TruthArchive.ai - Tweets Saved By @Truth_InMedia
reSee.it AI Summary
I’m Jeremy Brown, a veteran who served 20 years in the U.S. Army Special Forces and is currently facing an 87-month sentence for my actions on January 6. Initially charged with trespassing, the situation escalated when the feds found alleged illegal weapons in my RV. I believe I was set up and have concerns about the government's motives, including their initial interest in recruiting me. My time in prison has led me to question why, if I’m seen as a threat, they haven’t sought more information from me about any supposed conspiracy.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Jeremy Brown is a decorated veteran who spent 20 years in the U.S Army Special Forces. He’s also serving an 87-month sentence in federal prison over his activities on Jan. 6. In Dec. 2022, the government convicted him of possessing illegal guns, explosives, and a national security document. But Jeremy says there’s more to his story — much more…
Video Transcript AI Summary
Jeremy Brown, a retired Army Special Forces veteran, was arrested in September 2021 after participating in the January 6th Capitol events. He was charged with possessing illegal weapons and a classified document, ultimately sentenced to 87 months in prison. Brown claims he was in Washington, D.C. for a security role, wearing military gear to distinguish himself from civilians. He asserts they had permits for an event at the Capitol, which the government suppressed. He observed minimal violence and noted that law enforcement did not issue dispersal orders. Brown believes the narrative surrounding January 6th was manipulated, with the focus on specific violent incidents while ignoring the broader context. He suggests that the government had ulterior motives, including the planting of evidence against him.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Jeremy Brown is a name you might not know. He is a decorated veteran who served 20 years in the US Army Special Forces retiring in 2012. He was among the 1,000 who went to Washington DC on January 6th, accused by the federal government of trespassing and disorderly conduct at the US Capitol and its grounds. In September 2021, he was arrested at his Tampa home. During a search of his RV, officials said they found illegal weapons and a national security document.
He was held in jail awaiting trial on weapons charges. Over a year later, he was found guilty of possessing illegal guns, explosives, and that classified document. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 87 months in prison. That is the official story. You can read about it in the papers or online.
But Brown says there is more to it than that. In fact, there's a lot more. Lara Logan wanted to hear the missing parts, so she visited the Citrus County Detention Facility in Florida for an exclusive interview. This is Jeremy Brown in his own words.
Speaker 1: I see you. You brought a little homework with you.
Speaker 2: A little light reading.
Speaker 1: Wow. Hi, Jeremy.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 2: Nice to finally meet you.
Speaker 1: I know. Good to meet you. Your chair is over there. Okay.
Speaker 0: Do you
Speaker 1: want me to take that?
Speaker 0: Sure. When Lara met Jeremy Brown, he was wearing prison orange in handcuffs, and he had a lot of documents that he said helped explain what was really going on the day the authorities came to visit. But even before those weapon charges, there were his activities on January 6th, where he wore military gear, which got the attention of the federal government.
Speaker 2: I wore gear to delineate myself from the civilian population because I'm in a security role. I also wore a red and blue strobe light on the top of my helmet.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Which but all that got you didn't help you?
Speaker 2: Well, no. Of course it didn't help me because nothing's gonna help you in a setup.
Speaker 1: Well, this is true. And it but it made it easy for them to paint you as a threat.
Speaker 2: But I'm their work in security.
Speaker 1: See And who are you doing security for?
Speaker 2: So our protectee, which we didn't know beforehand, we were told that we were gonna be escorting whoever they needed us to escort from the Ellipse to the Capitol. And we have permits for a speaking event at the Capitol. They're in my discovery, but yet that's been suppressed from the American people. So they claim that we're trespassing, and yet we had permits for an event on the capitol grounds approved by the, by the District of Columbia. Yeah.
That's So we were to be escorting speakers. There was rumors that some of the congressmen were going to be utilizing escorts because everyone was walking as President Trump said. We're gonna walk peacefully from here to the capital. Why would the president of the United States say that? Because he knew that there were permitted stages set up at the capital for a follow on rally.
Yes. Except when we got there, there were no stages. So the lady that we were speaking I was told the lady that we're escorting, I was told was the mother of one of the speakers. We were to escort her through the crowd because we expected counter protesters and that's the reason why I'm wearing all that gear because we're expecting bicycle chains with locks, frozen water bottles, all the same TTPs, the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Antifa and BLM and any other counter protester that was normally showing up to commit violence against Americans who just wanted to exercise their first amendment. So that's the reason why I'm in a helmet, I'm in a mask, I'm in eye protection, but I'm dressed, I'm not wearing camouflage, well, I'm not part of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force or anything.
I'm wearing OD Green so that I look official.
Speaker 0: He actually didn't see much violence that day, but one thing is for certain. After January 6th, the government had Jeremy Brown in its sights.
Speaker 2: I didn't see anything because I'm on the side where there isn't stage violence. See, there's only violence in that one very narrow corridor. I believe they call it the west tunnel, which is on the scaffolding side of the capitol. I'm on the other side where the main front steps are and this is why they don't want the video to come out because all that surveillance video is gonna show you that there was no violence anywhere else and if you look at my body cam footage, the footage captures me, you'll see that the police are just standing there for the longest time. In fact, I got bored watching it and had to fast forward through it to get to the actual part where I was in there.
And so they're literally standing there having conversations with people that are just meandering around and then they receive the order and they march into place and they just start pushing people. There was never a call to disperse, which would be normally the case. Right? Law enforcement would come out and say, this has been deemed an unlawful assembly and you must disperse. The capitol grounds has a system called giant voice.
I'm sure you've heard it in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's a huge speaker system that you can hear it for probably a half mile away. It was never deployed on that day. But you know when it was deployed? The next day.
Because we drove by the capitol the next day and they were blasting out messages. Yeah. This is a restricted area or whatever. But none of that was used on January 6th despite us as the American people being told that there was warnings on January 5th of violence, despite weeks prior, President Trump asking for the National Guard to be prepared in order to be ready in case something did happen because there was gonna be large numbers there. The president was saying that they needed to be on call in the event that anything happens, which is normal when you have a 1000000 people plus show up to an, an area.
You're gonna want additional security just in case anything happens and yet all of these weird strange things that that disparate people are identifying, you know it's it's like they say they didn't connect the dots right there's plenty of dots out there that everyone has a dot but they can't connect it to the other dot why because that's how compartmentalized operations
Speaker 1: work. Now I know you went there, but in your experience, the one thing I have never understood from watching the footage is there's plenty of examples of the Capitol Police stepping aside and letting people go in. There's, people even inside the building stepping aside, letting people go in. So why make that stand in the tunnel? Why?
Speaker 2: Because there's cameras.
Speaker 1: And a tunnel. And there's no way for people to go.
Speaker 2: That's all the footage you ever see of January 6th is that one area. Do you realize that the capitol building is nearly a 1000000 square feet? How many entrances do you think there are at the capitol building? Probably a 100 if I had if I had to guess. I might be a little over but yet the only violence that we ever see is that same almost b roll at this point.
The same footage from that west tunnel area and surrounding that that area where these agitators like scaffolding commander as Darren Beatty's article referred to him as is shouting down commands to the crowd attempting to incite my violence but this is going back to the original point that I was making. The other side reacts in these environments. What happened on January 6th is their plan failed. You see, they thought that these provocateurs would incite mass response but they didn't. Sure, there was some initial response.
I mean, if this gentleman throws a rock at me and I'm a riot cop, I'm hitting you And then when I hit you, you're gonna be like, hey, why'd you hit me? And then you're gonna respond back. Right? That's just a natural reaction.
Speaker 1: There were some people, and I've spoken to some of them who said when I saw them beating a woman, you know, I I put my hand and I try to stop him more.
Speaker 2: It's a natural response. But see, mom mentality would be 4 or 5 guys behind you now get involved. But see, that didn't happen on January 6th. They wanted all those people that you see on the watch.
Speaker 1: They thought it would be worse.
Speaker 2: They thought it would be worse. And that's why their narrative was that it was worse. They're having to counter stories that are coming out. The video that's coming out. You know, even I mean, from what I understand, people are starting to now say, well, who's this Jeremy Brown guy?
Speaker 0: Later that year, they went down to Florida to arrest him, and that's when the fireworks really began.
Speaker 1: So you believe that the grenades were planted?
Speaker 2: Of course.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
At first, Jeremy was only charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. But when the feds went to his house in Sept. 2022, it became about much more than those initial charges. It was in his RV that the feds claim they found illegal hand grenades. Jeremy pointed out several problems with their evidence, however... He also believes the government had initially hoped to recruit him…
Video Transcript AI Summary
Jeremy Brown, an army veteran charged with trespass and disorderly conduct for his actions on January 6th, faced more serious allegations when authorities found illegal grenades and firearms during a search of his home. Brown insists the grenades are not his and claims they were planted. He highlights discrepancies in the evidence presented, such as photographs that contradict the testimonies about the grenades' locations. Despite being offered a deal to plead
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Jeremy Brown, an army veteran who wore tactical gear in Washington DC on January 6th, got the attention of the federal government. They charged him with trespass and disorderly conduct. In September of that year, the authorities visited his home in Tampa to arrest him. It ended up being about a lot more than those original infractions because they searched his place. And when they went to his RV parked on the premises, they said they found, among other things, illegal hand grenades and firearms, as well as a national security document.
