statement.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another segment of Hart’s interview, an unidentified woman said she wanted to get someone to read from the Book of Esther, a text&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/15/purim-esther-christian-jewish/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">embraced</a>&nbsp;by Christian nationalists.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Esther’s a really good book to read for things in times like this,” the woman said. “Remember, Haman was hung on his own gallows.”</font></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m thinking what they do in times like this is — I’m thinking them patriots that got pepper-sprayed in the face are going back and being like, ‘Damn, I need to clean my guns,’” Hart responded. “I mean, I don’t understand what the other options are after this. We’ll sit back and wait a little bit longer. But this whole Q thing was to keep patriots from storming the freaking White House.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Byrne said Gamble disclosed to him during his job interview that he had been interviewed by federal investigators, adding that “they let him know that the videos of his behavior had all been examined and it had been broadly noted that he had acted as a good citizen.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Online researchers who began poring over video footage of the Jan. 6 attack identified Gamble as early as April 2021. Hart was charged with obstruction of justice/Congress and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, along with four additional charges connected to his actions inside the Capitol building, in June 2021, but Gamble has not been arrested. The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about Gamble from Raw Story.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In an&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/E8yYKYvwiL4?t=693" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">interview</a>&nbsp;with the Firearms of America YouTube channel shortly after he joined the America Project,&nbsp;</b>Gamble disclosed that he had been fired from his job because of the FBI investigation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You know, the FBI contacted my employer,” Gamble told host Frank Valentine. “What do you do? They contact your employer, and say, ‘Although he’s not under investigation or being charged with anything — yet… we just want to let you know, be aware of this person’s extracurricular activities. Which, technically, is code for saying he hangs out with General Flynn. I mean, General Flynn is the most crucified politician.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After briefly serving as Trump’s national security advisor, Flynn&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/823893821/trump-pardons-michael-flynn-who-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russia-contact" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">pleaded guilty</a>&nbsp;to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. The Department of Justice later moved to drop its prosecution of the case, and in November 2020 — during the interim period between the 2020 election and Biden’s inauguration — President Trump issued a pardon to Flynn.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn emerged as one of the most visible champions of Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, simultaneously leveraging his past military service and martyr status as a supposed target of the “Deep State.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the eve of the attack on the Capitol, Flynn addressed supporters at Freedom Plaza, using language that invoked struggle and suggested a historic inflection point was at hand.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Tomorrow, tomorrow — trust me — the American people that are standing on the soil that we are standing on tonight, and they’re going to be standing on this soil tomorrow — this is soil that we have fought over, fought for, and that we will fight for in the future,” Flynn&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=158296129077930" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>. “The members of Congress, the members of the House of Representatives, the members of the United States Senate, those of you who are feeling weak tonight, those of you who don’t have the moral fiber in your body, get some tonight because tomorrow we the people are going to be here and we want you to know that we will not stand for a lie.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gamble is not the only associate of Michael Flynn who has been identified as being at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Publicly available&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByGh0w1DFQ&t=1608s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">video</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;shows</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Geoffrey Flohr, a former Michigan State Police officer who previously served in Flynn’s security detail during a rally on Dec. 12, moving around the&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">east side&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">of the Capitol</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;less than 20 minutes before rioters broke through a barricade there.&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Flohr was a member of 1st Amendment Praetorian,&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">a volunteer security group that provided protected details to&nbsp;<b>Flynn, Ali Alexander, Brandon Straka&nbsp;</b>and other leaders in the effort to overturn the election.<b>&nbsp;No member of 1st Amendment Praetorian, including Flohr, has been arrested in connection with the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6. But a lawyer for the group has&nbsp;</b></span><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/1st-amendment-praetorian-2657737554/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><b>disclosed</b></a><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;that</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> Joshua James, a member of the Oath Keepers who has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy, had been a member of 1st Amendment Praetorian&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">prior to Jan. 6.