anton lunyk
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3662107-riggleman-at-center-of-new-jan-6-controversy/">https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/3662107-riggleman-at-center-of-new-jan-6-controversy</a>/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><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"><b>Riggleman at center of new Jan. 6 controversy</b></font></font></font></font></div><div>BY MYCHAEL SCHNELL AND REBECCA BEITSCH - 09/27/22</div><div>
</div><div>Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), who previously worked as an adviser to the Jan. 6 select committee, is at the center of a new controversy engulfing the panel after he dropped a bombshell revelation while promoting his forthcoming book. </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” teasing his book, Riggleman said someone at the White House placed a late-afternoon call to a Capitol rioter while the attack was still underway.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“You get a real ‘aha!’ moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone while it’s happening,</span>” he told Bill Whitaker of “60 Minutes.”</div><div>
</div><div>Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) speaks during House debates regarding articles of impeachment against former President Trump following Trump’s actions leading up to and during the Capitol riot.</div><div>
</div><div>The revelation about the committee’s largely-private investigation drew swift pushback from committee members, who are downplaying Riggleman’s knowledge of the panel’s operation and brushing away the significance of the call.</div><div>It was an unwelcome distraction just days ahead of what may be the committee’s final public hearing on Wednesday, when panel members will seek to wrap up their case against former President Trump and his allies weeks before the midterm elections.</div><div>
</div><div>“I don’t know what Mr. Riggleman is doing, really,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the Jan. 6 committee, told CNN during an interview Sunday when asked if he is a credible source when it comes to Jan. 6, 2021.</div><div>
</div><div><b>“I only saw him a few times when he was on the staff, and he did leave. He said he was going off to help Afghanistan refugees. So, you know, he does not know what happened after April, and a lot has happened in our investigation,” she said.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The California Democrat noted that all matters Riggleman brought up before his departure were looked into but “in some cases didn’t really [pan] out.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>“I will say this, that everything that he was able to relay prior to his departure has been followed up on and in some cases didn’t really [pan] out, or there might have been a decision that suggested that there was a connection between one number or one email and a person that turned out not to pan out,” Lofgren said. “So, we follow up on everything.”</div><div>
</div><div>Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who also sits on the Jan. 6 panel, tried to trivialize Riggleman’s claims about the call during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. </div><div>
</div><div>“Well, that’s one of thousands of details that obviously the committee is aware of,” Raskin said of the reported White House rioter call.</div><div>
</div><div><b>“I can’t say anything specific about that particular call, but we are aware of it. </b>And we are aware of lots of contacts between the people in the White House and different people that were involved obviously in the coup attempt and the insurrection. And that’s really what all of our hearings have been about,” he said after being pressed on the matter.</div><div>
</div><div>Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has been a leading figure among the Jan. 6 House committee investigating the Capitol riot.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CNN has since identified the rioter as Anton Lunyk, a 26-year-old Trump supporter. The Brooklyn native pleaded guilty to a charge associated with the Capitol riot and was sentenced to 12 months of probation. The call reportedly came after he and two friends left the Capitol. </span></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>But the individual who placed the call from the White House, shortly after Trump told his supporters to go home at 4:17 p.m., remains unknown. Call logs show the publicly available number for the White House without the relevant extension....</b></div></div>