Speaker 1: So, Jeremy, let's go through some, things in your case so that I have them from you firsthand and not secondhand. Okay? The the grenades, you have always said that, those are not yours.
Speaker 2: They are not mine.
Speaker 0: Is that the truth? Or were those grenades planted? Here is more of Jeremy Brown in his own words.
Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine that someone with your experience, 20 years in special forces
Speaker 2: Mhmm.
Speaker 1: That you're gonna leave anything lying around, least of all an m67 grenade, which is what they say you did.
Speaker 2: That's right. Even though their photographs say that they're lying, of which I do have in this stack of stuff if you'd like to look at them.
Speaker 1: I would like to look
Speaker 2: at them. Because see, this is one of the things that I wanted to go into depth in during the trial but yet I'll put the top page. Alright. So here's my grenade stack. So what they testified to was that Belvin Sanchez, a hills or a Hillsborough County sheriff's officer working as a task force officer, right, what we would call useful idiots, he came in first and searched the RV, right?
Mhmm. Well, if Belman Sanchez searched this room first then who took the photograph? But let's just put that question aside. He claims that he found the vest right there on top of that pelican case of which this photograph is taken at 17:06. There is no vest on top of that pelican case.
There's also no vest on that bed right there. Now there's another picture of that bed taken 1 minute later so you clearly see that there's no vest on that bed. And yet, this is the evidence diagram claiming that one vest was found on the bed and one vest was found on the floor. Now what they're gonna tell you and what they told the jury because my lawyer did make the point that there is no vest in this picture. They're trying to say that that is a space but it's not a space.
You can go in the RV and look at it with the slides in like it's configured there. There's no space there. That is the wall right there. When the slide goes out, that wall goes out and creates this space that's drawn here but that doesn't exist here. So their diagram does not match their own photos and yet at 18/28 is when the pictures of the vest with the grenades, a full hour and a half later after these photographs are taken is when supposedly Velvin Sanchez went in there, picked up the vest off the floor off the top of that case of which you can't see it because it's an invisible vest apparently, felt the weight and looked in the pockets and found the grenades.
Now this is
Speaker 1: And and is this
Speaker 2: That's one of the 2 grenades that they claim is mine. Now you happen to be very close to a special forces guy. He's probably
Speaker 1: operations character.
Speaker 2: He he he's probably very particular about certain things and one of the things that we're very particular about is our gear and the way it's set up. So I want you to here, we're gonna fast forward to some pictures of the actual grenades. Alright. There's one of them. There's the other one.
1 is taped with a different color tape.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: 1 has a full piece of tape with no quick release. Yes. Yes. One is a half piece of tape which is what I normally use because that tapes hard to find with a quick release but both of the grenades have their spoons taped which means they're prepared for storage and transportation not for deployment. So would a 20 year special forces guy, 1, tape his 2 grenades differently No.
Using completely different forms of tape, different techniques of tape, different colors of tape, in fact, in one case, and then put them in a vest where they're supposed to be in a configuration to deploy with the spoons taped up.
Speaker 0: He noted other problems he had with the grenade evidence.
Speaker 2: I have m 67 fragmentation grenade pouches, but you see, they're not mounted to anything, and there's nothing in them. See if I was actually using them I would have them on my actual kit that was next to my bed along with my long gun just like it always has been ever since I was issued a gun in basic training. So if I have 2 frag grenades, why would they not be on my kit and why would they not be in frag pouches and they're gonna claim that they were laying on the floor in an RV that we weren't living in apart from my actual gear that I use, just 2 explosive grenade just laying there. That's their story and they're sticking to it even though their own photographs don't match.
Speaker 0: These are only a small part of his claims and to Brown, put it all together, and there's only one conclusion. He's being set up.
Speaker 1: So you believe that the grenades were planted?
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 0: The case went to trial. Brown says he actually turned down a deal.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show you the 3 page letter that my attorney wrote to me begging me to accept their not plea deal, which was basically plead to the 2 charges that you have already admitted to, the possession of the guns, because my stance is that those guns are protected under the second amendment of the United States constitution. And we're gonna drop explosives and classified material charges, and you'll probably get time served. That was their non plea offer. And when I say non plea offer, I mean they called my attorney and they said, we're not making a plea offer but if you were to submit to us these terms, I'll submit it to my supervisor and see what they say. Well, everybody knows that's the equivalent of the mob coming in and saying you have an awful nice shop here.
It'd be ashamed if it burned down. I mean
Speaker 1: It's so slimy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They're they're slimy.
Speaker 0: So Jeremy was not only fighting the government, he also didn't see eye to eye with his attorney. Brown wanted to introduce evidence that in fact, the government hoped to recruit him.
Speaker 1: But why didn't your attorney then bring it up in the trial?
Speaker 2: Well, because, he has to hear cases in front of this judge. He has to work with these prosecutors again, I'm sure, in the future, and maybe he believed he had another way that he was planning on winning. I don't know why he didn't do what I asked him to do. See he was still trying to win the case that was not my mission. My mission was to expose the truth.
I told them I don't care if I go to jail. I don't care if they find me guilty on all counts. I want the truth on the record, which is the exact thing that the government does not want on the record, which is why they censor everything.
Speaker 0: Jeremy had a story to tell, but the government won the case. He was convicted of several charges and sentenced to over 7 years in prison. Locked up, but still fighting for his beliefs, Brown thinks he knows how America got to where it is, and he's worried about where it's going.
Speaker 2: It starts with whoever the boogeyman is today. And then tomorrow, it's the next level. And incrementally, they keep coming until they get to you.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Jeremy Brown has been in prison since late 2021, and if he serves his sentence, he has over four years left. He’s adamant that he was set up, but this didn’t surprise him. He knows these are strange times in America’s history — and he has some ideas as to how we got to this point.
Video Transcript AI Summary
Jeremy Brown has been imprisoned for over 1,000 days and believes he was set up, reflecting on the current state of America. He discusses the FBI's historical role in domestic surveillance, likening it to past abuses of power. Brown suggests that the events of January 6th were orchestrated as a false flag operation to target conservatives, drawing parallels to historical political tactics. He highlights the presence of agent provocateurs in various protests, arguing that the left is more easily provoked into violence. Brown warns of a broader agenda to destabilize the U.S., referencing unconventional warfare tactics. He expresses concern for his safety, suggesting that he could meet a mysterious end due to the serious nature of these events.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Jeremy Brown is in prison. He's now been held behind bars for more than a 1000 days. And if he serves his full sentence, he's got more than 4 years left. He believes he's been set up, but this didn't necessarily surprise him. For this is a strange time in American history, And Brown, who has studied the past, believes he knows how we got to this place.
This is part 3 of Jeremy Brown in his own words.
Speaker 1: Well, I think there was a Bruce Willis movie. It's called Red. Retired, extremely dangerous. But it's because I understand the game that they're playing better than they do. You see, the FBI is new to this game.
I mean, is not really that old in the grand scheme of warfare.
Speaker 2: What is?
Speaker 1: The counter, was it counterintelligence, the program that spied on Martin Luther King and John f Kennedy and all that. So it was exposed during the church committee hearings in the seventies. Right? It's basically illegal spying on American citizens by the FBI utilizing all the different tools of the intelligence community. And it's not just the FBI, look, the FBI is the scapegoat for military agencies which the intelligence agencies are military, right?
They're designed for our enemies outside of the united states not they shouldn't be designed for inside the united states
Speaker 2: Title 50. Right?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: For title 50 under
Speaker 1: your law. DoD is title 10. See? You know too much. Laura, you better be careful.
Oh, forgive me. The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force is merely just a title. Alright? Establishing operational control or OPCON inside the United States for all of these military organizations.
Speaker 2: Because they have domestic jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: So it makes it legal.
Speaker 1: And there's a perfect
Speaker 2: Unless you're national resources division.
Speaker 1: And there's a perfect scene in the movie Sicario where Josh Brolin's character says to the young female FBI agent, we need you here
Speaker 2: Yes. To
Speaker 1: make this legal because he That's
Speaker 2: what she realizes. She's just being used.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: Because they her presence there. She's not there because she's really good at her job or anything. She's there because they need, the FBI stamp of approval
Speaker 1: to have her citizenship. Life. See, the FBI is a subset of a cabinet level position. Right? The Department of Justice.
But yet the Department of Homeland Security is working underneath the FBI. The Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet level agency or the cabinet level department.
Speaker 2: Okay. So in your given your experience, Jeremy, what qualifies you to recognize what you think happened on January 6th? And, Okay, so before you tell me that, what actually happened? You said often that in your view this was a setup. What do you mean?
Describe the operation that you saw unfolding.
