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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>‘1st Amendment’ Group Sues New York Times Over Unflattering Description</b></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>The paper described the group as pro-Trump, right-wing extremists. The group says it exists to protect people engaged in free speech — and wants massive damages over the paper's coverage</div><div>
</div><div>BY TIM DICKINSON</div><div>
</div><div>FEBRUARY 10, 2023</div><div>
</div><div>[Donald Trump supporters and QAnon believers rallied in front of the Supreme Court on December 12, 2020 and listened to retired general Mike Flynn who received a pardon by Trump. The crowd refused to accept the results of the Presidential election, marched and rallied in Washington DC, two days before the Electoral College meets to confirm the winner. The rally went through the National Mall, Freedom Plaza, and past the Capitol and White House. The crowd at this rally (many not wearing masks) was smaller than the one a month before, and attracted Proud Boys, members of America First, and militia members. The crowds also cheered for recently pardoned Michael Flynn, and watched a flyover of Trump flying in the Marine One helicopter.</div><div>
</div><div>Robert Patrick Lewis of 1st Amendment Praetorian, front right, accompanies retired general Mike Flynn in Washington, D.C., on December 12, 2020 MARK PETERSON/REDUX</div><div>ON THE STORMY evening of Jan. 5, 2021 on a stage at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C., Cindy Chafian warmed up the crowd. “Are you all pissed? Are you ready to fight back? Tomorrow we’re going to make history!” </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Chafian — a right-wing activist who helped organize D.C. rallies that preceded the insurrection of Jan. 6 — asked the crowd to give thanks to “people who often go unseen and unknown.” First, she gave “a huge shout out to Enrique and the Proud Boys.” Lamenting that the Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, couldn’t speak as planned, she led a rowdy chant of appreciation: “En-ri-que!” “En-ri-que!”</span></div><div>
</div><div>Chafian then introduced Robert Patrick Lewis, founder of a group called 1st Amendment Praetorian. More than two dozen 1AP members were serving as “demonstration marshalls” to “help maintain order among participants,” according to the rally’s permit. “These guys work vigilantly,” Chafian said. “You don’t see ’em. You don’t hear ’em. But know this. But when you guys are going back to your hotel tonight, they’re the ones who are integrated into crowds keeping you safe.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>Chafian put 1AP in notable — indeed, notorious — company: “Them, and the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters. All of those guys keep you safe. All of them. I’ll stand with them, because I’m tired of the Left telling us we can’t talk about them.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>The burly, bearded Lewis then strode onto center stage and gave Chaffian a hug, before turning to the cameras, and the crowd he greeted as “Patriots!.” Standing at the mic, Lewis spoke for 1AP, but didn’t linger on security logistics. Rather, he invoked 1776 and the American Revolution: “Not far from here, General George Washington — in weather just like this — loaded up a ragtag group of soldiers who crossed the Delaware River,” Lewis said, before shouting: “This is our Delaware!” </div><div>
</div><div>Warning of an “enemy at the gates,” Lewis continued: “This is our time… to make sure that we don’t cede this country and have my kids grow up in a communist hellhole.” The 1AP leader then fired up the crowd: “I need each of you to fight as hard as you can to ensure that that does not happen!”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two years later, the words and actions of Lewis and 1st Amendment Praetorian, and the group’s intersection with the events that culminated in the storming of the Capitol, are at the center of a $100 million legal battle between 1AP and the New York Times — over whether the group was defamed by articles that, 1AP claims, falsely painted it as an “extremist paramilitary group that played a central role in storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>The lawsuit against the Times, filed in early January, has not been reported previously. It denounces what 1AP calls the paper’s “egregious lies,” while denying that 1AP members “played any part in the attack.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>“Plaintiff seeks compensatory damages and punitive damages in the sum of $100,000,000.00,” the group writes in its suit.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The litigation is part of a pattern of high-dollar defamation suits brought by 1AP that are ostensibly attempting to clear its reputation. Seen in another light, the lawsuits present a vivid irony: They are filed by an organization that presents itself as a protector of first amendment rights, against parties who’ve leveraged their own freedom of the press to raise concerns about 1st Amendment Praetorian. </div><div>
</div><div>The court blitz complicates efforts to scrutinize 1AP, which the Jan. 6 Committee’s final report describes as a “paramilitary group,” and whose founder Lewis has touted the need for a “second American revolution.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Former General Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s recently pardoned national security adviser, departs a protest of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, led by 1AP’s Geoffrey ‘Yoda’ Flohr, outside the Supreme Court on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Thousands of protesters who refuse to accept that President-elect Joe Biden won the election are rallying ahead of the electoral college vote to make Trump’s 306-to-232 loss official. TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY IMAGES</div><div>The name 1st Amendment Praetorian is a play on the imperial Praetorian Guard that provided security to Roman emperors. 1AP was founded in 2020 by Lewis, a decorated former Green Beret, who has said that 1AP is composed of “military, law enforcement, and intelligence community veterans.” </div><div>
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</div><div><b>In legal documents, 1AP has described itself both as a “non-partisan” “civil liberties group” dedicated to the free expression of “every American,” and as a corporation founded to provide “pro bono security and protective services at grassroots events.” These documents depict a group that — though it provides protective security at political rallies — holds itself apart from the political fray.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Has 1AP been grievously misunderstood? Has this “civil rights” champion been unfairly judged by the company it kept? Was it out of bounds for the nation’s newspaper of record to write about 1AP in the context of Trump-aligned militant groups that stormed the Capitol?</div><div>
</div><div>The public record about 1AP is far from cut-and-dried. It reveals that government investigators had significant questions about 1AP’s activities in the buildup to, and the day of, Jan. 6. </div><div>
</div><div>In Nov. 2021, the House Jan. 6 Committee tweeted that it had issued subpoenas to “individuals and organizations linked to the violent attack on the Capitol,” including 1AP, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers:</div><div>
</div><div>BREAKING: The Select Committee subpoenas individuals and organizations linked to the violent attack on the Capitol:</div><div>
</div><div>• Proud Boys International, L.L.C.</div><div>• Henry “Enrique” Tarrio</div><div>• Oath Keepers</div><div>• Elmer Stewart Rhodes</div><div>• Robert Patrick Lewis/1st Amendment Praetorian</div><div>
</div><div>— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) November 23, 2021</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The subpoena letter to Lewis highlighted 1AP’s post-2020 election security work for “Stop the Steal” leader Ali Alexander, as well as for Trump loyalist Gen. Michael Flynn. “You have also claimed to be in contact with Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, prior to Jan. 6,” the Committee wrote. (Rhodes — who never set foot inside the Capitol — has since been convicted of seditious conspiracy, along with five other members of that militia.)</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The Jan 6. Committee then laid out a concerning fact pattern related to 1AP in the days leading up to the insurrection, writing: </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On January 4, 2021, the 1st Amendment Praetorian Twitter account suggested that violence was imminent: “There may be some young National Guard Captains facing some very, very tough choices in the next 48 hours. Pray with every fiber of your being that their choices are Wise, Just, and Fearless.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The subpoena indicated that 1AP didn’t just provide security at events — taking note of Lewis having been “listed as a speaker on a permit for the ‘Rally to Revival’” (This was the same Jan. 5 event where Lewis invoked Washinton’s pivotal 1776 river crossing.) </span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The subpoena quotes Lewis tweeting at 2:18 p.m. on Jan. 6 (during the attack on the Capitol): “Today is the day the true battles begin.” And it cites a tweet by the 1st Amendment Praetorian account two hours later: “The cost of Truth is Pain. The greater the Truth, the greater potential for pain!!”</span></div><div>
</div><div>In response to the Committee, Lewis’ attorney at the time sent a spirited letter, insisting that “the criminal conduct at the Capitol that day is antithetical to 1AP’s values,” adding: “To think that 1AP and its members played a role in the January 6 riot is absurd.” </div><div>
</div><div>The letter described 1AP members as “Civil Liberties Advocates” who seek to “secure the First Amendment rights of each and every American” whether they are “right, middle, left, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, politicians, public speakers, the media, etc.” </div><div>
</div><div>The lawyer insisted that on Jan. 6, “1AP’s activities consisted of providing personal security for a short period of time for a rally participan<b>t, but primarily in buttressing security for members of the main-stream media who were covering the rally at the Ellipse.” (This lawyer did not respond to an interview request.)</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Deposed by the Committee in mid-April 2022, Lewis had a forum to set the record straight, under oath. The transcript, released in December, reveals Lewis refused to answer the Committee’s questions, citing his constitutional first and fifth amendment rights, as well as objecting to House proces</b>s. Lewis rebuffed basic questions about 1AP, the provocative tweets included in the Committee subpoena, and his relationships with Ali Alexander, Alex Jones, Gen. Michael Flynn, Stewart Rhodes and others. </div><div>
</div><div>Perhaps the most intriguing question Lewis refused to answer? </div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Mr. Lewis, you’ve claimed to have driven Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn to the White House on December 18th, 2020. Were you involved in discussions with the White House regarding efforts to overturn the election?</span></div><div>
</div><div>In its final report, the Jan. 6 committee left myriad unanswered questions — including about 1AP. The report mentions 1AP only in passing, calling it a “paramilitary group” that coordinated with Rhodes on VIP security for Gen. Flynn at a <b>Dec. 2020 religious rally called the “Jericho March</b>.” </div><div>
</div><div><b>But a review of deposition transcripts the Committee released into the public record offers additional insight. The documents reveal that the Committee peppered witnesses, including Gen. Flynn, about whether 1AP members had entered the Capitol or communicated with those inside. </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The Committee heard testimony from<b> Dustin Stockton</b> — a Tea Party organizer and former colleague of Cindy Chafian — that he’d seen Chafian and her husband working in a suite with 1AP members on the eve of Jan. 6 in the Willard hotel. Stockton testified that the “Chafian and 1AP room” had “a very military feel,” elaborating: “There were maps and… what looked like military-type comms with people on the computers, and earpiece</span>.”</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The committee also heard testimony from Oath Keepers about 1AP. One alleged 1AP had a role in “orchestrating” Stop the Steal rallies in advance of Jan.6.<b> And two testified that 1AP members — though not Lewis himself — dined with Stewart Rhodes and a group of Oath Keepers at an Olive Garden in Northern Virginia on the night of Jan. 6, discussing the chaos at the Capitol. </b></span></div><div>