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During his appearance before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Flynn&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyg60yZhdy0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">asserted</a>&nbsp;his Fifth Amendment privilege to not give testimony that could be used against him a criminal proceeding when asked by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.): “Do you believe the violence on January 6th was justified?”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a public statement released earlier this year in response to the committee, Flynn said it was "a flat-out lie that I had anything to do with any person or organization who intended to act, or who acted, unlawfully on January 6."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During a pro-Trump event in Fort Myers, Fla. in July 2021, Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=134166328840636&paipv=0&eav=AfacEZ4ows_Kzt1xddr9SWbA5ZvxPnP5W7AbzOp-a5WKJvQvVBu_qVOFRBwQku1eKHs&rdr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>&nbsp;he received a phone call from “Flynn” shortly after he was fired from his job. Gamble did not specify whether the call was from Michael Flynn or Joe Flynn, but said the caller put him in touch with Byrne, who interviewed him for the position and ultimately hired him.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gamble appears to have come to the Flynn family’s attention after organizing the first Red Pill Roadshow event with his wife at the Washington Monument in September 2019</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/E8yYKYvwiL4?t=90" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>&nbsp;his wife asked him to help her put together the event to create a forum QAnon supporters to meet in person after some of her favorite influencers were “censored.”&nbsp;<b>Afterwards, they celebrated the success of the event at the Trump International Hotel,</b>&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gamble said he ran into Brad Parscale, the digital media director for the Trump campaign.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/E8yYKYvwiL4?t=407" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">told</a>&nbsp;Valentine that he attended at a book-signing event for Sidney Powell, who represented Flynn in his effort to get his federal charge dismissed. Gamble said he handed a “Magic Q-ball” — a novelty item he marketed to defray costs for Red Pill Roadshow — to Powell and asked her to pass it on to Michael Flynn.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Suddenly, Gamble recounted, he felt two hands on his shoulders and turned around to find a man saying, “Red Pill Roadshow? The Flynn family are huge fans of yours.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During an Aug. 20, 2020&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/958231/5073434" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">interview</a>&nbsp;with QAnon influencer Dustin Nemos to promote an upcoming event in Jacksonville, Fla. that was timed to coincide with the Republican National Convention, Gamble said that he had spoken with a member of the Flynn family earlier that day. Gamble said the topic of the call was about Michael Flynn potentially joining the event remotely or the family providing a pre-recorded statement.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite providing a platform for QAnon influencers and marketing QAnon-themed merchandise, Gamble tends to downplay his association with the conspiracy theory. He told Valentine that his wife “was following” the QAnon movement at the time of the first event in 2019, adding, “I don’t agree with what their beliefs are, but I know that they’re Americans and what they’re saying is protected by our First Amendment.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of Gamble’s statements in response to coverage of his Red Pill Roadshow events follow a three-part pattern of denying and deflecting attention from his association with QAnon, emphasizing free speech, and attacking the news media.</font></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Responding to coverage by a local NBC affiliate about Michael Flynn’s appearance at an event in southwest Florida in March 2021, Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://flvoicenews.com/no-a-qanon-event-is-not-coming-to-fort-myers-media-twists-continue/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">told</a>&nbsp;a conservative outlet: “To say we’re a QAnon event or anything like that — nothing could be further from the truth. We’re free speech event.” He went on to condemn media coverage of the event as “the typical scare tactic used against our events to try and suppress opposing political views in the public domain.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Gamble’s criticism dovetails with Flynn’s efforts to discredit the news media</b>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn ended an interview with an Associated Press reporter in February 2022 after she asked him if he communicated with his brother, Gen. Charles Flynn, on Jan. 6.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Because of this interview, I will never talk to AP again,” Flynn&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/iHqohI-ZNhY?t=268" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>. He added, “I’m so sick of this because it’s all so fake and it’s so targeted. It’s all about, ‘We’re gonna get this guy.’”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble told Nemos that he developed a disdain for the news media while serving in the US Navy in the Balkans in the late 1990s.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a 19-year-old service member with Cosmic Top Secret clearance — giving him access to sensitive information held by NATO allies — Gamble said he would review “message traffic,” and then “come out of my tent” and “see a CNN correspondent saying something that has absolutely nothing to do with the truth.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“My field is information, so yeah, I’ve been a digital soldier — I’ve been a thorn in their side since the nineties, so a digital soldier for some time,” Gamble added. “So, yeah, that’s how I got into this.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was in the US Navy, Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=134166328840636&paipv=0&eav=AfacEZ4ows_Kzt1xddr9SWbA5ZvxPnP5W7AbzOp-a5WKJvQvVBu_qVOFRBwQku1eKHs&rdr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">told</a>&nbsp;an audience in Fort Myers in July 2021, that he received training in psychological operations.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“And I was rushed into this program to where I started learning about information warfare, psychological operations and information analysis and stuff like that,” he said. “So, I had a unique perspective about how the United States military processes information.