Speaker 1: Well, because in compartmentalized operations you're never going to know what actually happened. It's designed that way. What it appears happened is that there was what we refer to as an agent provocateur operation or commonly referred to as a false flag operation meant to criminalize and target a certain political persuasion in this country and and currently that persuasion is the conservative movement, the Patriot Movement. But as Martin Nehemiah wrote in his poem, that's only the initial phase. Right?
I mean, the censorship started with Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan but now look who's being censored. Everybody right it starts with whoever the boogeyman is today and then tomorrow it's the next level and incrementally they keep coming until they get to you just like in his poem first they came for the communists but I wasn't a communist Then they came for the trade unionists but I wasn't a trade unionist. Right? And it goes on and on.
Speaker 2: So I said nothing so I did nothing.
Speaker 1: That's right. And that's exactly what you're seeing today. So where have we seen it spread? We've seen it spread from all MAGA rioters to school board moms to, now, I just spoke to a documentary filmmaker who said that their Christian revival was infiltrated by an agent.
Speaker 2: Naturalists, homeopaths, because cause you're not allowed to do that. You gotta you gotta take, the vaccine.
Speaker 1: How many vitamin c clinics were shut down by FBI raids during the whole COVID thing? I mean, this is what they're doing. They're incremental see they have to come incrementally because there's really not that many of them. Right? I mean the Nazis took over Poland even though they were severely outnumbered.
Why? Because they were scary. They were intimidating. I mean, read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book, The Gulag Archipelago, and he talks about how, we could have easily stopped this if we would have just done something but everyone was so scared and if you talk to a Chinese dissident, a Cuban dissident, a Venezuelan dissident, a a former Soviet Union dissident, they'll tell you that they don't even like to talk about politics in public because they're so conditioned that that's just not what you did back then, right, except for the ones that are, like, I'm not there anymore and I'm gonna speak out super loud. It's why we've had so many Chinese I call them Americans of Chinese, descent that have been supportive because they see what's happening in this country is the incremental steps towards what's happened in their country and they've escaped it and now here they are in America and where else are they gonna go?
And that's exactly what you see with this police this police state operation. So the intent behind January 6th, I believe, and what appears to be was a political false flag along the lines of what Hitler used in order to gain control of Nazi Germany in the early thirties, which was the burning of the Reichstag, the burning of the German parliament
Speaker 2: Mhmm.
Speaker 1: And then blamed it on the communists.
Speaker 2: Okay. So what are the signs? How do you know? Because people want evidence. Right?
They're not just gonna take you at your word. They don't have your training and knowledge. They don't understand what you're talking about sometimes. So, what are the signs that you saw that tells you that or the hallmarks of that kind of operation?
Speaker 1: Here's one here's one of the biggest keys. Right? The the problem is for them is that they see the world through their eyes right so there are mob mentality types so if you look at the Black Lives Matter antifa riots of the summer of love right there were agent provocateurs in those as well I mean there was just as many footage of, you know, crowds of blacks with young white kids in black block picking up bricks and throwing it and they're yelling at them. Hey. What are you doing?
Right? Sure. They're there
Speaker 2: for breaking windows at the order zone and then stepping aside.
Speaker 1: For social justice but you have agitators in the crowd. But see, here's the difference is that that mentality on the the other side, right, the liberal or leftist side, you might say, is much more easily provoked into anger. Right? And that's why we had, Representative Nels wrote in his book, almost 8,700 riots during the Summer of Love. Right?
Speaker 2: It's also very well funded.
Speaker 1: Very well funded. Right? Burning things down. $2,000,000,000 were the estimates of damage. 100 of law enforcement agents hurt and then some killed citizens and, you know, retired, law enforcement, police chief, I think, in St.
Louis was shot right outside of his storefront and
Speaker 2: And very little enforcement.
Speaker 1: Very little done. Why? Because it's all part of this grander, unrestricted, unconventional warfare being conducted against the United States meant to destabilize and I have the unconventional warfare pocket guide right here an official army document an unclassed version I might add right? I worked at the TSSCI level of these types of things and this is a diagram of the activities of an insurgency. That diagram, if you read it from the bottom to the top, you will be reading the last 100 years of American history.
Speaker 0: With such a history, Brown wonders what will happen next.
Speaker 1: I could die in a mysterious single car accident. I mean, this is a serious, serious game.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Jeremy’s time in prison has given him plenty of time to think, and now he has plenty of questions. One question is, if the government believes he was part of some dangerous conspiracy, why haven’t they asked him about it? No one can be certain what the future holds for Jeremy’s life — or his country.
Video Transcript AI Summary
Jeremy Brown reflects on his time in prison, questioning why the government hasn't interrogated him about being an undicted coconspirator in a supposed conspiracy. He expresses disappointment in himself and others for complacency regarding threats to the country. Despite the challenges, he plans to continue speaking out through interviews to raise awareness. He emphasizes the importance of individual talents in fighting for freedom and acknowledges the complexities of unconventional warfare, which can influence public opinion without violence. Brown remains committed to his beliefs, even as he faces the possibility of a lengthy imprisonment. The future of his case and the nation remains uncertain.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Spending his days in prison, Jeremy Brown has plenty of time to think, and he's got plenty of questions. One question is, if the government believes he's part of a dangerous conspiracy, why haven't they questioned him about it?
Speaker 1: So you have to ask questions. Right? But if I'm an undivided coconspirator in the attempted violent overthrow of the United States government, a 20 year special forces operator, nobody thought to ask me, so how did you do it? Or when did you first come up with this plan? Nothing.
Speaker 2: But you haven't even been charged in that case.
Speaker 1: No. I'm an undited coconspirator. Right. They're not gonna charge me because they don't want me on the stand, which is exactly why they didn't want January 6th brought up in my Tampa trial.
Speaker 0: This is the final part of Jeremy Brown in his own words.
Speaker 1: Well, my plan is to hopefully continue to do interviews with intrepid journalists like yourself that have an understanding of what's going on in this country, that continue to wake people up one person at a time.
Speaker 2: That's a heavy price to pay for that, Jeremy.
Speaker 1: Uh-huh. What else can I do? I swore an oath to defend to to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. So help me, god. And I I believe in god, and so I definitely don't wanna piss him off.
Speaker 2: Yes. You did retire. You could say like a
Speaker 1: lot I didn't.
Speaker 2: You could say like a lot of others, well, you know, that's someone else's job now.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, I think too many guys with my skill set have done just that. So they enjoy their life. They don't wanna spend 19 months in jail to prove that bad things are happening. You know, normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance are a very real thing And and look, there's something that plagues our community and even the law enforcement community. Right?
Look, I was in Pinellas County. Pinellas County is actually sworn deputies that are the the guards there. They're law enforcement officers. They've sworn the same oath that I have but you know, they get a paycheck. They've got a mortgage and a family to feed.
One of them asked me, man, why did you even do this? You could have just let it all go and then you wouldn't have to put up all this. See, I have 5 daughters. I have a girlfriend that I love. Hell, I have 2 dogs.
I love this country. I spent my entire adult life defending it at the highest levels I could possibly achieve. And when I walked away, I walked away. I didn't go to Afghanistan on multimillion dollar contracts, you know, soaking the American taxpayer money as part of the military industrial complex. See, this is the trap.
It's the handcuffs that have an entire population of guys that know the exact same things that I know, but they don't wanna see it. They don't wanna open up their unconventional warfare pocket guide and read it and say, holy cow. This is happening in my country.
Speaker 2: And we're in trouble.
Speaker 1: And we're in trouble. See, they'd rather go to the Special Forces Association meeting Special Forces Association meeting and raise money for scholarship programs to send their kids off to hate them because that's what our comp compromised academia does now.
Speaker 2: Jeremy, if your plan fails and they slap on extra charges in your January 6th case, I mean, you could be here forever.
Speaker 1: I will be here as long as the American people leave me here.
Speaker 2: You could die behind bars.
Speaker 1: I could die outside of these bars.
Speaker 2: But you could die without the freedom that you're fighting for.
Speaker 1: I could die in a mysterious single car accident. I mean this is a serious serious game. There's a reason why certain things have not happened because like I said there's debates behind closed doors. I don't know what's going on in those meetings. I'm not in the room when it happens.
They're making the sausage as we speak and right now the sausage that they're making is extra spicy because they're desperate. And you think it's a big shock that Tucker Carlson is ousted at Fox? Yeah. The guy that was responsible for releasing 44000 hours of footage basically undermining the entire fake January 6th narrative? The Department of Justice is on the record as saying this is the largest investigation in American history And it's all fake.
You think they're gonna let some cable news anchor keep his highly rated show?
Speaker 2: Are you angry?
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I could say there's targeted anger at certain organizations, but ultimately, I'm disappointed, one, in myself because I certainly was in the same boat as many of these other guys, you know. I didn't start blowing these whistles until probably a couple years into the Russian hoax where I was like, okay, this is undeniable. They're trying to overthrow the country, and that's what they've done. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm disappointed in myself for not, being more active. I'm disappointed in the American people for being so complacent.
You know, I get so many prayers and words of encouragement, but the number one thing I get is people asking me, what can we do?