</div><div>One thing is for certain: By going on the legal offensive 1AP has differentiated itself from groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, whose leaders have had to mount defenses to charges up to and including “seditious conspiracy.”<b> By contrast its suit against the Times maintains, 1AP has been “thoroughly investigated by the FBI, and cleared of any wrongdoing.” (The Department of Justice would not discuss this claim.)</b></div><div>
</div><div>In its lawsuit against the Times, 1AP objects to four articles published last year. The suit decries what it calls the “<b>defamatory gist”</b> of the stories, claiming they inaccurately paint 1AP as “a right-wing paramilitary group, like high-profile extremist and far-right nationalist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, that was involved in President Donald Trump’s plot to interfere with the certification of the 2020 vote count and the attack on the Capitol.” </div><div>
</div><div>The litigation insists that 1AP is: “not a violent, dangerous, paramilitary, extremist group” adding that “1AP played no role whatsoever in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 and certainly did not storm the Capitol.” </div><div>
</div><div>As quoted by the suit, the articles were headlined:</div><div>
</div><div><b>“Another Far-Right Group</b> Is Scrutinized About Its Efforts to Aid Trump” </div><div>
</div><div>“New Focus on How a <b>Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups</b> Ahead of Jan. 6”</div><div>
</div><div>“Jan. 6 Panel Explores Links Between Trump Allies and <b>Extremist Groups”</b> </div><div>
</div><div>“Raskin Brings Expertise on Right-Wing <b>Extremism </b>to Jan. 6 Inquiry” </div><div>
</div><div><b>The suit quotes passages from the first article, dated Jan 3, 2022, that it describes as factual but “susceptible to a defamatory implication.”</b> They include: “the group had men on the ground outside the building on Jan. 6 and others at the Willard Hotel, near some of Mr. Trump’s chief allies.” And: “at least one of <b>Mr. Lewis’s lieutenants, Geoffrey Flohr,</b> a former Michigan police officer, was outside the building walking the grounds and talking on his cellphone just before the riot erupted.” (Flohr did not respond to an interview request.)</div><div>
</div><div>The suit takes particular umbrage with a passage stating that a member of “1AP posted on Twitter…claiming he was in an ‘overwatch position’ in Arlington County, Va., where prosecutors say the Oath Keepers had placed at a hotel an armed ‘quick reaction force’ that was prepared to move into Washington if needed.” </div><div>
</div><div><b>The lawsuit counters: “Members of 1AP were staying at a Holiday Inn in Arlington (7.5 miles away from the Capital) because of the favorable room rates.”</b> It insisted the that hotel had “no line of sight” to the Capitol, and that <b>1AP members “had no knowledge” of the Oath Keepers’ location or quick reaction force. </b>It argues that Times implied a “connection between 1AP and the activities of the Oath Keepers that was knowingly false and defamatory.”</div><div>
</div><div><b>The 1AP also claims,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> without providing evidence,</span> that the Times and reporter Alan Feuer were in league with the federal government:</b> “Upon information and belief, in pushing the ‘domestic violent extremism’ narrative, NYT and Feuer were acting upon instructions and at the direction of one or more government agencies, including the Federal Bureau Investigation (‘FBI’).”</div><div>
</div><div>A spokesperson for the Times defended its journalism to Rolling Stone, insisting: “We reported accurately and responsibly, and plan to vigorously defend against this suit.” Lewis did not respond to interview requests from Rolling Stone. Emails to the attorney who filed the litigation, seeking comment about the suit, as well as about Jan. 6 Committee records, were not returned.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The suit against the Times is the third in a string of multi-million-dollar federal defamation suits filed by 1AP.</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The group sued Substack journalist and Twitter personality Seth Abramson </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in federal court in April 2022 for $25 million. That lawsuit claims Abramson used his Twitter account to falsely imply that 1AP and top members were: “involved in the January 6 insurrection, committed Federal crimes… or otherwise engaged or participated in criminal, dishonest, deceptive, immoral, unethical, unprofessional or improper conduct.”</span> </div><div>
</div><div>The lawsuit insists that 1AP and its founder did not “aid and abet in insurrection or sedition.” The group further claims that “1AP never planned or schemed with Oath Keepers, Stop the Steal, 3 Percenters, or any other group.” <b>The suits insist of Lewis, “He did not run, enter or participate in the activities of any ‘war room.’”</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>In a filing that seeks to have the case dismissed, Abramson claimed his tweets about 1st Amendment Praetorian were “First Amendment protected speech.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>In October, 1AP also filed a $50 million lawsuit against former Rep. Denver Riggleman </b>and his publishers over a book the Republican authored about Jan. 6., The Breach. The litigation alleged Riggleman published “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">false statements, defamatory implications and insulting words,” adding that the “defamatory gist” was that “1AP participated in the attack on the United States Capitol…and otherwise engaged in coordinated acts of ‘domestic terrorism.’”</span> <b>(This lawsuit was “voluntarily dismissed” without explanation by 1AP in November.</b>)</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The lawsuits filed by 1AP assert that both the group and its founder have fallen on hard times. One claims Lewis is now “virtually unemployable,” despite a successful military career and an MBA degree, the adding that even security work for campaigns has dried up because misinformation about Jan. 6 has made “Lewis and 1AP toxic in the political world.“ </span></div><div>
</div><div>1st Amendment Praetorian, one suit alleges, in even worse shape. ”1AP is now basically insolvent,” it states, “and completely destroyed.”</div><div>
</div><div>The claim by 1st Amendment Praetorian lawyers that the group is above-the-political-fray does not square easily with the public record of rhetoric and activism of founder Robert Patrick Lewis, which grounds him firmly on the MAGA right. </div><div>
</div><div>From the beginning, 1AP launched with a pungent political perspective. In a Sept. 2020 tweet thread announcing the creation of 1AP,<b> Lewis railed against “Marxist & leftist politicians aiming to lock down total control” as well as “their tyrannical, Marxist subversive groups such as ANTIFA & BLM.” </b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lewis also inveighed against the <b>“corrupted Main Stream Media</b> [that] does their best to… destroy the lives of any public or private citizen who dares step up to them or fight back against their narrative.” He insisted of 1AP: “We’ve drawn our line in the sand, and we, as a group, are not going to take or allow it anymore</span>.” </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a similarly stark video — filmed in mid-November 2020, not long after Trump lost reelection — Lewis touted his work with “Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander, while warning viewers that<b> 1AP had been picking up “intelligence” about a looming “Antifa Tet Offensive,</b>” a reference to a surprise enemy attack during the Vietnam War</span>.  </div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lewis did not simply ask for crowdfunded donations so his group could keep the peace and ensure all parties could exercise their constitutional rights.<b> Rather, he gave a call to action to Trump supporters “to go to D.C. this weekend and participate in the Million MAGA March.</b>” In stark contrast to 1AP’s assertions of non-partisanship, Lewis exhorted: “This is the time…when every man and woman needs to choose a side.</span>”</div><div>
</div><div>In another politically charged video on Dec. 9, 2020, Lewis called Trump and Gen. Flynn his “personal heroes.” He added that Trump was “working towards the same goal as all of us — and that’s to Make America Great Again.”<b> He blasted domestic enemies and what he described as China “sock puppets” </b>whom he claimed had terrible aims: Namely, to make sure that “<b>election fraud goes unchecked” so that “our republic is allowed to be destroyed from within.” Lewis vowed: “That’s something we’re not gonna allow sitting down</b>.” </div><div>
</div><div>On Jan. 6, 1AP’s litigation insists, the group’s actions at the Ellipse were innocuous and focused on providing volunteer “personal security” — including to members of the press. One lawsuit describes how Lewis left Trump’s speech, “returned to his hotel room to change out of his suit, and <b>spent the rest of the day at the Willard Hotel</b>.” Citing the Lewis’ military record, that litigation insists: “the idea that Lewis…would participate in a coup to overthrow the United States Government” is “obviously preposterous.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But well after the events of Jan. 6, Lewis continued to preach a message of upheaval similar to the one he delivered on the rainy stage at Freedom Plaza. In a May 30, 2021 video titled: “You say you want a revolution?” <b>Lewis issued a call for a “second American revolution.” Lewis said he did not want it be “kinetic</b>” — i.e. a violent civil war. But he insisted “it’s either going to be total annihilation and we’re going to let this country fall and our kids will never know freedom,<b> or you take part in the revolution and we all band together and we all do what has to be done.”</b></span><b> </b></div><div>
</div><div>Lewis encouraged like-minded Americans to move as one: “There’s a lot of people that say… ‘they’ll arrest whoever goes first,’” but he added: “If we are all together, they aren’t enough jail cells in the country.”</div><div>
</div><div>---</div><div>ref blog</div><div>
</div><div><div class="data_row title FEwI7T 2a604l" style="color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="2qs3tf" data-e2e="doc_page_title" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 42px; color: rgb(0, 5, 20); margin: 0px 0px 8px; word-break: break-word; overflow: hidden; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; max-height: 3.8em;">Leslie McAdoo Gordon: Position Statement As To Subpoenas With Addendum</h1><div class="_3Simrm" style="min-height: 26px;" /></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_original_title data_row original_title inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 3.3px 0px 0px; display: inline;">Original Title:</h2><div style="display: inline;">Leslie McAdoo Gordon: Position Statement as to Subpoenas With Addendum</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_publisher data_row publish_info inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="heading" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(87, 97, 122); font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 3.3px 0px 0px; display: inline;">Uploaded by</h2><a href="https://www.scribd.com/user/274202084/The-Federalist" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(30, 123, 133); cursor: pointer; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out 0s; font-weight: 700;">The Federalist</a></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="visually_hidden" style="border: 0px; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute;"><h2 style="line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 3.3px 0px 0px; display: inline;">Description:</h2></span><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">A lawyer for 1st Amendment Praetorian, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting free speech rights, is slamming the January 6 Committee for its McCarthyite and anti-American tactic...</div></div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">
</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">---</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">ref 2</div></div><div class="auto__app_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">For THE WITNESS:

18 DAVID OLIVAS

19 Olivas Law PLLC

20 3300 Oak Lawn Ave.

21 Dallas, Texas 75219</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">
</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">simmons</div></div><div class="auto__app_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">From Indianapolis, Indiana. I'm 38 this year. Educational background, I

9 graduated from high school. Went to college for 2 years. And then I took some

10 courses, like some security course work. And I went to a -- a -- explosive school down in

11 Tennessee. I mean, other than that, like, I just -- I try to -- I try to take light courses to

12 further my career field.

13 Q And, when you say "security," is it like actual classic personal security type

14 stuff or like cybersecurity? What type of security are you taking classes for?

15 A Well, I do executive protection, but I was going to college for cybersecurity

16 stuff for 2 years, and then I went back into security work. triple canopy?</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">
</div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">...</div></div><div class="auto__app_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">this -- you know, it -- the chick getting shot. Mike calls a bunch of veterans to rise up

2 against what was going on in the government. You know, shit like that.

3 And then, you know, they were talking about other stuff that was going on around the country. Like, apparently, at the same time the Capitol got hit, some other State's  capitol got hit, same time, same kind of way, or something like that. And so they were

6 talking about how they might try to say it was an organized attack and stuff.

7 And, you know, again, Josh is sitting at t<b>he table with us. You know, Josh is kind

8 of quiet and reserved, but, you know, he's doing the Josh thing. You know, didn't

9 mention at all he went in the Capitol. Kelly's having phone conversations with people.

10 And, you know, just ate and left.

11 Q So you met with the 1AP guys that night at Olive Garden</b> eating?

12 A Yeah, we met -- it was a couple 1AP guys there.

13 </div></div><div class="auto__app_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;">Q What were they -- I guess, were they talking about that they had gone in the  Capitol? Or what were they talking about?

15 A No. They were just talking about, like, you know, how the veteran lady [ashli babbit]  getting shot might cause a spark amongst veterans against the stuff that was going on in  the country and stuff like that,<b> and a Black man</b>. You know, just people's opinion about,  you know, what was going on.

19 But, you know, nobody talked about running in the Capitol. <b>You know, nobody  mentioned they went in the Capitol.</b> And, again, Josh is sitting right next to damn  Landon. He said nothing about going in the Capitol. Like, golly. But, you know what I

2mean?

23 </div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When we left dinner, get back to the hotel, Kellye pulls -- like,<b> Kellye drove up to  the hotel. She was so frantic. And she was like, hey, you know they're looking for  people</b>. They're gonna come and -- you know, the police or whoever's gonna come and grab people. You know, they're looking for people. And she went way so far left field  that she was talking <b style="">about how they were gonna do drone strikes on me and my family.</b> <b> Told me I need to go home and move my people out</b>. Like, Jesus Christ.  And so everybody left. And she was still ranting and raving. And it was just,  you know -- I just casually collected my stuff, filled up my gas tank, and got on the road. </div></div><div class="autoapp_page_body_metadata_description data_row description inline" style="margin: 10px 0px; line-height: 1.4; color: rgb(28, 38, 61); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", serif; font-size: 16px;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 5, 20); display: inline;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Q  What was Mr. Rhodes's mood like on the night of January 6th?

I mean, he was -- you know, no changes. Just, you know, Stewart. You know, talking about, you know, this could be a spark of the revolution.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> And, you know,

9 like, people are gonna start to talk about, you know -- because, like, remember, like, all

10 the other capitols got hit -- and he's like, people are gonna start to talk about how this

11 might be a planned attack. And he was like, I just think it's patriots being upset about

12 what's going on. And stuff like that. You know, just Stewart.

13 Q I guess I have to ask you: Like, he's talking about a revolution. Like, there

14 was just a violent day at the Capitol. I'm just trying to understand, because it seems like

15 you're not attached to this at all, like, what are you thinking. Like, let's just say you

16 leave, right, to go back and you call someone as a friend; like, what do you say about

17 what just happened and the dinner you just left?

18 A I mean, it's -- I mean -- I mean -- same kind of stuff you'd say. Vo, man,

19 look, this shit was crazy, man. Like, you know what I mean? These people just ran up

20 in the Capitol. Like -- so, you know, it was conversations like that, you know.