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheFloridaConservative/videos/430489515047787" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">interview</a>&nbsp;with Michael Thompson at the Florida Conservative, Gamble said he was discharged from the military under a reduction of forces program during the Clinton administration. After leaving the military, he said he created Yahoo online chat rooms.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Like, we were Alex Jones in the late nineties on the internet, before it was cool, I guess you could say,” Gamble said.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble’s training in psychological operations mirrors his boss, Michael Flynn’s background in military intelligence. Flynn served as director of intelligence in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prior to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dia.mil/About/History/Directors-of-DIA/LTG-Michael-T-Flynn-USA/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">heading</a>&nbsp;the US Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“America Project — we are information experts,”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Gamble told Thompson. “That is one of the reasons I landed there with my background.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The America Project is described on its website as “the largest support network of America First, pro-freedom organizations, businesses and individuals,” with six focus areas in “election integrity, medical freedom, border security, parental rights, Second Amendment rights and freedom of religion.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Discussing the nonprofits’ work with Thompson, Gamble described it as a “counterbalance” to liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros, a bogeyman of the far right.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re developing the systems, the platforms, the networks,” Gamble said. “Now, when a bus shows up, we got two buses showing up — and the information and organization and the funding that takes to really counter what they’re doing.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gamble has cultivated ties with two extremist groups that featured prominently in the attack on the Capitol. His name is listed on a membership roster of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers that was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/report/oath-keepers-data-leak-unmasking-extremism-public-life" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">leaked</a>&nbsp;through the group Distributed Denial of Secrets last year. The entry for Gamble indicates that he paid an annual membership, but does not include a date for the transaction. Raw Story was able to reach Gamble by calling the phone number listed in the Oath Keepers membership roster.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Five members of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, are currently on trial in Washington, DC for seditious conspiracy in connection with their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>More recently, in July 2021, Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=134166328840636&paipv=0&eav=AfacEZ4ows_Kzt1xddr9SWbA5ZvxPnP5W7AbzOp-a5WKJvQvVBu_qVOFRBwQku1eKHs&rdr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">disclosed</a>&nbsp;that he had met with Enrique Tarrio</b>, at one time the national chairman of the Proud Boys. Tarrio was arrested seven months later, in March 2022, and is also charged with seditious conspiracy, along with four other Proud Boys leaders. In July, Gamble posted a photo on Facebook of himself and Tarrio giving the middle finger to the camera. The text accompanying the photo reads, “Dear Christopher Wray,” apparently addressing the FBI director</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">after Gamble and Hart joined the group of rioters that pushed through the barricades at the Northwest Walkway entrance on Jan. 6, they followed them to the Lower West Plaza.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jan6attack.com/videos/a/aRWTR7sk7i90/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Video</a>&nbsp;posted on Parler on Jan. 6 shows Gamble and Hart standing on a small staircase surveying the plaza as at least a half-dozen Proud Boys and known associates move in and out of a crowd massed against a line of Capitol police in riot gear.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At 1:10 p.m., Gamble can be seen speaking to a police officer at the top of the stairs as Hart uses a telescoping rod to obtain crowd footage. Gamble can also be seen using his GoPro camera to film the crowd. Meanwhile, a Proud Boy from southwest Florida named James Hoel can be seen coming up the staircase, eventually moving past Hart and Gamble, and speaking with the same officer.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is unclear whether Gamble and Hoel — both residents of southwest Florida — knew each other at the time, but Hoel has subsequently become infamous as the Proud Boy who was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5vdgy/a-proud-boy-and-michael-flynn-were-elected-to-a-republican-executive-committee-in-florida" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">elected</a>&nbsp;alongside Michael Flynn to serve on the Sarasota County Republican Executive Committee</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roughly around the same time that Hoel was speaking with the officer another man can be seen in the video and wedged himself between Hart and Gamble.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What are you waiting for?” he yells, becoming increasingly incensed. “We already voted, and what have they done? They stole it. We want our f*ing country back.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the same time, Gamble can be seen speaking to Hart, and Hart soon turns towards the crowd on the plaza and starts motioning with his hand.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Let’s go!” yells the man on the staircase and others. “Come on.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We gotta go lawfully, man,” and unidentified man can be heard arguing. “Legally and lawfully.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the video shows others prevailing over the man who counseled respect for the law. The video shows a handful of rioters, including Ronald Loehrke, a man who marched with the Proud Boys, pointing towards the scaffolding where the rioters had found a lightly guarded staircase. The rioters began pointing towards the staircase and yelling, “<b>We gotta go,” within 20 seconds of Hart’s hand gesture</b>. They would soon rush up the staircase, eventually allowing them to reach a window that Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola broke out with a stolen police riot shield.