Speaker 2: What do you tell them?
Speaker 1: Well first I should tell everybody, when you're in a war it's usually not won by your political prisoners of war. Right? But what I tell them is that they all know their individual talents. They're all good at something. God's given everybody their own unique talents.
Speaker 2: Mine,
Speaker 1: they're more along the line of Samson. I might be what they might refer to as it. But that's my talent. I can endure this pain because I'm specially selected and well trained and so that's what I'm doing. Now the government's gonna say, oh, he's trying to lead this that and the other yeah but see that's because they don't understand what unconventional warfare is.
Unconventional warfare is the winning of the hearts and minds of a populace and you can be successful like our enemies have been without firing a shot.
Speaker 0: But Jeremy Brown is likely to remain in prison for some time, and no one can be sure exactly what twists and turns his story will take next. I guess the same is true for our country. If you have not seen all four parts of Jeremy Brown in his own words, you can watch them now at truth in media dot com.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Was there a military stand down order in place on October 7? At Kibbutz Be’eri, at the Nova music festival, and at so many other sites of the Hamas Al-Aqsa Flood attack — the IDF didn’t respond for hours. Why? https://t.co/ZhVQ9ci5JO
Video Transcript AI Summary
Israel's delayed response to Hamas attacks on October 7th raises questions of a possible military stand down order. Despite being capable, it took hours for soldiers to arrive and engage militants. Former spy Jonathan Pollard hints at a stand down order. Reservists left on their own due to lack of mobilization. The timeline shows a slow reaction to the attack, leading to speculation about Israel's actions. The episode questions if Israel targeted only militants during the conflict. Stay tuned for more on Israel's war on Gaza.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: 8 months into Israel's bombardment of Gaza, there appears to be still no end in sight. We've been taking a look at what happened on October 7th during the Hamas terror attacks, and part of looking at that day requires some uncomfortable realities. Here's 1. During the October 7th attacks, what did the Israeli military do? Well, strangely enough, for hours, nothing.
I'm investigative journalist Ben Swan, and this is reckoning Israel and Gaza. Before we dive into the evidence that suggests there was some type of military stand down order on October 7th, it's important to remember that Israel is just slightly bigger than the size of the state of New Jersey. But for some reason, once the Hamas attacks began, the time it took the Israeli army and rescue teams to arrive, fight, and rescue Israelis at the different kibbutz communities and sites being attacked, well, that ranged anywhere from 4 hours to more than 20 hours. Even the New York Times has reported, quote, thousands of soldiers were less than 40 minutes from the towns that were under attack. So why did it take so long for help to arrive?
For example, Kibbutz Bieri was under siege by Palestinian militants beginning around 6 AM. That was the morning of October 7th. A video that Israeli media obtained from an army helicopter corroborated by Israeli survivors proves that there were more than 500 Israeli soldiers directly outside of the kibbutz entrance fully armed with Humvees and tanks, but not until 4:30 in the afternoon. That's 10 hours after the attack began. It took 10 hours for those soldiers to show up, but it gets stranger because the first rescue mission wasn't actually underway at Kublitz Barreri, again, according to Israeli media, until almost 7 PM.
That's 13 hours after the attack began. Atzival, a survivor of the Bererere attack, described to Herets, quote, 500 soldiers stood outside with equipment and vehicles. I remember yelling at them. We're being slaughtered. Come in.
Save us. And no 1 said anything. But why? In our last episode, we discussed the Nova music festival. We showed you that the party was approved last minute despite multiple warnings of a violent incursion from Gaza.
And we've discussed how days before the festival, 2 entire brigades of soldiers were taken away from the area of the Gaza border and then sent to the West Bank. And you might think that immediately upon receiving information of a devastating attack on partygoers, military authorities would alert units to immediately exit their bases, race to the side of the conflict, and go on the counterattack. Right? But that's not what happened. Perez reported, quote, at 7 AM, the party organizer called lieutenant colonel Elad Zandani, the man tasked with approving the festival, and told him that terrorists were shooting the partygoers.
He suggested that they fend for themselves. The first IDF forces arrived at the party scene at 3 PM. That's 8 hours for a response time for 1 of the most efficient, capable, and well militarized security forces in the world operating in a country the size of New Jersey with their Gaza division only a few miles away. What makes it even more strange, around 4 hours into the Hamas assault at 10:46 AM, Israel was already launching operations and bombing targets inside of Gaza. So hold on.
Let that sink in. If Israel could begin an offensive attack into Gaza within 4 hours, why did it take more than 6 hours? In most cases, more than 10 hours, and in some cases, 20 hours to mobilize inside their own country to stop the ongoing attack, to defend the lives of their own people. Jonathan Pollard is an Israeli American. He's a former National Security Agency employee.
He served 30 years in federal prison for giving classified information to Israel. Of course, you should always be skeptical of the claims of a former spy. But on a podcast, Pollard seems to suggest there was a military stand down order in place on October 7th. And considering all the evidence, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: I have friends who were, helicopter pilots, attack pilots, who were sitting in their cockpits ready to take off, fully loaded, ready ready ready to stop them at the fence. They didn't get their orders for 6 hours. They could hear it. They could hear the fighting. They were called by friends in the border of Kibbutzim in Mosavim that were being overrun and slaughtered saying help us, please.
They're killing our children. They weren't given permission to take off. That will haunt my friends for the rest of his life.
Speaker 0: The New York Times quoted Ben Zion, an Israeli military reservist who spoke to Israeli media. He said his unit voluntarily left central Israel in a convoy at 1:30 PM. They got together, and they left for the south on their own. He expected to see the roads packed with soldiers and equipment and armored vehicles heading south. Quote, the roads were empty, he recalled in an interview.
Roughly 7 hours into the fighting, he turned to the reservist next to him and asked, where's the IDF? Now we've thrown a lot of information at you here, so let's sum up the timeline. At 6 AM, Hamas began their violent assault on southern Israel by launching hundreds of rockets and then breaching the border. At 10 AM, the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel is at war. 30 minutes later, the Israeli military announced it was already identifying and bombing targets inside of Gaza.
And from there, it took anywhere from 4 hours to 10 hours for army units to arrive, and then sometimes another 4 hours to 10 hours for them to actually engage the militants and begin to save Israelis. Now between the trove of concrete evidence that suggests Israeli military allowed October 7th to happen by ignoring dozens of reliable and specific warnings, threatening soldiers with legal actions who try to warn their military superiors, and taking troops away from the area of the Gaza border that was attacked. And now evidence that suggests there was some type of military stand down order in place on October 7th, it's important to ask, what was October 7th, and what kind of war is the United States supporting? The brutal and deadly Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th is so central in justifying Israel's ongoing war in Gaza that Israel was actually outlawing questioning the October 7th government narrative. Israelis who spread information counter to the October 7th government narrative, which the Israeli Knesset calls falsehoods and propaganda, could face up to 5 years in prison.
Why are they doing that? Well, in our next episode, we're gonna take a look at another crucial aspect of October 7th. Once Israel finally did begin using their firepower and military to engage Hamas in southern Israel, did they exclusively target enemy militants? It is a critical question. If you haven't already, you can follow us on x, truth_inmedia, or you can sign up to follow this series and watch each episode as it comes out at truthinmedia.com.
And at truth in media, you're gonna find the transcript of the story along with all of the source articles. Check them out for yourself and stay tuned as we continue to unveil the truth around Israel's war on Gaza.
reSee.it AI Summary
President Biden previously warned that if Russia invaded Ukraine, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would be affected. A recent report by journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, with Biden's approval, formed a task force with the CIA to destroy the pipeline. The media's treatment of the pipeline's explosion as a mystery and the gloating of politicians in the US and EU over its destruction raise questions. Tune in to Episode 4 of "Zelenskyy Unmasked" for more details.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, President Biden threatened that "If Russia invades, there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2." A year later, journalist Seymour Hersh released a bombshell report on how National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan formed a task force with the CIA to destroy the Nord Stream 2 pipeline — with Biden's approval. So why did the corporate media treat the pipeline's explosion as a mystery? And why did politicians in the US and EU gloat over its destruction? Episode 4 of "Zelenskyy Unmasked" starts now...
Video Transcript AI Summary
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipelines exploded under the Baltic Sea, with suspicions of sabotage by Putin. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed a US-led mission to destroy the pipelines, impacting European gas supplies. US opposition to Nord Stream 2 aimed to promote American gas exports. The US Navy's divers reportedly planted bombs during NATO drills to blow up the pipelines. The explosions led to increased gas costs in Europe, benefiting US gas producers. The aftermath of the attacks remains unresolved, with implications for European economies and US taxpayers. Next, the focus shifts to US aid sent to Ukraine.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: On September 26, 2022, 7 months after Russia invaded Ukraine, 3 massive pipelines exploded under the Baltic Sea. Western media and politicians claimed that the explosions of what were known as the Nord Stream pipelines was sabotage, but not by the US or by Ukraine, but by Vladimir Putin himself. I'm investigative journalist, Ben Swan, and this is Zelensky Unmasked. If you don't know what the Nord Stream pipelines are, they form part of what was arguably Russia's biggest economic and political win since the fall of the Soviet Union. They were underwater pipes which carried Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing third countries.