21 But, like, me listening to Stewart talk about stuff like that, like, to me it was just

22 Stewart talking about stuff. You know what I mean? So, like, that didn't move me too

23 much.

24 But, like, the events that happened? Yeah, like, I've never seen anything like that

25 in the United States. You know what I mean? Now, like, you know, I wasn't real... </span></div></div><div>---</div><div>lnx</div><div>
</div><div>on<span class="lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-012" style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.125rem;"> THE STORMY</span><span style="font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif;">evening of Jan. 5, 2021 on a stage at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C., Cindy Chafian warmed up the crowd. “Are you all pissed? Are you ready to fight back? Tomorrow we’re going to make history!” </span></div><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chafian — a right-wing activist who <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021633_00016/pdf/GPO-J6-DOC-CTRL0000021633_00016.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">helped organize D.C. rallies</a> that preceded the insurrection of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/jan-6/" id="auto-tag_jan-6" data-tag="jan-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Jan. 6</a> — asked the crowd to give thanks to “people who often go unseen and unknown.” First, she gave “a huge shout out to Enrique and the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/proud-boys/" id="auto-tag_proud-boys" data-tag="proud-boys" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Proud Boys</a>.” Lamenting that the Proud Boys’ leader, Enrique Tarrio, couldn’t speak as planned, she led a rowdy chant of appreciation: “En-ri-que!” “En-ri-que!”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chafian then introduced Robert Patrick Lewis, founder of a group called 1st Amendment Praetorian. More than two dozen 1AP members were serving as “demonstration marshalls” to “help maintain order among participants,” according to the rally’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/21-0274-Rally-to-Revival-Freedom-Plaza-permit_Redacted.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">permit</a>. “These guys work vigilantly,” Chafian said. “You don’t see ’em. You don’t hear ’em. But know this. But when you guys are going back to your hotel tonight, they’re the ones who are integrated into crowds keeping you safe.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chafian put 1AP in notable — indeed, notorious — company: “Them, and the Proud Boys, the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/oath-keepers/" id="auto-tag_oath-keepers" data-tag="oath-keepers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Oath Keepers</a>, the Three Percenters. All of those guys keep you safe. All of them. I’ll stand with them, because I’m tired of the Left telling us we can’t talk about them.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The burly, bearded Lewis then strode onto center stage and gave Chaffian a hug, before turning to the cameras, and the crowd he greeted as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRUTm-ZIcow" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Patriots</a>!.” Standing at the mic, Lewis spoke for 1AP, but didn’t linger on security logistics. Rather, he invoked 1776 and the American Revolution: “Not far from here, General George Washington — in weather just like this — loaded up a ragtag group of soldiers who crossed the Delaware River,” Lewis said, before shouting: “This is our Delaware!” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Warning of an “enemy at the gates,” Lewis continued: “This is our time… to make sure that we don’t cede this country and have my kids grow up in a communist hellhole.” The 1AP leader then fired up the crowd: “I need each of you to fight as hard as you can to ensure that that does not happen!"</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">two years later, the words and actions of Lewis and 1st Amendment Praetorian, and the group’s intersection with the events that culminated in the storming of the Capitol, are at the center of a $100 million legal battle between 1AP and the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">New York Times —</em> over whether the group was defamed by articles that, 1AP claims, falsely painted it as an “extremist paramilitary group that played a central role in storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit against the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times</em>, filed in early January, has not been reported previously. It denounces what 1AP calls the paper’s “egregious lies,” while denying that 1AP members “played any part in the attack.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Plaintiff seeks compensatory damages and punitive damages in the sum of $100,000,000.00,” the group writes in its suit.</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The litigation is part of a pattern of high-dollar defamation suits brought by 1AP that are ostensibly attempting to clear its reputation. Seen in another light, the lawsuits present a vivid irony: They are filed by an organization that presents itself as a <a href="https://twitter.com/1st_praetorian" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">protector</a> of first amendment rights, against parties who’ve leveraged their own freedom of the press to raise concerns about 1st Amendment Praetorian. </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The court blitz complicates efforts to scrutinize 1AP, which the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/jan-6-committee/" id="auto-tag_jan-6-committee" data-tag="jan-6-committee" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Jan. 6 Committee</a>’s final report describes as a “paramilitary group,” and whose founder Lewis has touted the need for a “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/1stAmendmentPraetorian/videos/310987717315548" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">second American revolution</a>.
[pic flynn]</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The name 1st Amendment Praetorian is a play on the imperial Praetorian Guard that provided security to Roman emperors. 1AP was founded in 2020 by Lewis, a decorated former Green Beret, who has said that 1AP is composed of “military, law enforcement, and intelligence community veterans."</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">in  legal documents, 1AP has described itself both as a “non-partisan” “<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/581650059/Leslie-McAdoo-Gordon-Position-Statement-as-to-Subpoenas-With-Addendum" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">civil liberties group</a>” dedicated to the free expression of “every American,” and as a corporation founded to provide “pro bono security and protective services at grassroots events.” These documents depict a group that — though it provides protective security at political rallies — holds itself apart from the political fray.</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Has 1AP been grievously misunderstood? Has this “civil rights” champion been unfairly judged by the company it kept? Was it out of bounds for the nation’s newspaper of record to write about 1AP in the context of Trump-aligned militant groups that stormed the Capitol?</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The public record about 1AP is far from cut-and-dried. It reveals that government investigators had significant questions about 1AP’s activities in the buildup to, and the day of, Jan. 6. </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In Nov. 2021, the House Jan. 6 Committee <a href="https://twitter.com/january6thcmte/status/1463236995543617539" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">tweeted</a> that it had issued subpoenas to “individuals and organizations linked to the violent attack on the Capitol,” including 1AP, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers:</p><figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; margin: 0px; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; display: flex; max-width: 500px; width: 500px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true" data-twitter-extracted-i1676312646997611416="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;"><p lang="en" dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">BREAKING: The Select Committee subpoenas individuals and organizations linked to the violent attack on the Capitol:<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" />• Proud Boys International, L.L.C.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" />• Henry “Enrique” Tarrio<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" />• Oath Keepers<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" />• Elmer Stewart Rhodes<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;" />• Robert Patrick Lewis/1st Amendment Praetorian</p>— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) <a href="https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1463236995543617539?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">November 23, 2021</a></blockquote></div></div></figure><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The subpoena letter to Lewis highlighted 1AP’s post-2020 election security work for “Stop the Steal” leader Ali Alexander, as well as for Trump loyalist Gen. Michael Flynn. “You have also claimed to be in contact with Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, prior to Jan. 6,” the Committee wrote. (Rhodes — who never set foot inside the Capitol — has since been <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/oath-keeper-stewart-rhodes-found-guilty-seditious-conspiracy-1234638450/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">convicted of seditious conspiracy</a>, along with five <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/four-oath-keepers-convicted-seditious-conspiracy-1234666678/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">other members of that militia</a>.)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Jan 6. Committee then laid out a concerning fact pattern related to 1AP in the days leading up to the insurrection, writing: </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">On January 4, 2021, the 1st Amendment Praetorian </span><a href="https://twitter.com/1st_praetorian/status/1346190700233146369" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Twitter account</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;"> suggested that violence was imminent: “There may be some young National Guard Captains facing some very, very tough choices in the next 48 hours. Pray with every fiber of your being that their choices are Wise, Just, and Fearless.”</span></p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The subpoena indicated that 1AP didn’t just provide security at events — taking note of Lewis having been “listed as a speaker on a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/foia/upload/21-0274-Rally-to-Revival-Freedom-Plaza-permit_Redacted.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">permit</a> for the ‘Rally to Revival’” (This was the same Jan. 5 event where Lewis invoked Washinton’s pivotal 1776 river crossing.) </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The subpoena quotes Lewis <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertPLewis/status/1346898868219371522?s=20&t=0N11Bd3jC4YyfWFLSPhDJQ" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">tweeting</a> at 2:18 p.m. on Jan. 6 (during the attack on the Capitol): “Today is the day the true battles begin.” And it cites a tweet by the 1st Amendment Praetorian account two hours later: “The cost of Truth is Pain. The greater the Truth, the greater potential for pain!!”