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although there is no evidence Gamble went inside the Capitol, images&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jan6attack.com/individuals/qbullhornguy/index.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">captured</a>&nbsp;by professional photographers and videographers show that he donned a gas mask and went up on the scaffolding.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Byrne told Raw Story that Gamble assisted the police on the Lower West Plaza and on a couple other occasions.</font></span></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They did not have enough men to cover an area they were trying to cover,” Byrne said. “He offered the policeman in front of them that if they wanted him to, he would step up and block this one space that they did not have blocked. They agreed to his cooperation, and he actually stood up at one point at the end of the police line for the police, making sure that no one could squeeze through this crack that was open on the side of the planter. The police thanked him.”</font></span></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.joemygod.com/2022/09/oath-keepers-lawyer-arrested-on-conspiracy-charges/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.joemygod.com/2022/09/oath-keepers-lawyer-arrested-on-conspiracy-charges/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Washington Post</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/01/oathkeepers-attorney-sorelle-arrested-jan6/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;">reports</a>:</font></span></p><blockquote style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 18px; outline: none; list-style: none; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 4px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-image: initial; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An attorney for the Oath Keepers who was with the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested Thursday in Texas on charges related to the attack on Congress, federal prosecutors announced.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 18px; outline: none; list-style: none; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 4px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-image: initial; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kellye SoRelle, 43, was arrested in Junction, Tex., and is scheduled to make an initial appearance Thursday afternoon before a federal judge in Austin, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Washington.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 18px; outline: none; list-style: none; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 4px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-image: initial; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">SoRelle was charged in an indictment returned Wednesday on four counts — conspiracy, obstruction of a federal proceeding, tampering with documents and misdemeanor trespassing in a restricted building or grounds — prosecutors said.</font></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;">Read the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/01/oathkeepers-attorney-sorelle-arrested-jan6/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;">full article</a>.&nbsp;</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: none; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 28px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">SoRelle last appeared on JMG in January 2022 when she&nbsp;<a href="https://www.joemygod.com/2022/01/lawyer-claims-shes-now-in-charge-of-oath-keepers/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;">declared herself</a>&nbsp;to be the new leader of the Oath Keepers after the arrest of Stewart Rhodes.&nbsp;</span><b>SoRelle is a failed candidate for the Texas House,&nbsp;<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Kellye_SoRelle" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; list-style: none; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;">finishing third</a>&nbsp;in the 2020 GOP primary.</b></span></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://lawandcrime.com/jan-6-committee/jan-6-committee-says-donald-trumps-will-be-wild-tweet-followed-craziest-meeting-of-his-presidency-and-electrified-extremists/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://lawandcrime.com/jan-6-committee/jan-6-committee-says-donald-trumps-will-be-wild-tweet-followed-craziest-meeting-of-his-presidency-and-electrified-extremists/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jan. 6 Committee Says Donald Trump’s ‘Will Be Wild’ Tweet Followed ‘Craziest Meeting’ of His Presidency and ‘Electrified’ Extremists</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADAM KLASFELD</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jul 12th, 2022,&nbsp;</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jan. 6 Committee — "will be wild" tweets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 12: Messages on Twitter appear on a video screen above members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol during the seventh hearing on the January 6th investigation in the Cannon House Office Building on July 12, 2022 in Washington, DC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the early morning hours of Dec. 19, former President Donald Trump fired off a tweet of a only dozen words, but congressional investigators say the extremists who overran the U.S. Capitol weeks later viewed it immediately as a “call to arms.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As anticipated, the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol focused its hearing on Trump’s ties to the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and QAnon conspiracy theorists. In that tweet on Dec. 19, Trump exhorted his followers to gather in Washington, D.C. on the day that a joint session of Congress had planned to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the election.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump wrote. “Be there, will be wild!”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a committee member who served as the lead prosecutor at Trump’s second impeachment, said that the&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“will be wild” tweet followed what he called the “craziest meeting of the Trump presidency.” Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his would-be special counsel Sidney Powell, and staunch loyalist Gen. Michael Flynn presented him with a plan to seize the voting machines.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In depositions, participants in that meeting described as “unhinged” and involved shouting and expletive-laden exchanges</b>.[flynn offered to fistfight wall hanging lawyer?]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">During that meeting<b>, Trump also indicated that he wanted to appoint Powell, a conspiracy theorist behind a string of failed “Kraken” lawsuits, as special counsel and empower her to criminally prosecute people in relation to the 2020 presidential election.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who reportedly testified behind closed doors for more than eight hours on Friday, said in a videotaped deposition that he “vehemently opposed” the idea. He recounted seeing former&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne there and didn’t recognize him. (Byrne resigned from the company in 2019, following revelations of his affair with Russian agent Maria Butina.) The idea was rejected after midnight, and Giuliani recounted branding opponents of the plan as “pussies.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump fired off his tweet at 1:42 a.m. Eastern Time.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The post “electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially dangerous extremists like the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government,” Raskin noted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Justice Department’s prosecution of the Oath Keepers showed how the group’s Florida chapter leader viewed the post.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying,” Kelly Meggs allegedly wrote in a Facebook post some three days after that tweet, according to an indictment released a little more than a month after the attack.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) said flatly: “This tweet served as a call to action, and in some cases as a call to arms, for many of President Trump’s most loyal supporters.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The committee also highlighted ties between militia members and Trump ally Roger Stone, who used Oath Keepers members as bodyguards before Jan. 6.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Prosecutors have not charged Stone with any crimes related to the attack on the Capitol, but multiple Oath Keepers who guarded him — Robert Minuta and Joshua James — are being prosecuted in the seditious conspiracy indictment</span>. James became the first Oath Keepers member in that case to cooperate with the Justice Department’s investigation. Brian Ulrich, from the extremist group’s Georgia chapter, followed. The federal judges presiding over the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys seditious conspiracy cases “reluctantly” agreed to delay both trials until later in the year, after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the committee’s investigation required an adjournment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least three Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy have pleaded guilty to date, one of whom told prosecutors that he heard the group’s leader Stewart Rhodes try to reach Trump through an intermediary on the day of the attack.&nbsp;<b>William Todd Wilson, now cooperating fully with the government, s</b>aid in a statement of offense that he overheard the conversation with the intermediary during a meeting with fellow Oath Keepers members inside a private suite of D.C.’s Phoenix Hotel around 5 p.m. Eastern Time.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Wilson heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power,”&nbsp;</b>prosecutor summarized in a statement signed by Wilson. “This individual denied Rhodes’s request to speak directly with President Trump. After the call ended, Rhodes stated to the group, ‘I just want to fight.'”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shortly before the hearing, a now-incarcerated Rhodes offered through his attorney to testify before the committee — under certain conditions. Rhodes demanded to testify inside the U.S. Capitol, rather than from jail. He also wanted to be accompanied by his lawyer and speak to Congress live. The committee’s aides declined to comment on whether they have discussed the offer with Rhodes’s counsel.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee’s live witnesses typically speak to the lawmakers first behind closed doors.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">some lnx</font></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice Department’s prosecution of the Oath Keepers showed how the group’s Florida chapter leader viewed the post.</font></span></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; background: none rgb(254, 254, 254); max-width: 585px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying,”&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none;">Kelly Meggs</strong>&nbsp;allegedly wrote in a Facebook post some three days after that tweet, according to an indictment released a little more than a month after the attack.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; background: none rgb(254, 254, 254); max-width: 585px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep.&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none;">Stephanie Murphy</strong>&nbsp;(D-Fla.) said flatly: “This tweet served as a call to action, and in some cases as a call to arms, for many of President Trump’s most loyal supporters.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; background: none rgb(254, 254, 254); max-width: 585px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee also highlighted ties between militia members and Trump ally&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none;">Roger Stone</strong>, who used&nbsp;<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/roger-stones-guards-charged-in-an-indictment-detailing-a-golf-cart-caper-calls-to-oath-keepers-founder/" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(33, 54, 77); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Oath Keepers members</a>&nbsp;as bodyguards before Jan. 6.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; max-width: 585px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Prosecutors have not charged Stone with any crimes related to the attack on the Capitol, but multiple Oath Keepers who guarded him —&nbsp;</span><strong style="background: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Robert Minuta</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><strong style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Joshua James</strong>&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">— are being prosecuted in the seditious conspiracy indictment. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">James became the first Oath Keepers member in that case to&nbsp;<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/oath-keepers-member-pleads-guilty-to-seditious-conspiracy-and-obstruction-in-jan-6-capitol-attack-will-fully-cooperate-with-feds/" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(33, 54, 77); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">cooperate</a>&nbsp;with the Justice Department’s investigation.&nbsp;<strong style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Brian Ulrich</strong>, from the extremist group’s Georgia chapter,&nbsp;<a href="https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/if-theres-a-civil-war-then-theres-a-civil-war-second-defendant-in-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy-case-against-members-of-the-oath-keepers-pleads-guilty/" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(33, 54, 77); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">followed</a>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);"> The federal judges presiding over the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys seditious conspiracy cases “reluctantly” agreed to delay&nbsp;</span><a href="https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/federal-judge-reluctantly-agrees-to-delay-oath-keepers-trial-until-at-least-november/" style="background: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(33, 54, 77); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">both</a><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/judge-reluctantly-agrees-to-postpone-proud-boys-trial-after-they-featured-prominently-in-primetime-jan-6-committee-hearing/" style="background: none; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(33, 54, 77); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">trials</a><span style="background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">&nbsp;until later in the year, after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the committee’s investigation required an adjournment.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; background: none rgb(254, 254, 254); max-width: 585px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least three Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy have pleaded guilty to date, one of whom told prosecutors that he heard the group’s leader&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none;">Stewart Rhodes&nbsp;</strong>try to reach Trump through an intermediary on the day of the attack.&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: none;">William Todd Wilson</strong>, now cooperating fully with the government, said in a statement of offense that he overheard the conversation with the intermediary during a meeting with fellow Oath Keepers members inside a private suite of D.C.’s Phoenix Hotel around 5 p.m. Eastern Time....</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.75; vertical-align: baseline; 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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/23/donald-trump-lawsuit-lord-of-the-rings-gondor-election</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">guk</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">donald Trump’s diehard supporters are often accused of living in fantasyland, but one court case recently launched to try to reinstall him as president has surprised even the most hardened observers of Trumpian strangeness by citing as evidence a mythological realm from The Lord of the Rings.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The case was launched in Texas, in the name of small conservative groups including Latinos for Trump and Blacks for Trump, and was filed by Paul Davis, an attorney who lost his job after posting Instagram videos of himself at the attack on the Capitol.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The case offers a baseless mix of allegations of electoral fraud common among the Trump base and calls for the voiding of every vote cast in the election – which was won handily by now-President Joe Biden, who was sworn in this week.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But – unusually for a legal strategy – the case cites as evidence to back up its pro-Trump claims the tragic fate of the kingdom of Gondor, one of the central realms of JRR Tolkien’s fantasy classic, whose exiled ruler, Aragorn, was played onscreen by Viggo Mortensen.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Gondor has no king,” the lawsuit states, a footnote providing an explanation of the woeful fate of Tolkien’s entirely imaginary land populated by dragons, wizards, hobbits and elves, all threatened by a baleful Dark Lord backed up by an army of orcs and with famously little time for due democratic process.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The suit explains how Gondor’s throne was empty and its rightful kings in exile, presumably positing the idea that Trump is the true king of America – a land happily monarch-free since 1776.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This analogy is applicable since there is now in Washington DC a group of individuals calling themselves the president, vice-president and Congress who have no rightful claim to govern the American people,” the case states.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It adds: “Since only the rightful king could sit on the throne of Gondor, a steward was appointed to manage Gondor until the return of the King, known as ‘Aragorn’, occurred at the end of the story.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit then suggests that America’s version of the stewards of Gondor should be selected from among – surprise, surprise – Trump’s cabinet members, who should run the country.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Legal experts have taken a tough line.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“One thing that Americans learned during the post-election litigation is how little patience courts have for absurd legal arguments,” Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, told Salon in a thorough takedown of the case and its legal meri</b>ts.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This legal effort to declare Congress illegitimate will be laughed out of court and could lead to sanctions for the lawyer bringing such a claim.