It made it extremely cheap for Europeans and extremely profitable for Russians, which is why the western media reaction to the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines as Putin sabotaging his own pipelines was nonsensical. The truth behind what happened, well, that was finally revealed months later by venerable investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who previously broke stories on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. In a bombshell report, Hersh detailed how president Biden and the CIA blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, an act of war, not just against Russia, their arch nemesis
Speaker 1: I don't think they say
Speaker 0: through the war. But also against their ally, Germany.
Speaker 2: The only thing that surprised me about the recent revelation about the Nord Stream pipeline is that it took this long to come out.
Speaker 0: The Nord Stream pipelines first began delivering Russian natural gas to Germany in 2011. Before Nord Stream was built, Russian gas was delivered to Western Europe through 2 underground pipes.
Speaker 3: Historically, Russia's resources have been essential to Germany, and Germany's technology, its manufacturing capability, its human capital have been very helpful to Russia.
Speaker 0: With an underwater pipeline, gas could be delivered directly from Russia to Germany. Bypassing the middle countries with those transit costs cut, Germany would save bid. The original Nord Stream pipeline, Nord Stream 1, greatly increased Russian gas supplies to Europe, especially Germany. Before the pipeline was built, Germany received 37.5% of their natural gas from Russia. Nord Stream nearly doubled that figure, reaching as high as 70% of German gas supplies in 20 16.
Germany was receiving so much cheap Russian gas that they were able to reexport it to other European countries. Once Nord Stream 1 began operations, Russia began immediately laying the pipes for Nord Stream 2. The second project would increase the gas pipelines from 2 to 4, giving Russian gas supplies to Germany the potential to double. Well, in reaction, US government officials declared Nord Stream 2 a threat.
Speaker 4: The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a pipeline from Russia to Germany to carry natural gas that if completed would generate 1,000,000,000 of dollars for Putin.
Speaker 0: US resistance to Nord Stream 2 began within the 1st year of the Trump administration. Bipartisan sanction packages effectively brought a halt to the pipeline's construction. The Trump administration wasn't just responding to deep state interest though, but also to domestic economic concerns. Due to the revolution in fracking in the United States, the US became a natural gas exporter to Europe for the first time in 2016. The United States wanted access to European markets, but their gas was significantly more expensive than that cheap Russian gas.
The US's burgeoning LNG industry received a boon, however, in the form of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since that time, US exports to Europe have nearly doubled. But but with this action, aren't we, Si, leaving them out in the cold? Quite literally.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna have enough gas to keep their people warm.
Speaker 0: But the economic devastation unleashed in Europe because of the switch from Russian to American gas hadn't always been part of the continent's destiny. The year before the Nord Stream explosions, the Biden administration surprised many by introducing a sanctions waiver on the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline. But could they have had another plan in mind? Here's deputy secretary of state and Ukraine Russia policy architect, Victoria Nuland.
Speaker 5: If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.
Speaker 0: And here's Biden himself just 2 weeks before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: If Russia invades, then,
Speaker 6: there will be, we there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2.
Speaker 2: Either the president, fulfilled his promise and his threat or he didn't.
Speaker 0: But Biden reportedly did come through on his threat. A year after the Russian invasion, Seymour Hersh exposed the inner workings of the top secret US government mission to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines.
Speaker 3: It was an act of war against Russia on one hand and against Germany on the other.
Speaker 0: The Seymour Hersh bombshell report is simply incredible, and it's so incredibly detailed. But in order to understand it, you have to know who this is. Because according to Hirsch, 2 months before the Russian invasion, Biden's national security adviser, the guy you see right there, Jake Sullivan, he formed a task force with individuals from the CIA, the joint chiefs of staff, the treasury department, and the state department. And one of the task force's first duties was to follow through on Biden's approved plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines. The CIA reportedly developed a strategy to use people serving in the US Navy's diving and salvage center in Panama City, Florida.
See, the divers would plant bombs onto the pipelines, ones that could be detonated remotely. In order to cover their tracks, they planted the bombs during NATO's June 2022 military drills, ball tops 22. The operation to blow up the pipelines was based in Norway, a member of NATO. Norway also happens to be Europe's 2nd leading natural gas supplier behind Russia. The Norwegians recommended that the explosives be placed right off of Dibmarks Bornholm Island, whose waters were shallow enough for divers to place the bombs.
According to government insiders interviewed by Hirsch, the bombs were placed during Baltops 22 and programmed to be detonated at a later date. I think it rises to a 911 scale of attack. When they aren't blaming Russia for blowing up their own pipelines, mainstream media outlets treated the explosion as a mystery. The White House did too.
Speaker 5: So I don't wanna get ahead of the investigation. We have to see, we have to see who is behind this at this time.
Speaker 0: But other public figures reacted to the explosion by gloating, like EU parliament member, Radek Sikorsky. He tweeted then deleted an image of the Nord Stream blast with a caption that read, quote, thank you USA. Ted Cruz and Victoria Nuland also got in on the fun.
Speaker 5: Senator Cruz, like you, I am and I think the administration is very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.
Speaker 0: 4 months months later, Hirsch released his report which detailed the US and Norwegian government's planning and execution of this Nord Stream attack. As it stands now, there are no official plans to fix the Nord Stream pipelines. In the meantime, it's US gas producers who are the big winners. Norwegian gas producers have also increased their supplies to Europe, but it's the working class people in Germany and across the rest of Europe who suffer under the weight of rising gas costs, and thus higher inflation. Just as US taxpayers suffer from massive amounts of treasure being sent to Ukraine, next time we investigate the over $100,000,000,000 that the US government has already sent to Ukraine.
Do we know what it's going there for? Where are those tax dollars really going? Next week on Zelensky, Unmasked.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn't who you think he is. Woke celebrities and warmongering politicians adore him, but very few Americans know about the shadowy billionaires backing this actor-turned-president. Episode 2 of "Zelenskyy Unmasked" is here... https://t.co/YCzVx4VipV
Video Transcript AI Summary
Vladimir Zelensky, a former actor turned president of Ukraine, is backed by oligarchs, including Igor Kolomoisky, who controlled his rise to power. Despite being portrayed as a hero by the media, Zelensky has failed to deliver on his promises, leading to growing authoritarianism in Ukraine. Critics question his true intentions in the ongoing conflict with Russia, suggesting he may be a puppet for larger interests. The truth behind Zelensky's leadership and who is truly in control remains a mystery.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Vladimir Zelensky isn't quite who he's portrayed to be. Even if you believe that he is a righteous servant of democracy, one thing is without a doubt, he is an actor in more ways than one. But he's not an actor who simply became president. He had backing. What virtually no American knows about Zelensky is that he appears to be backed by shadowy billionaires accountable to no one other than their own business interests.
Zelensky's image isn't something that just happened. It appears to be carefully coordinated and orchestrated. Zelensky as a leader is being portrayed by the dominant mainstream media as a noble saint, selfless, brave, chic even. A hero to woke actors and warmongering politicians alike, Zelensky is the world's biggest celebrity, and he's being billed as something more. He is the new George Washington, the new Winston Churchill.
So what's the truth? I'm Ben Swan, and this is Zelenskyy Unmasked.
Speaker 1: And who was Zelensky? I mean, this is a guy that used to play the piano with his penis when he was a comedian playing the president of the Ukraine. Ukraine.
Speaker 2: The history of Zelensky is interesting, and it's exactly what you would expect for a person who, is acting as the president of a country right now. He was in a TV show, a servant of the people, and he was a comedian. And in that TV show, he was a teacher who became president. And he wanted the country to join NATO and join the EU and all of the things that, you know, he's acting as now. So then his financial backers then started a party, and they called that party the servant of the people party.
And they ran him as president with exactly the same platform that he had in the television show.
Speaker 0: Vladimir Zelensky didn't just become president of Ukraine. Not surprisingly, he had help. What mainstream media won't tell you is where that help came from. A name you've probably never heard, Igor Kolomoisky is one of Ukraine's leading oligarchs, and he's the owner of the 1 plus 1 media group, one of Ukraine's largest media conglomerates. Kolomoisky's network aired Zelensky's hit TV show, Servant of the People, the one that made him a star.
Kolomoisky also has been accused of being one of the most notorious gangsters in Ukrainian history. He's accused of embezzling 1,000,000,000 of dollars and of hiring people to kill his rivals. That aside, Ukraine's worst kept secret is that Kolomoisky was pulling the strings of Zelensky's presidential campaign. And even though he's Jewish, US government officials claim that Kolomoisky was the brainchild and bank roller of Ukraine's Neo Nazi Azov battalion. Soon after Zelensky's servant of the people party was launched, Kolomoisky got the attention of the FBI.