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In response to the Committee, Lewis’ attorney at the time sent a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/581650059/Leslie-McAdoo-Gordon-Position-Statement-as-to-Subpoenas-With-Addendum#" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">spirited letter</a>, insisting that “the criminal conduct at the Capitol that day is antithetical to 1AP’s values,” adding: “To think that 1AP and its members played a role in the January 6 riot is absurd.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The letter described 1AP members as “Civil Liberties Advocates” who seek to “secure the First Amendment rights of each and every American” whether they are “right, middle, left, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, politicians, public speakers, the media, etc.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawyer insisted that on Jan. 6, “1AP’s activities consisted of providing personal security for a short period of time for a rally participant, but primarily in buttressing security for members of the main-stream media who were covering the rally at the Ellipse.” (This lawyer did not respond to an interview request.)</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Deposed by the Committee in mid-April 2022, Lewis had a forum to set the record straight, under oath. The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000062443/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000062443.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">transcript</a>, released in December, reveals Lewis refused to answer the Committee’s questions, citing his constitutional first and fifth amendment rights, as well as objecting to House process. Lewis rebuffed basic questions about 1AP, the provocative tweets included in the Committee subpoena, and his relationships with Ali Alexander, Alex Jones, Gen. Michael Flynn, Stewart Rhodes and others. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Perhaps the most intriguing question Lewis refused to answer? </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Mr. Lewis, you’ve claimed to have driven Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn to the White House on December 18th, 2020. Were you involved in discussions with the White House regarding efforts to overturn the election?</span></p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In its final report, the Jan. 6 committee left myriad unanswered questions — including about 1AP. The report mentions 1AP only in passing, calling it a “paramilitary group” that coordinated with Rhodes on VIP security for Gen. Flynn at a Dec. 2020 religious rally called the “Jericho March.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But a review of deposition transcripts the Committee released into the public record offers additional insight. The documents reveal that the Committee peppered witnesses, including <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000051194/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000051194.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">Gen. Flynn</a>, about whether 1AP members had entered the Capitol or communicated with those inside. </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Committee heard <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000034611/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000034611.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">testimony</a> from Dustin Stockton — a Tea Party organizer and former colleague of Cindy Chafian — that he’d seen Chafian and her husband working in a suite with 1AP members on the eve of Jan. 6 in the Willard hotel. Stockton testified that the “Chafian and 1AP room” had “a very military feel,” elaborating: “There were maps and… what looked like military-type comms with people on the computers, and earpiece.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The committee also heard testimony from Oath Keepers about 1AP. One alleged 1AP had a role in “<a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000062446/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000062446.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">orchestrating</a>” Stop the Steal rallies in advance of Jan.6. And two <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000083806/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000083806.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">testified</a> that 1AP members — though not Lewis himself — <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000042647/pdf/GPO-J6-TRANSCRIPT-CTRL0000042647.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">dined with Stewart Rhodes</a> and a group of Oath Keepers at an Olive Garden in Northern Virginia on the night of Jan. 6, discussing the chaos at the Capitol. </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-weight: 700;">One thing is for certain</span>: By going on the legal offensive 1AP has differentiated itself from groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, whose leaders have had to mount defenses to charges up to and including “seditious conspiracy.” By contrastits suit against the Times maintains, 1AP has been “thoroughly investigated by the FBI, and cleared of any wrongdoing.” (The Department of Justice would not discuss this claim.)</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In its lawsuit against the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times</em>, 1AP objects to four articles published last year. The suit decries what it calls the “defamatory gist” of the<em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;"> </em>stories, claiming they inaccurately paint 1AP as “a right-wing paramilitary group, like high-profile extremist and far-right nationalist Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia, that was involved in President Donald Trump’s plot to interfere with the certification of the 2020 vote count and the attack on the Capitol.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The litigation insists that 1AP is: “not a violent, dangerous, paramilitary, extremist group” adding that “1AP played no role whatsoever in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 and certainly did not storm the Capitol.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As quoted by the suit, the articles were headlined:</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Another Far-Right Group Is Scrutinized About Its Efforts to Aid Trump” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“New Focus on How a Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups Ahead of Jan. 6”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Jan. 6 Panel Explores Links Between Trump Allies and Extremist Groups” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Raskin Brings Expertise on Right-Wing Extremism to Jan. 6 Inquiry” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The suit quotes passages from the first article, dated Jan 3, 2022, that it describes as factual but “susceptible to a defamatory implication.” They include: “the group had men on the ground outside the building on Jan. 6 and others at the Willard Hotel, near some of Mr. Trump’s chief allies.” And: “at least one of Mr. Lewis’s lieutenants, Geoffrey Flohr, a former Michigan police officer, was outside the building walking the grounds and talking on his cellphone just before the riot erupted.” (Flohr did not respond to an interview request.)</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The suit takes particular umbrage with a passage stating that a member of “1AP posted on Twitter…claiming he was in an ‘overwatch position’ in Arlington County, Va., where prosecutors say the Oath Keepers had placed at a hotel an armed ‘quick reaction force’ that was prepared to move into Washington if needed.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit counters: “Members of 1AP were staying at a Holiday Inn in Arlington (7.5 miles away from the Capital) because of the favorable room rates.” It insisted the that hotel had “no line of sight” to the Capitol, and that 1AP members “had no knowledge” of the Oath Keepers’ location or quick reaction force. It argues that <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times</em> implied a “connection between 1AP and the activities of the Oath Keepers that was knowingly false and defamatory.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The 1AP also claims, without providing evidence, that the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times </em>and reporter Alan Feuer were in league with the federal government: “Upon information and belief, in pushing the ‘domestic violent extremism’ narrative, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">NYT</em> and Feuer were acting upon instructions and at the direction of one or more government agencies, including the Federal Bureau Investigation (‘FBI’).”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A spokesperson for the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times</em> defended its journalism to <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Rolling Stone, </em>insisting:<em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;"> </em>“We reported accurately and responsibly, and plan to vigorously defend against this suit.” Lewis did not respond to interview requests from <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Rolling Stone</em>. Emails to the attorney who filed the litigation, seeking comment about the suit, as well as about Jan. 6 Committee records, were not returned.</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The suit against the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">Times </em>is the third in a string of multi-million-dollar federal defamation suits filed by 1AP. The group sued Substack journalist and Twitter personality Seth Abramson in federal court in April 2022 for $25 million. That lawsuit claims Abramson used his Twitter account to falsely imply that 1AP and top members were: “involved in the January 6 insurrection, committed Federal crimes… or otherwise engaged or participated in criminal, dishonest, deceptive, immoral, unethical, unprofessional or improper conduct.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuit insists that 1AP and its founder did not “aid and abet in insurrection or sedition.” The group further claims that “1AP never planned or schemed with Oath Keepers, Stop the Steal, 3 Percenters, or any other group.” The suits insist of Lewis, “He did not run, enter or participate in the activities of any ‘war room.’”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a filing that seeks to have the case dismissed, Abramson claimed his tweets about 1st Amendment Praetorian were “First Amendment protected speech.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In October, 1AP also filed a $50 million lawsuit against former Rep. Denver Riggleman and his publishers over a book the Republican authored about Jan. 6., <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid;">The Breach</em>. The litigation alleged Riggleman published “false statements, defamatory implications and insulting words,” adding that the “defamatory gist” was that “1AP participated in the attack on the United States Capitol…and otherwise engaged in coordinated acts of ‘domestic terrorism.’” (This lawsuit was “voluntarily dismissed” without explanation by 1AP in November.)</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The lawsuits filed by 1AP assert that both the group and its founder have fallen on hard times. One claims Lewis is now “virtually unemployable,” despite a successful military career and an MBA degree, the adding that even security work for campaigns has dried up because misinformation about Jan. 6 has made “Lewis and 1AP toxic in the political world.“ </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1st Amendment Praetorian, one suit alleges, in even worse shape. ”1AP is now basically insolvent,” it states, “and completely destroyed.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-weight: 700;">The claim by 1st Amendment Praetorian lawyers</span> that the group is above-the-political-fray does not square easily with the public record of rhetoric and activism of founder Robert Patrick Lewis, which grounds him firmly on the MAGA right. </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From the beginning, 1AP launched with a pungent political perspective. In a Sept. 2020 <a href="https://twitter.com/RobertPLewis/status/1304167706250354689" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">tweet thread</a> announcing the creation of 1AP, Lewis railed against “Marxist & leftist politicians aiming to lock down total control” as well as “their tyrannical, Marxist subversive groups such as ANTIFA & BLM.