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[the new abnormal] TDB</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Capitol Riots</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oath Keepers Founder Secretly Backed Lawsuit for Government Based on ‘Lord of the Rings’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>TRICKSY HOBBITSES</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes are arguing their client stopped trying to overturn the election after Jan. 6. That’s not exactly true.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Roger Sollenberger</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Political Reporter</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Feb. 18, 2022 6:30AM ET / Published Feb. 18, 2022&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After the violent Capitol insurrection failed on Jan. 6, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes had another idea for overturning the election—a truly epic one.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While Rhodes’ lawyers have claimed the leader of the far-right militia group did “precisely nothing” after his insurrection dreams were dashed, new details obtained by The Daily Beast reveal that isn’t quite accurate.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to a source with inside knowledge of the case, just days after Jan. 6, Rhodes and multiple militia members joined a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Unfortunately for Rhodes and his compatriots, the lawsuit he signed on to was, in a word, “insane.” It went off the rails almost as soon as it hit the courts, with the lead attorney citing The Lord of the Rings as legal precedent.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Eventually, the case dissolved amid a sea of ridicule. But it didn’t start out that way.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The full scope of the Oath Keeper’s shadow legal effort, largely spearheaded by the group’s then-general counsel Kellye SoRelle, stretched back well before the riot, according to multiple people involved. In fact, it ran on a parallel track alongside the paramilitary-style buildup that has defined the militia’s role, and it roped in a number of key Jan. 6 figures along the way—including people tied to the Proud Boys and First Amendment Praetorians.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rick Hasen, a nationally recognized election law expert, told The Daily Beast that Rhodes’ connection to this lawsuit didn’t rate highly against other accusations—such as allegedly stockpiling weapons in preparation for a violent coup.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I don’t know the fact that he was one of many who joined this absurd lawsuit is all that significant compared to the other, more immediately dangerous things that he did,” Hasen said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But Rhodes, a Yale Law grad, appears to have been hands-on with the lawsuit from the beginning.</b>&nbsp;And the nexus represented in the legal push suggests that members of violent groups—with some such as Rhodes facing conspiracy charges—coordinated to overturn the election in more ways than one.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It also undermines assertions from Rhodes’ attorneys that the Oath Keepers founder discontinued his efforts to overturn the election after Jan. 6—a potentially important legal fact that could hurt Rhodes’ case as he tries to defend himself against “seditious conspiracy” charges.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Oath Keepers militia founder Stewart Rhodes poses during an interview session in Eureka, Montana, U.S. June 20, 2016.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Just days after the riot, a group gathered at a house in suburban Dallas to map out a legal path forward. According to a person with knowledge of the meeting, the crew included SoRelle, along with indicted Oath Keeper Joshua James, and<b>&nbsp;Texas attorney Paul Davis,&nbsp;</b>who said in a later court filing he had attended the Jan. 6 rallies to “collect evidence” on behalf of “one or more of the Plaintiffs.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(Davis later filed a lawsuit against this reporter, which was dismissed with prejudice.)</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Other parties to the lawsuit were in attendance, and Rhodes also showed up, the source said.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SoRelle, who had met with a number of right-wing figures ahead of the riot, was recruited after the election to test the waters for a possible legal remedy. When the violence of Jan. 6 failed, a plan went into action. And it was one that Rhodes himself endorsed.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The legal framework stemmed from a pre-riot plan devised by right-wing radio host Jerome Corsi—a former confidant of Roger Stone, who received an Oath Keeper protective detail on Jan. 5 and 6.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Corsi’s proposal hinged on “overwhelming” evidence and a warped understanding of the Help America Vote Act, leading him to declare all of Congress illegitimate and demand an election “redo.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Stewart Rhodes mugshot.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Collin County Sheriff's Office]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The plan was astronomically unrealistic on its face, but that didn’t stop Corsi from dubbing it the “invincible argument.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Still, on Jan. 5, the day before the riot, Rhodes slapped his name on Corsi’s road map. SoRelle, the Oath Keepers general counsel, signed as well. (An archived version with their signatures can be found here.)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Reached for comment, Corsi told The Daily Beast he was “retired from active politics and not giving interviews about the election.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The initial lawsuit that Davis and SoRelle put together hewed closely to Corsi’s path.&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">It sought to invalidate the 2020 election, declare Joe Biden’s victory “unlawful,” and dissolve Congress. D</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">avis took lead attorney, naming hundreds of defendants, including every member of Congress, all 50 governors and secretaries of state, Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</span></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>It somehow got weirder. In its most absurd iteration—with Davis, not SoRelle, at the helm—the lawsuit asked a federal judge to put the government into a receivership styled after the mythical kingdom of Gondor from The Lord of The Rings</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“During the course of the epic trilogy, the rightful King of Gondor had abandoned the throne,” the lawsuit explained. “Since only the rightful king could sit on the throne of Gondor, a steward was appointed to manage Gondor until the return of the King, known as ‘Aragorn,’ occurred at the end of the story.