The US justice department claims that his Privat Bank ran a Ponzi scheme, which stole 1,000,000,000 from investors and hid $70,000,000 of it in the United States. It was Kolomoisky's money and the enormous power he wielded, which was needed to complete Zelensky's transformation from TV to his country's top man.
Speaker 3: The show was so popular and Ukrainian presidents were so bad that they took him, ran him, and he beat the people, not because he's qualified, but because they were so sick of the old system. They thought this actor could pretend to be president better than presidents were actually being president.
Speaker 2: So clearly, it was a production to create a television show and then eventually turn it into a party. But they knew that the people of Ukraine wanted peace as most people in most countries want.
Speaker 4: Ukraine At least he's promised to end the war. That's what we are hoping for.
Speaker 2: So he ran as a peace candidate, and he ran arguing that he would push for peace with Russia, peace reversal, and he went in the direction that his backers wanted. Zelenskyy took reversal, and he went in the direction that his backers wanted.
Speaker 0: Zelensky took office in 2019 amidst the catastrophic collapse of public confidence in Ukraine's government and frustration with that society's endemic corruption. Hope quickly turned to despair, however, once it became clear that under Zelensky, nothing had changed. The economy remained in shambles. Corruption was still rampant, and the Donbas war still raged on. Zelensky had failed to live up to any of his promises.
Speaker 3: The war comes, and they take this man with 23% popularity who shut down all democracy, and we turn him into Winston Churchill.
Speaker 0: And pretty soon, Zelensky was everywhere on the cover of Time, Newsweek, Wired, Vanity Fair. He was even photographed for vote. You can't make this stuff up. He and his wife post for cover photos while he was in the midst of leading a war, supposedly for his country's survival. Really?
And he had time for this. Actually, he had time for this and a lot more. The actor turned president also made his way to the US stage by recording messages, which were played live at the Grammy's and the Golden Globes. He rang the bell at Wall Street virtually, and he visited congress live and in person. A weird sand statue of him was erected in Estonia, and congressman Joe Wilson, a republican from South Carolina, introduced a bill to erect a permanent bust of Zelensky at the US Capitol.
By the way, you can now purchase a miniature version of this would be bust on Amazon for 1999.
Speaker 5: He was selected to act in this role, and he's doing a fantastic job as an actor. Quite frankly, this is the role of a lifetime, and he's killing it.
Speaker 0: And it's clear that Zelensky got a lot of help in prepping for this role.
Speaker 6: So, basically, today, the Ukraine is run by the deep state, the the military in in in Washington, the people who want war to make money from war, the in in the military industrial complex in United States, and Zelensky is a puppet within this whole big show.
Speaker 2: It was from the very beginning, this was some kind of a in my opinion, it was some kind of an intelligence pushed, media operation to this day. And that's why he's always behind green screens. That's always why he's doing covers for various magazines, etcetera, because this is really a production for people worldwide to think that they have a president of a country, and he's just a hollow figure.
Speaker 0: Here's Here's something you're not gonna see on CNN. Throughout history, intelligence agencies have invested massive amounts of money to manage public relations campaigns. That's just a fact. These campaigns have been waged to spread disinformation in the interest of getting public opinion behind a war. And you don't have to look very far back in the past to find examples.
I'll give you one right here. 1990, a girl from Kuwait who said her name was Nayira, testified that she witnessed babies being taken out of incubators and killed by Saddam Hussein's forces. Turned out, that was a lie. And the girl wasn't just some random girl, She was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States, Saud al Sabah. The story about the incubators, by the way, it never happened.
But it was too late once we knew for sure. The publicity campaign associated with that lie swayed public opinion against Saddam Hussein and in favor of a US invasion of Kuwait. 12 years later, US secretary of state Colin Powell took his turn at lying with an eye towards Iraq. Remember this famous shot of him holding up vials of those biological weapons samples? He testified before the world that the country had weapons of mass destruction.
This bold faced lie prompted the US invasion of Iraq and the deaths of over 1,000,000 Iraqi people. So the question that thinking people must grapple with, could the same thing be happening in the case of Ukraine?
Speaker 2: It's interesting because for the most part, that, that production has been successful. He's been pushed as a, you know, a hero of democracy and this poor kind of you know, this small democratic free country has been attacked by a brutal and angry emotional person, not a country. It's it's the the traditional Marvel Comics hero villain scenario. He's a hero. He's a good guy, stands for everything good, and he's attacked by the equivalent of Lex Luther in a Superman movie, which would be Vladimir the evil Vladimir Putin.
And they've been, you know, pretty successful with with that in the United States simply because that's the only story that's allowed to get out.
Speaker 0: The reality of things in Ukraine are much more grim. Under Zelensky's watch, the Russian language has come under attack as has the Orthodox church. Alternative media outlets have been banned as have opposition political parties. Zelensky's cult like status in the west is masking the rising tide of authoritarianism in Ukraine. And not just that.
It appears that even Zelensky is starting to believe his own hype.
Speaker 3: Now he actually believes he's a man of gravitas, that he is Winston Churchill.
Speaker 0: Like the original Churchill, Zelensky isn't necessarily all about peace either, even though the PR machine that surrounds him tells us that he is. As numerous military analysts have asked, what's the endgame here? There's much agreement that long term, Ukraine doesn't really have much of a chance in this war. So why is there no effort toward peace?
Speaker 3: 10 years from now, when they write the history of this conflict, he's gonna be the most reviled man in the world because he is responsible for
Speaker 0: for the
Speaker 3: deaths of 100 of 1000 of Ukrainians. Hundreds of thousands of people he swore to protect, he slaughtered. For what? Because he's addicted to weapons infused, ego driven narcissism.
Speaker 4: Ukraine is becoming a nation of widows and orphans. There's 300,000 dead Ukrainians. Douglas McGregor would say 350,000. All right, I'll go on the conservative side there and 30,000 Russians. I don't know, they see the figures 101, whatever.
Let's say 400 1,000, 500,000, whatever it is. It all could have been avoided. This all and you know what? Nobody in DC that's connected, whether it be Raytheon, Victoria Nuland, Joe Biden, Lloyd Austin, they don't give a rat's ass about any of those Ukrainian vets at all.
Speaker 2: Zelensky is part of a pattern right now throughout the US empire where you put an actor in place who appears to be making decisions, but he's not. So he's just another one of many, and they bring him out, and he does what he's told.
Speaker 0: If Zelensky just does what he's told, that would mean he's a hollow leader. It also means somebody else is pulling the strings. Who is it that appears to be telling Zelensky what to do, what to think, what to say? Who is really running Ukraine? We'll investigate as we continue to unmask Zelensky.
reSee.it AI Summary
A lesser-known woman named Victoria Charity White has voluntarily entered prison, sparking discussions about unjust sentencing. Her case highlights the severity of the crimes committed against the American people on January 6th.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
This morning a woman most Americans have never heard of checked herself into prison to begin serving a sentence she should not have been given. Her name is Victoria Charity White, and what happened to her on January 6th showed that terrible crimes were committed that day against the American people.
Video Transcript AI Summary
The video reveals the brutal assault on Victoria Charity White during the January 6th Capitol riot. She was beaten, stabbed, and punched by multiple police officers in the West tunnel. Despite her harrowing experience, she was not mentioned in the January 6th committee hearings. The officers involved, including Jason Bagshaw, Neil McAllister, and Sarah Beaver, faced no consequences for their actions. Victoria, who had experienced severe domestic violence in the past, was charged with misdemeanors and a felony. She eventually pleaded guilty to a single felony for civil disorder and received a sentence of 8 days in jail, a fine, and home confinement. Victoria has filed a lawsuit against the officers and Representative Mike Johnson.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Every so often as journalists we come across something so disturbing it demands our attention. That's what happened when the new speaker of the house, representative Mike Johnson, finally authorized the release of thousands of hours of January 6th footage. Buried in there was an act of such brutality, it was difficult for us to understand how anyone who'd seen it and knew the truth Hadn't done something about it. If there's one moment that could alter how history records the events of January 6, It may very well be this one. When the image of a woman battered and bleeding made it impossible to deny That terrible crimes were committed that day against the American people and most of us had no idea.
The victim's name was never mentioned by the January 6th committee, but it's one we think you'll remember when you see what happened to Victoria Charity White. On a day of anger at the US capital, the West tunnel took center stage. Here, the police were cast as noble warriors Fending off a violent mob, and there was no shortage of footage to support that. Long after the smoke had faded and the battlefield had cleared, the heroic tale lived on.
Speaker 1: Disturbing just released 3 hour long video shows rioters storming the Capitol on January 6th, viciously attacking Capitol Police. Let me
Speaker 0: Broadcast into homes and phones across America.
Speaker 2: The law enforcement officers who defended the US Capitol will today receive The highest honor issued by the US Congress.
Speaker 0: The narrative supported by anger
Speaker 2: The indifference shown to my colleagues It's disgraceful. And
Speaker 0: a trail of tears.
Speaker 3: We lost our lives. We lost our lives. I could
Speaker 2: have lost my life Nowadays, democracies are not defined by our bad days.