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lewis also inveighed against the “corrupted Main Stream Media [that] does their best to… destroy the lives of any public or private citizen who dares step up to them or fight back against their narrative.” He insisted of 1AP: “We’ve drawn our line in the sand, and we, as a group, are not going to take or allow it anymore.” </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a similarly stark <a href="https://rumble.com/vesk49-1ap-at-million-maga-march-low-intensity-conflict-purpose-of-propaganda.html" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">video</a> — filmed in mid-November 2020, not long after Trump lost reelection — Lewis touted his work with “Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander, while warning viewers that 1AP had been picking up “intelligence” about a looming “Antifa Tet Offensive,” a reference to a surprise enemy attack during the Vietnam War.  </p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lewis did not simply ask for crowdfunded donations so his group could keep the peace and ensure all parties could exercise their constitutional rights. Rather, he gave a call to action to Trump supporters “to go to D.C. this weekend and participate in the Million MAGA March.” In stark contrast to 1AP’s assertions of non-partisanship, Lewis exhorted: “This is the time…when every man and woman needs to choose a side.”</p><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In another politically charged video on Dec. 9, 2020, Lewis called Trump and Gen. Flynn his “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/LoveMeWhenImGoneBook/videos/1807290666103032" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; text-underline-offset: 0.1875rem;">personal heroes</a>.” He added that Trump was “working towards the same goal as all of us — and that’s to Make America Great Again.” He blasted domestic enemies and what he described as China “sock puppets” whom he claimed had terrible aims: Namely, to make sure that “election fraud goes unchecked” so that “our republic is allowed to be destroyed from within.” Lewis vowed: “That’s something we’re not gonna allow sitting down.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p class="paragraph larva // lrv-a-font-body-l " style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; --font-family: var( --font-family-body ); font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.75rem; margin-bottom: 1.75rem; margin-top: 1.75rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Jan. 6, 1AP’s litigation insists, the group’s actions at the Ellipse were innocuous and focused on providing volunteer “personal security” — including to members of the press. One lawsuit describes how Lewis left Trump’s speech, “returned to his hotel room to change out of his suit, and spent the rest of the day at the Willard Hotel.” Citing the Lewis’ military record, that litigation insists: “the idea that Lewis…would participate in a coup to overthrow the United States Government” is “obviously preposterous.”</p></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">vs hero truck driver BS</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-covid-positive-test-hospital-plane-train-mask-mandate-transportation-1070629/">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-covid-positive-test-hospital-plane-train-mask-mandate-transportation-1070629/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RS andy kroll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx many </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>wASHINGTON —<b> In a little-noticed ruling on Friday evening, the Trump administration rejected a petition by a coalition of labor unions that had asked the federal government to require passengers to wear masks on airplanes, trains, and other major forms of transportation.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The Department of Transportation told the Transportation Trades Department of the<b> AFL-CIO labor federation</b> that the agency would not proceed with a regulation to mandate that passengers wear masks on modes of major commercial transportation used by tens of millions of Americans. Right now in the U.S., a patchwork of airport authorities, cities, counties, and states are deciding whether to require people to wear masks on mass transit, in airports, and on planes. France, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and other major countries have enacted national mask mandates for people using public transit.</div><div>
</div><div>[RELATED</div><div>The Omicron Olympics: Behind the Scenes of a Covid 'S--tshow' China Doesn't Want You to See</div><div>RS Recommends: Here's How to Find Covid Testing Kits on Amazon]</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It is unfathomable that in the midst of a global pandemic which has killed more than 209,000 Americans, and left millions more sick and potentially facing lifelong side effects — including the president of the United States — that the U.S. Department of Transportation would outright reject such a simple, science-backed, lifesaving measure,” Transportation Trades Department president Larry Willis said in a statement. “The DOT’s decision is heartbreaking, and in light of yesterday’s news, frankly, shocking.”</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Deregulation is one of the hallmarks of the Trump administration, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Many of the biggest backers of Trump’s 2016 campaign were corporate executives who pushed then-candidate Trump to embrace a full-on deregulatory agenda. Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to weaken or reverse hundreds of existing policies and regulations related to energy, the environment, labor rights, health care, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>What makes the Transportation Department’s mask-mandate rejection so telling is that it happened only hours after the White House revealed that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for Covid-19. </b>Other White House and senior GOP officials who have tested positive in recent days include senior aide Hope Hicks, adviser Kellyanne Conway, reelection campaign manager Bill Stepien, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, and Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.).</div><div>
</div><div>In a July letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Larry Willis, the president of the Transportation Trades Department, a coalition of 33 labor unions, said many of its workers — which include bus drivers, ferry operators, pilots, flight attendants, TSA employees, and more — were on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Regrettably, these employees have not been spared the effects of the disease, and each TTD union involved in passenger transportation has reported infections and deaths among their frontline workers,” Willis wrote to Chao.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Willis wrote that the “patchwork of state or local mandates,” combined with “a deeply inadequate federal response,” had left those frontline transportation workers vulnerable to the virus in their workplaces.</b> The transportation union coalition formally petitioned Chao, who is the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Transportation Department to create a legal requirement for passengers to wear masks. So far, the agency has voiced support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance that passengers wear masks and has distributed more than 100 million masks, but has stopped short of mandating mask-wearing on a national scale.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of Covid-19.<b> Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</b>, testified last month that a mask was “the most important, powerful public health tool we have.” Redfield told Congress that a mask might be even more effective than a vaccine because no vaccine has a 100 percent effectiveness rate.</span></div><div>
</div><div>“I will continue to appeal [to] all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings,” Redfield said. “I’ve said it: If we did it for six, eight, 10, 12 weeks, we’d bring this pandemic under control. We have clear scientific evidence. They work, and they are our best defense.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Trump was asked at an ABC News town hall last month why he had not called for a national mask mandate. He replied with a long-winded answer that blamed former Vice President Joe Biden, who does hold elected office right now, for not calling for a mask mandate. Trump added that “By the way, a lot of people don’t want to wear masks. There are <b>a lot of people </b>that think the masks are not good.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In its denial letter, the Transportation Department said it shared the transportation union’s concerns about the potential health impact of the pandemic on transportation workers, but said the need to avoid creating new regulations overrode those public-health concerns.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>“The Department also embraces the notion that there should be no more regulations than necessary,”</b> the agency’s <b>general counsel, Steven Bradbury, </b>writes. “We emphasize consideration of or regulatory solutions and have <b>rigorous processes in place for optimal reassessment of existing regulations to ensure they remain cost justified </b>and<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> narrowly tailored to address an identified market failure.”</span></div><div>
</div><div>The letter continues, “At this time, the Departments view is that the measures discussed above, along with the ongoing efforts of key transportation stakeholders, are adequate to address the concerns identified in the petition<b> without the intention of a rule-making process.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>Read the Transportation Department’s rejection letter here.</div><div>
</div><div></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/capitol-riot-2655791525/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/capitol-riot-2655791525/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">burner phones to WH</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Jan. 6 rally organizers used anonymous 'burner phones' to communicate with top Trump officials: report</div><div>Alex Henderson November 24, 2021</div><div>   </div><div>Using a burner phone is much different from using a high-end Apple iPhone or an Android-based smartphone: they're cheap, disposable, designed for temporary use rather than long-term use, and do not require an account. Burner phones also offer anonymity. And according to Rolling Stone's Hunter Walker, they were allegedly used by some Republican activists who helped organize former President Donald Trump's "Save America" rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6.</div><div>