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If that legal explanation wasn’t convincing enough, the lawsuit continued: “This analogy is applicable since there is now in Washington, D.C., a group of individuals calling themselves the President, Vice President, and Congress who have no rightful claim to govern the American People.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Enrique Tarrio, Chairman of the Proud Boys, and Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, attend a meeting in a garage in Washington, U.S. in a still image taken from video January 5, 2021, the day before the January 6 riot.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Saboteur Media/Handout via REUTERS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The attorneys then ask the judge to “appoint a group of special masters” that they invented, called “Stewards,” to “check the power of the illegitimate President” until the matter is resolved through a jury trial.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Notably, the original complaint also asked the court to pre-emptively block the Department of Justice, the FBI, and any other federal agency from arresting both of the attorneys filing the case—as well as “any plaintiff or potential witness”—in connection to their attendance at the Jan. 6 riot.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As for those plaintiffs, many of them happened to figure prominently on Jan. 6.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One was Latinos for Trump, a group tied to Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio. The organization’s leader, <b>Bianca Gracia was also a “Gondor” plaintiff.</b> The day before the insurrection, she met with Rhodes, Tarrio, and SoRelle in a D.C. hotel parking garage.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The garage gang featured another Gondor plaintiff—Virginia resident Joshua Macias. Macias was one of two men arrested in Pennsylvania days after the 2020 election when, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, pistols, and a sword, he took a vehicle bearing QAnon propaganda across state lines to the Philadelphia convention center where ballots were being processed.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SoRelle claims that Gracia had invited her to the parking garage to meet Tarrio, and “share information about criminal defense attorneys,” according to Reuters. That same day, SoRelle, Rhodes, Gracia, and Macias all endorsed Corsi’s argument, as did another adviser on the lawsuit.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Most of Corsi’s signatories, however, went unnamed. Likewise, most Gondor plaintiffs were represented only by their initials. But according to a person with inside knowledge of the suit, that list included multiple Oath Keepers</b>.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two of them stand out: Elmer “Stewart” Rhodes (“E.R.,” a resident of Texas), and</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Joshua James (“J.J.,” of Alabama), an Oath Keeper and Roger Stone bodyguard.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>SoRelle has sought to distance both herself and the Oath Keepers from James, who was hit with conspiracy charges </b>last April for his alleged role in the Capitol attack.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b style="">James, SoRelle has claimed, was more closely tied to the First Amendment Praetorians, another far-right armed group</b>. The April indictment cites video footage showing that <b>James “assaulted multiple law enforcement officers after storming inside the building,” screaming, “Get out of my Capitol! This is my fucking building!”</b></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After Davis filed that motion, Rhodes encouraged state chapters to contribute to the case.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>A database of hacked Oath Keeper emails shows SoRelle outsourcing legal research around the country, with Rhodes’ blessing.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Stewart agreed to allow me to send out an email to all the chapters requesting assistance,” SoRelle wrote in a mass communication, one week after asking a federal judge to essentially break the government. She copied Rhodes on the email, using his personal gmail address.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The email also requested, among other things, “documentation for all 50 states regarding their orders/policy changes modifying their absentee ballot process, the use of drop boxes, voter registration changes and certification information for the machines used for elections.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We are required to provide additional information to the court by the 10th of February and I need 5 days to compile and draft,” SoRelle wrote. “If anyone is interested in assisting, please let me know. I would like to coordinate teams and divide up the states.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>On Feb. 10, Davis filed an amended complaint. It struck the Gondor proposal, but added Rhodes. Six days later, he filed a second amended complaint.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Feb. 19, team Gondor shattered under the pressure of competing legal strategies and vague “ethical issues.” <b>Davis withdrew as lead counsel, taking James but leaving SoRelle with Gracia</b>, Latinos for Trump, and Rhodes.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It would be Rhodes’ last legal hurrah for 11 months.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> He was arrested on Jan. 13, and along with fellow<b style="">&nbsp;Gondor alum Joshua James,</b>&nbsp;faces charges that could yield 20 years in jail.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Just this week, his attorney told the court that Rhodes still believes the election was “illegitimate.” And unlike many of the rioters who received the earliest charges and claimed ignorance, Rhodes is leaning into it.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“There’s plenty of public leaders that are still saying that on a regular basis,” his attorney said.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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