Speaker 0: Not one appeared to be for Victoria Charity White, whose story didn't make the hearings, no sign of her in countless hours of television reports, ignored by members of the select committee Who likely had access to the video evidence and silence from all the police officers who witnessed what you're about to see. Trapped inside the tunnel between the crowd and police, Victoria White was tossed about like a ragdoll. A red sweater hard to miss, the glimpses of her face hard to watch. Together, police body cam footage and security cameras Revealed that Victoria was beaten and stabbed with a metal baton and punched over and over, the blows raining down on her head and face.
Speaker 3: I mean, you didn't try to fight? No. Did you try to shield yourself Yeah. From the impact?
Speaker 1: Why would I not? I think Reaction is you're gonna protect your head.
Speaker 3: Do you remember feeling any pain?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I know afterwards, like, when I was in the, Capitol in my Socks and, you know what, no shoes and stuff. I I felt pain.
Speaker 3: Could you see who was beating you?
Speaker 1: The guy in the white shirts, I found out was the lieutenant at the time, officer Jason Bakeshott. Mhmm.
Speaker 3: After he beat you with a baton, he punched you in the face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't watched the other videos. I I can't anymore yourself.
Speaker 3: Is it too painful? Too difficult to relive it moment by moment?
Speaker 1: Ma'am, I get in a very bad place. Yeah.
Speaker 0: Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Jason Bagshaw, then with nearly 18 years on the force, Was identified by federal prosecutors as the man in the white shirt, cited in court documents in another January 6th case. Prosecutors acknowledge that Bagshaw struck or attempted to strike Victoria White in the head or upper body, Describing this as undisputed and admitted MPD and Capitol Police use of force policies required officers to avoid striking the head Unless necessary, because it is a sensitive area where the risk of death or serious injury was high. Another DC metro cop officer Neil McAllister also appeared to assault Victoria. Take a closer look at his body cam on the right combined with the body cam of officer Henry Folds who was next to him. Together, their cameras seem to show McCallister slamming Victoria White into another protester and the concrete wall of the narrow tunnel.
We tried to confirm McCallus' actions with the FBI and the US attorney's office, but both declined to answer our questions. The chaos made it difficult to piece together. But watch again in real time. Notably, McCallister's body cam was missing footage at a critical moment. This clip ended abruptly.
And when the next clip began, the screen was completely white for almost half a minute, and 15 seconds were missing from the time stamp. We turn to the security camera to see what happened during that time. It showed lieutenant Bagshaw repeatedly punching Victoria on the side of her head. When Michalis' body cam resumed, Victoria was still under assault. Another unidentified officer in a black uniform Could be seen stabbing her with a baton again and again, then seemed to grind the weapon into her body.
We knew this was not McCallister because, as you can see from his body cam, he was wearing a yellow jacket, and both his hands were empty. No baton. Court documents led us to the body cam of officer Sarah Beaver, which we matched precisely with security camera footage. As her arms moved back and forth in the body cam, the wider view provided a clearer picture of the assault on Victoria White. We reached out to the MPD for confirmation, but a spokesperson respectfully declined to comment.
When we slowed Michalis' footage down, We discovered something else. At that time, Victoria was also being stabbed in the back. And there wasn't just 1 baton, there were 2, Which meant 2 more officers assaulting her at the same time. 1 was Jason Bagshawt, seen here striking her repeatedly. The other hasn't been identified for now.
And as far as we could tell, this has not been reported. Their actions seem to fit the MPD's definition of deadly force, which was any force likely or intended to cause serious bodily injury or death. According to their policy, deadly force was only to be used against an active assailant described as someone who has intent To inflict imminent death or serious bodily injury on an officer or another person. And Victoria White, who you can see was surrounded, was obviously in no position to threaten or attack anyone. From what we could see, the single mom from Minnesota, Then 39 years old was hit and stabbed more than 40 times with a metal baton and punched in the face at least 5 times by lieutenant Bagshaw who used his left fist.
Speaker 3: Open, mama.
Speaker 0: Something else that stood out to us. No matter how much she was beaten, there was simply nowhere for Victoria White to go.
Speaker 3: Was it hard to breathe? I I
Speaker 1: was just trying to stand stand up and not be trampled. That's where my focus was Until they hit to the head. And everything else, it just, just what I see on the camera. Because when the first blow came, It's like I was right back there with my ex. And then it was just, like, nothing.
Speaker 0: Victoria said the beating took her back to a time in her life she had worked hard to overcome.
Speaker 1: I was in a relationship for 10 years that was Severely violent.
Speaker 3: When you say severely violent, can you give me a sense of what that was like for you?
Speaker 1: Being choked to the point that, I go unconscious, the blood vessel in my eye burst. I I was beat like a man by a man that's, you know, Pretty well built and and very strong. I'd get punched in the face if I turn the the wheel too sharp and he spilled his beer on himself, you know, get yelled at for some guy looking at me or talking to me, and then it would escalate from there. And if I tried to defend myself and fight back, he loved that. I've been pushed down a flight of stairs.
I was thrown on the floor, beat, kicked. He took the lamp off my off my dresser and beat me with it, then took me, pulled me by my hair. And of course all this time he's yelling at me, dragged me through the hall, threw me down my apartment stairs, and then down there, you know, was punching punching Choking, and then I passed out, and I wake up, and he's trying to smack me. I have pictures of it. You could see his fingerprints on my neck From him choking me.
My friend's like, you need to call 911. And I'm like, nah. You know? Because I know what happens if we do that.
Speaker 3: How did you get away?
Speaker 1: The last incident was so bad that, that That I I just wanted to be you know, if I I should have died, I didn't. So I'm just like, I'm done, you know, like, whatever if you're basically if By me standing up, if he's gonna kill me, just fine. So be it. At least I'm standing up.
Speaker 0: Victoria provided us with some of the photographs, Evidence of the abuse she endured. They were not easy to look at, the extent of her injuries and her pain, Images of a woman who seemed to have been through hell and somehow against the odds survived.
Speaker 1: I had filed for order of protection for 50 years. The judge approved it.
Speaker 3: Are you free of him now?
Speaker 1: Free? As in I'm, like, Not in, that relationship, but free of him. I'll never be free of him until, You know, god calls him, home. I pray for him and I forgive him, but at the same time, I'm also Honest with myself that this man could pop up at any time and and kill me. It's it's not a joke in the long Term of that, just thinking that mistakenly thinking that some guy at a freaking Grocery store is him.
But it wasn't. I mean, that's the kind of,
Speaker 3: Trauma. Yeah. And fear. Yeah. And then it just, like, puts you in place, like, like, you always imagine, like, what would happen if, like because I wanna prepare myself for the worst.
You know? Because that's always what it's been. And so it hit like, when it happens and it's not, but it's like too late because I'm already in that situation and, like, I'm froze. And I'm not running. I'm not doing anything.
And, that's what that's what you have to live with. And, You know, because you're always wondering, am I gonna, what what am I gonna do if that situation happens? Forget it. Nobody should have to live like that. The fear and the psychological torture.
It's not just the physical.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm so sorry. What's life? Let's take a moment.
Speaker 0: I'm sorry. It was one of the most difficult conversations I've experienced in more than 35 years of reporting, and there have been many that threatened to break me. But Victoria White, her strength and courage took my breath away. Of all the people in the crowd that day, It was difficult to understand how a woman who'd been through so much was the one singled out for more. Watching the footage, we couldn't see how anyone could justify charging Victoria White.
Yet that's What the DOJ did in April 2021. In the indictment, 3 misdemeanors and a felony for civil disorder. All told, Victoria was facing up to 22 years in prison. In that separate Jacek's case that confirmed Bagshaw struck Victoria, Prosecutors made this surprising statement. While many observers might instinctively cringe at the sight of a male officer Using a baton to strike or attempt to strike the head, neck, and shoulders of a smaller woman, there are many possible lawful justifications For lieutenant Bagshaw's use of force.
Ultimately, they blamed Victoria White for being in the tunnel, Stating her location alone was criminal, making her subject to arrest. And it presented a threat to the officers and the US capital. Curiously, that wasn't consistent with the evidence. As you can see here, once she reached the entrance to the tunnel, the crowd overwhelmed her, And Victoria was not in control.
Speaker 1: The minute I step down, it's like I'm swallowed by a sea of guys. And then they're all pushing in. And I almost fall down on the ground. And mind you, my back is turned. There's no I can't go nowhere.
I'm doing good to stay to keep myself up.
Speaker 3: Just to stay on your feet?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Just stand on my feet.
Speaker 3: We've spoken to other witnesses who also described that surge, that push of people from Behind that came out of nowhere Yep. Was totally unexpected. Yeah. And that's what pushed you into the town?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm just falling and trying to keep myself up. And then it's, like, goes like this. Like like a c. I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 3: And then suddenly you're surrounded by police officers. Yeah.
Speaker 0: According to FBI agent, Trisha Whitehill, Who wrote the statement of facts for Victoria White's case around 407 PM? Victoria could be seen grabbing for 1 of the MPD officers Standing on a ledge. But a close look at the security footage showed that claim was neither honest nor accurate. Here, it was just after 4 PM, and nothing was happening inside the tunnel with the exception of the officer on the ledge Saturating those trapped below with what appeared to be pepper spray. Victoria White, like those around her, still could not move.