</div><div>Walker, in an article published by Rolling Stone on November 23, explains, "Some of the organizers who planned the rally that took place on the White House Ellipse on January 6 allegedly used difficult-to-trace burner phones for their most 'high level' communications with former President Trump's team. K<b>ylie Kremer, a top official in the 'March for Trump' group that helped plan the Ellipse rally, directed an aide to pick up three burner phones days before January 6, according to three sources who were involved in the event. One of the sources, a member of the 'March for Trump' team, says Kremer insisted the phones be purchased using cash and described this as being 'of the utmost importance.'"</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Walker writes that according to those three Rolling Stone sources, Kremer "took one of the phones and used it to communicate with top White House and Trump campaign officials" such as the Trump Organization's Eric Trump (a younger brother of Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr.), former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and long-time Donald Trump ally Katrina Pierson. One of the Trump supporters given a burner phone was Amy Kremer, Kylie Kremer's mother and another rally organizer.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Walker reports, "According to the three sources, some of the most crucial planning conversations between top rally organizers and Trump's inner circle took place on those burner phones…. Burner phones — cheap, prepaid cells designed for temporary usage — do not require users to have an account. This makes them hard to trace and ideal for those who are seeking anonymity — particularly if they are purchased with cash. The use of burner phones could make it more difficult for congressional investigators to find evidence of coordination between Trump's team and rally planners."</div><div>
</div><div>January 6, 2021 was an incredibly dark day in U.S. history. That day, a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in the hope of stopping Congress from certifying now-President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. The Capitol riot was preceded by the large "Save America" or "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C. that Kylie and Amy Kremer helped organize. <b>During the March For Trump bus tour, the Kremers promoted the Big Lie: the false, totally debunked claim that Trump was the real winner of the 2020 presidential election but was victimized by widespread voter fraud.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>"There was no evidence the Kremers and the other rally organizers encouraged or planned violence in the group text messages reviewed by Rolling Stone</b>," Walker explains. "However, critics have argued Trump and the leaders who encouraged thousands of his supporters to come to Washington as the vote was certified deserve some blame for the violence because of their pre-January 6 rhetoric and the fiery content of the former president's speech at the Ellipse rally."</div><div>
</div><div>Walker continues, "The three sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation into the January 6 Capitol attack, say Kylie asked the aide to buy the three 'burner phones' as the group passed through Palm Springs, California about a week before the Ellipse event. Based on the group's website, which has since been deleted, the tour began on December 27, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada before moving on to California."</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/donald-trumps-parting-gift-to-washington-was-a-party-of-shitposters/">https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/donald-trumps-parting-gift-to-washington-was-a-party-of-shitposters/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">rkj</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">i've <span class="section-lead" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> seen many things</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the years, including many things I wish I hadn’t. But until Ted Cruz spoke to a ballroom of activists from the main stage in Orlando in February, I had never seen an elected official interrupt his own speech to promote a podcast.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Please go subscribe,” <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?509081-3/senator-ted-cruz-deliver-remarks-cpac" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">barked</a> the Texas Republican, sounding more like a street performer with a SoundCloud than a second-term senator. “<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Verdict With Ted Cruz</span>! <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Verdict With Ted Cruz</span>! Click on ‘subscribe.’ Five stars, please!”</font></p><div class="incontent-promo" id="incontent_promo_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; left: -157.5px; height: auto; width: 100vw; margin-bottom: 1rem; clear: both;"><section id="mj-incontent-ad-widget-4" class="widget mj-incontent-ad-widget" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="incontent-ad-container" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 1300px; margin: 0px auto;" /></section></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One week earlier, Cruz had left his constituents <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/ted-cruz-flees-texas-for-cancun-ditches-family-poodle.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">and his poodle</a> behind to wait out his state’s deadly grid failure at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun. It was the sort of PR disaster that would leave many politicians reeling. Cruz tried to monetize the controversy instead</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, printing a line of </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;">Barstool Sports</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">–chic “</span><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-spring-break-merch-cruzcrew_n_605d9a0dc5b6531eed03b240" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">spring break</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” tank tops with a caricature of his nascent mullet. He may never lead the Republican Party, but Cruz always knows its temperature, and in the space of a few minutes in Orlando, between jokes about his ill-advised Mexican vacation and plugs for his side project, he managed to distill this conservative moment to its essence. Increasingly, as world-historical crises unfurl all around them—often exacerbated by their own policies and actions—the GOP’s most ambitious officials view their primary responsibility less as public servants than as content creators, churning out an endless stream of takes, memes, stunts, and podcasts. So many podcasts.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">The Republican Party has long been infused with an irrepressible hustle, what the historian Rick Perlstein calls “<a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">mail-order conservatism</a></b>.” Talk radio and direct mail were not only effective at peddling reactionary politics to voters; they were also perfect vehicles to sell products, such as <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/05/glenn-beck-goldline-weiner/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">gold</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10157932039825389" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">home-security system</a>s. For decades these conjoined strains of politics, entertainment, and marketing have eroded trust in public institutions and the media and provided a template for self-aggrandizement and enrichment. There is nothing really like this on the left; <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Infowars</em> and Goop <a href="https://qz.com/1010684/all-the-wellness-products-american-love-to-buy-are-sold-on-both-infowars-and-goop/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">sell the same pills</a>, but Gwyneth Paltrow is not fomenting rebellion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The way conservatism manifested itself over the airwaves has shaped what rank-and-file conservatives expect to be told and how they expect to feel about it. The late Rush Limbaugh’s listeners called themselves “dittoheads,” eager to nod along with everything. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Newt Gingrich used to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/the-gopac-tapes" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">distribute tapes</a> of himself talking so that candidates could emulate his language.</b> In the 1980s, he <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/before-wall-brawl-there-was-camscam/577945/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">weaponized</a> C-SPAN’s new House cameras—where members previously addressed each other, Gingrich and his allies began speaking past them. They turned the Capitol into a studio and made politics into a product. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Donald Trump easily won the Republican base because it had been primed for someone who could provide both the programming and the commercial breaks, sometimes all at once; in conservative politics, after all, you’re always being asked to buy <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">something</em>. </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" font-weight="font-weight" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px">Trump’s presidency blew past the old frontiers: The performance of politics became the purpose of it.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Trump’s presidency blew past the old frontiers: The performance of politics became the purpose of it, and the grind of governance became secondary to the responsibilities of posting</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It was as if, after years of awkward but largely profitable power-sharing between conservative politicians and conservative media, the Republican Party at last stumbled upon the ultimate efficiency: What if both roles could be played by the same person? Trump once dreamed of spinning a losing presidential bid into his own media entity.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During the pandemic, in lieu of crisis management, he turned briefings into </span><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/trumps-press-conferences-are-just-infomercials-now/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">a variety show</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, assembling a rotating cast of characters, and plugging an array of sponsors—MyPillow, Carnival, Pernod Ricard. You would not necessarily get good medical advice, but you would learn that Hanes is a “great consumer cotton products company” that’s being recognized more and more.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>There was no issue grave enough to take seriously and no controversy too petty to weigh in on. Anything could be resolved via tweet, precisely because nothing really can; the ephemerality was the point.</b> And a rising generation of politicians learned an important lesson about what conservative voters wanted. If Limbaugh taught them all how to talk, Trump taught them how to govern. His enduring gift was a caucus of content creators.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Just consider the Republican congressional class of 2021—the new arrivals to Washington who modeled themselves most directly after Trump. They seem almost blissfully detached from the work of Congress. There is <b>25-year-old Madison Cawthorn</b></span><b> of North Carolina, who was elected on the strength of a largely invented personal story amplified with loads of influencer-style Instagram posts.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> He recently posted a 19-second video of himself punching the bark off a tree. Cawthorn boasted to his colleagues that he had built his staff “around comms rather than legislation.” He was in Washington, in other words, mostly just to post.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cawthorn boasted to his colleagues that he had built his staff “around comms rather than legislation.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon representative from Georgia, was stripped of her committee assignments in February by colleagues upset that she had harassed fellow members of Congress and blamed forest fires on the Rothschilds, she greeted the news with relief. “If I was on a committee, I would be wasting my time,</span>” she said. Now she was more free to share videos of her CrossFit workouts with the hashtag #FireFauci.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Not that showing up for committee hearings necessarily means you’re there to work. Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, who like Cawthorn and Greene spent her first weeks on the job scaring the shit out of her co-workers, recently hijacked a virtual committee hearing by posing like John Wick in front of a shrine of firearms in her living room. (“Who says this is storage?” she responded to critics. “These are ready for use.”) </span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Cawthorn, Greene, and Boebert were all members of the National Republican Campaign Committee’s “Young Guns” program, which takes its name from an earlier trio of House Republicans—one of whom, Paul Ryan</b>, went on to become a vice presidential nominee and speaker of the House and unite the party behind a vision of budget austerity. There is surely some sort of ideology at work here, too, but it’s more Jake Paul than Paul Ryan; they are treating the Capitol like their own hype house, using the stature of their office for clout.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">R. Kikuo Johnson</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">These younger, gunnier guns are taking cues from their elders. Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a content farm of a congressman who has filmed not one but two Avengers-style videos in which the ex–Navy SEAL parachutes out of airplanes to fight Democrats,</span> also hosts a podcast. So does<b> Devin Nunes. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has a podcast called Hot Takes. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Before he became publicly embroiled in a federal sex-trafficking investigation (“If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing,” Gaetz once said), he was considering retiring to take a job at the conservative cable channel Newsmax. </span>In February, more than a dozen House Republicans—including Gaetz and Nunes—skipped work to speak at CPAC with Cruz. They took advantage of a covid-era policy that let members vote by proxy in medical emergencies; to them, <b>promoting their brands is the job.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">After watching Cruz’s speech I took his advice and checked out Verdict, which he co-hosts with Michael Knowles, who rose to prominence after publishing an entirely blank book called Reasons to Vote for Democrats. Cruz recorded the first episode at 2:40 a.m. after the opening day of Trump’s Ukraine impeachment trial—hence the name of the show—and returned to the studio every night of the proceedings. Within days of its debut, <b>Verdict had passed Joe Rogan on the iTunes charts. </b>At CPAC, Cruz announced it had been downloaded 25 million times. It is almost certainly the most popular thing he has ever done.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">From the start, there were gestures that this was all “for work”; while Cruz plugs his book with regularity, he does not hawk brain pills or sell ads. In the premiere episode, Cruz solicited listener questions he could ask during the impeachment. When Knowles asked him why he was doing the show, Cruz replied with two words: “Substance. Matters.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This is true in a technical way: Cruz talks on his show about many of the things he and his Republican colleagues talk about in the Capitol. But that Washington conversation is increasingly just an extension of what they talk about on their podcasts. The biggest crises in America right now, according to Cruz, CPAC, and Trump, are the interlocking threats of Big Tech and “cancel culture.” Hearings with tech executives have become a must-watch for conservatives.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Cruz advertised his hearing-room clash with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last summer with a Christopher Nolan–ish movie trailer and a poster reminiscent of welterweight boxing—“The Free Speech Champion vs. the Czar of Censorship.” </span>There are substantive things to say about corporate power, but this brand of conservative opportunism zips past what’s real to fixate on what isn’t. Twitter moderators, or someone being “canceled,” is not something Congress is really positioned to do much about. They are just creating content about content creation; this is the uroboros of mail-order conservatism. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Twitter moderators, or someone being “canceled,” is not something Congress is really positioned to do much about. They are just creating content about content creation.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Big Tech and “cancel culture” have emerged as key villains for the new right, not just because of how neatly they fit into long-standing tropes about “cosmopolitan elites,” but because so much of modern conservatism lives online</span>. Offline, there are issues that warrant serious attention from one of the nation’s two governing parties—cities without water, cities soon to be underwater, whole states without power, and a world still suffering from a deadly virus. But with a nudge from Trump, the right has become ever more dissociated from reality, channeling its energy into an endless series of fights over “deplatforming” and who’s triggering whom. During the Obama years, a Breitbart provocateur interrupted a White House press conference to complain about losing his Twitter verification badge. Then, it was a sideshow; now, it’s the whole point. Florida <b>Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate, recently signed a law prohibiting social media companies from banning public officials.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The rise of politics as content creation is hardly the sole domain of the right. After his 2016 presidential campaign ended, Bernie Sanders kept his media imprint running. He organized town halls on Facebook Live and recorded a regular podcast. Sanders, who has made no secret of his distaste for corporate-owned media, hoped to build out his own information stream for his supporters. So did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York representative whose prolific posting has gotten her in trouble with other members of her caucus. (Her arrival in Washington precipitated a closed-door meeting in which a colleague pleaded, “Everyone stop tweeting!”)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The content creators of both the left and the right pose some of the same big-picture challenges—the rise of politicians as independent news sources, of politics as stan culture, and the acceleration of the permanent campaign. A Pew analysis found that the outgoing 116th Congress was one of the least productive of the last half-century, but the most prolific ever when it came to posting. Members sent 50 percent more tweets than they did two terms ago; they were still talking—just not to each other. The more politicians function as affinity brands peddling a product to be consumed, the more “politics,” the entertainment vehicle, becomes dissociated from politics, the distributor of power. Barack and Michelle Obama run a media company now and each hosts podcasts, too; the ease with which political figures can rebrand themselves as entertainers speaks to the two spheres’ increasing coziness. This is not what “seizing the means of production” was supposed to mean.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the way this dynamic is unfolding on the left and the right is asymmetrical. Though you would not necessarily know it from listening to Gaetz, Obama is not in office. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are not angling for TV gigs; nor are they reducing the world of lawmaking to the kind of retrograde distractions that get you booked on Tucker.</span> They use their enormous social media platforms for civics lessons, offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of the legislative process and the work of movement building, in an effort to get more people invested in both. You can buy the “Tax the Rich” sweatshirt Ocasio-Cortez wears when she holds court on policy and procedure on Instagram Live, but it is not the only thing she is selling. She and Sanders are trying to make the online world more engaged with the real world, rather than the other way around, to advance an ambitious governing program. It is a theory of change, of which clout and performance are merely a means, not the endpoint, of politics. That is the opposite of the reductive nihilism of Cawthorn or Boebert, or the eternal stagecraft of Cruz.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the first few months of the Biden administration, the world of Twitter and real life have become increasingly estranged. In a paradoxical way, the transformation of a major political party into a meme factory has even eased some of Washington’s dysfunction. While Republicans were pitching their podcasts and talking about Dr. Seuss and his imaginary canceling—Cruz began selling copies of Green Eggs and Ham, signed by himself—Democrats pushed through a $1.9 trillion covid relief and stimulus package with little dissent.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In March, Trump, banned from Facebook and Twitter, announced that he was considering launching his own social media network. “I’m doing things having to do with putting our own platform out there,” he promised. “You’ll be hearing about [it] soon.” The website he unveiled didn’t amount to much, but that’s what made it so perfectly Trump—there’s not supposed to be a there there. Meanwhile, younger Republicans aiming to take his place continued their auditions. In April, Marco Rubio called on the government to treat companies that pollute “our culture” just as harshly as it treats companies that pollute our water—sort of like an Environmental Protection Agency for tweets. Cruz, himself accused of poisoning the discourse by John Boehner, polled his hive on whether he should shoot the former speaker of the House’s new book with a machine gun. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>But none of the Republicans vying for Trump’s role have embraced the new posting reality as fluidly as DeSantis. </b>In May, not long after guaranteeing Florida politicians the right to shitpost, DeSantis scored his biggest coup yet: passage of a bill to roll back voting access in the state, fueled by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. When it came time to sign it, local reporters were stopped at the door—only a crew from Fox and Friends got in. DeSantis had turned an attack on fundamental rights into a live television event. Supporters of the ex-president stood behind him, cheering on cue, as the governor bantered with the hosts via satellite. Then he picked up a blue Sharpie, scrawled his name, and held up the embossed legislation for the cameras.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 634px; position: relative; max-width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; flex: 1 0 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump may be gone, but the show never ends.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><a href="https://www.therebel.media/marc-morano-climate-depot-rolling-stone-climate-report-united-nation-fox-news"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.therebel.media/marc-morano-climate-depot-rolling-stone-climate-report-united-nation-fox-news</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.therebel.media/veterans-affairs-scandal-apology-david-menzies-news-ezra-levant-show-may-13-2019" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">last night's episode</strong></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.therebel.media/the_ezra_levant_show" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ezra Levant Show</em></strong></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> with guest host David Menzies, <a rel="noopener" href="https://twitter.com/ClimateDepot" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Marc Morano of Climate Depo</a>t called in to talk about how Rolling Stone is after him for speaking truthfully about a United Nations climate report on Fox News.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>