And when the clock turned to 4:0:6 PM, lieutenant Bagshaw reached for his metal baton, and for almost 3 minutes, Carried out the relentless assault. You can hear the sound change to a dull thud as the metal sunk into her skull. When Victoria White's arms went up into the air at 4:07 and 16 seconds in front of the officer standing on the ledge, She was fighting to stay alive. The officer did nothing to stop Bagshaw beating her. Instead, he pepper sprayed Victoria in the face At close range, twice.
We reached out to agent Whitehill and the FBI press office in Minnesota, But were referred to the US attorney's office in Washington, DC. The public affairs specialist there politely declined to answer our questions. One of the things we wanted to know was why FBI agent Whitehill wrote, as the video progresses, the MPD officers Attempt to push White back with their riot shields and fend her off with a baton. Once again, that was not what the evidence showed. It's obvious from the tunnel security camera footage that the only person fending anyone off was Victoria White, And the idea she was a threat to the officers was absurd.
Listen as one of the protesters, a man right next to her, Pleaded with Jason Bagshaw. And it didn't end there. Prosecutors speculated it's possible that lieutenant Bagshaw struck her for no justifiable reason. It's also possible that he struck her to disarm her or to subdue her after she attacked an officer. However, Victoria White was never charged with possessing a weapon Or assaulting an officer.
And no evidence of either claim was provided. No photos or footage in spite of all the cameras in that tunnel.
Speaker 3: And did you have any weapons of any kind on you?
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: So was there anything that led up to that moment into the tunnel that, could be construed in any way as being a threat to the police? Anything that you did?
Speaker 1: That I did? No. Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: Did you ever, push or strike any police officer?
Speaker 1: I didn't strike any police officers, and I don't recall ever pushing a police officer. I grabbed onto a shield to pull myself up at one point from the video.
Speaker 3: But that was after you were being beaten.
Speaker 0: Yeah. We could find no evidence of any MPD officer Disciplined or charged for their conduct on January 6th, and most incidents investigated by the MPD use of force board were deemed justified. But we did find Jason Bagshaw, Neil McCallister, and Sarah Beaver Among those who received the MPD's ribbon of valor at their annual awards ceremony some 9 months after January 6th, Batchel was promoted a few months later in 2021, and again the following year on April 7th When he reached the rank of commander and took over running the MPD special operations division. Prior to January 6th, Jason Bagshaw was a hated man among far left activists and members of Antifa. He and the MPD are often accused by them of using excessive force.
In 2017, the MPD was ranked 3rd in the nation for misconduct settlements according to a nonprofit, police scorecard.org, that was founded by leftist activists, including one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter. Some of those lawsuits were brought by the ACLU, others by leftist protesters who claimed the MPD violated their constitutional rights. For their part, Antifa protesters, like these dressed in the uniform of Antifa's black bloc, are trained to incite police to act. And when they do, images of uniformed officers using any type of force Play into their defund the police agenda, much like this clip from 2020 that showed Jason Bagshaw picking up a protester and dropping him. And incidents like this one from July 2022 When Bagshaw shot and killed 23 year old Lazarus Wilson as seen in this video right after the shooting when a police officer arrived on scene.
Bagsaw was off duty at the time, and police released this video of the suspect allegedly pointing a gun And this footage of diners hiding under their tables in a nearby restaurant. He was cleared of any wrongdoing, And his bio on the MPD website showed that throughout his career, he's received awards and commendations. On January 6th, police body cam footage showed him, easily recognizable with his tall frame and white shirt, on the front line Confronting protesters for some time before he got to the West Tunnel, officer Neil McCallister's body cam showed him being gassed Multiple times.
Speaker 3: Dude, I got the OC sprayed, like, 4 times, and then they just got fucking gas, Like, boys. Holy shit. You look like shit.
Speaker 0: And in the midst of the action on the lower west terrace. In this clip, a protester Who was surrounded by police, managed to break free and make a run for it, only to be tackled by McCallister. Strangely enough, There was another lapse in his body cam footage at a critical moment. The clip ended abruptly and when the next began, The time stamp showed seconds were gone. Once again, we turned to another source to see what was happening in that moment.
In this footage that was shared on social media, you see the man restrained face down on the ground with McAllister On top of him
Speaker 3: The cops are beating the fuck out of that guy.
Speaker 0: When officer Neil McCallister's body cam resumed, the man was cuffed and briefly detained.
Speaker 3: Can you spray this motherfucker? Jesus Christ. Get off your head.
Speaker 0: Later, McCallister was recorded Saying the police should be harder on the crowd.
Speaker 3: Dude, I don't know why they're just not going home on this.
Speaker 0: At another point, he said
Speaker 3: This is a fucking civil war. This is a civil war. This is a civil war right here.
Speaker 0: And after that
Speaker 3: So they're so they're bringing it on the into the capital, and they're not shooting them.
Speaker 0: With this mindset, McCallister was sent into the tunnel after he and other officers shoved people down the steps to clear them. A man lunged at him twice. Some of the protesters voiced their concern and support. We requested interviews with commander Bagshaw and officer McAllister, But the MPD communications office declined. We also filed freedom of information requests for their police records, But those were also denied.
Before any of this happened, when Victoria White was still outside the tunnel, She told us about an incident that troubled her.
Speaker 1: I hear, Antifa. Antifa. And I look, And here's a guy, like, trying to break out the window. So that was a big concern to me. Very big.
Speaker 3: So what did you do?
Speaker 1: I immediately thought to myself, the right thing to do is stop the guy. So I just ran. And I didn't think, Give it another thought. I just ran and pulled him down.
Speaker 3: And he was breaking out that window that was right next to the to the west tunnel entrance. Right?
Speaker 1: Yep. He sure Seemed like auntie, but because he sure fit the little description. I mean, that's like a little guy ish. Little white guy. Yep.
Skinny. Glasses skinny, scrawny, and just, Like, little dude. I'm like, soy boy is what I thought.
Speaker 0: I'm like, get him out
Speaker 1: of here. Get him out of here. You know? We don't do that. Like, who comes to state of president And hear him and then go break out a window.
We we don't do that.
Speaker 3: So for you, doing nothing wasn't an option.
Speaker 0: No. No. With the 1st man removed, another climbed up and took his place, assisted by this woman in what looked Like a coordinated effort.
Speaker 1: When I go to grab him and then men, a group, like, of men, they they grab me. And but I managed to get 1 arm free, come over and grab his backpack and pull him down. Then it was then that I realized, like, Oh, no. Like, they don't want me stopping. No one they they want this.
Like, something I I remember hearing, you know, like, before, Antifa said that they would infiltrate, and dress like Trump supporters and things like that. Little did I realize at the time that there's
Speaker 3: fed Undercovers and confidential heat sources.
Speaker 1: The HSS. Yep.
Speaker 0: The official line was that Antifa had no role in the violence that day. But for many, that was undermined early on By curious footage like this that went viral, people online claimed it showed Antifa operatives switching out their clothes, Although these individuals remain unidentified. Elena. Victoria White was no stranger to conflict. For her, life had always been rough, starting at birth when she said her mother abandoned her at the hospital.
Speaker 1: It was too much After 14 kids, and then my dad divorced, her when she was pregnant with me and remarried. But then he had a massive heart attack when I was 4 and died. And
Speaker 3: It sounds tough. Was it? Yeah. Were you, poor?
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. I vividly remember, having to stay in a tent in the back Of an apartment, small apartment complex with my sister, who I call my mom, her husband and 2 sons. And then, You know, they got jobs up in Minnesota and then were able to rent a home. So yeah. But it was It was a kind of home that had rats.
That had rats? I hate rodents to the stadium.
Speaker 3: Did you have enough to eat?
Speaker 1: Most of the time it was like, things like pancakes, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But well sometimes we'd have like Squirrel.
Speaker 3: Squirrel. Wow. Yeah. You said you called your sister mom? Mhmm.
Why?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't know at first that she was my sister. I was just told, you know, she was my mom. Till I got a little older, so.
Speaker 3: How did you find out?
Speaker 1: One of my sisters, I just remember she was like Saying to my nephews who I called my brother, like, you're not their sister. You're, our sister. And I was like, what? You know, I always thought These people aren't my family. I'm a princess do something type thing, but that wasn't the case.
She was like, Mary is your sister. If it wasn't for her, you would be In a put in a box and be put on the Mississippi, and you'd be in China by now.
Speaker 3: That's what they would tell you?
Speaker 1: And so I asked and found out It was true that she was my sister, not my mom.
Speaker 3: Was that a shock?
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was, you know, hoping more like princess, but not so much like that. But Kinda set the the tone for the rest of my life. Yeah. That, you know, just kinda like finding out My biological mom didn't want me or couldn't take care of me.
And then my dad, he chose all my other brothers and sisters, but not me. So. Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of pain to carry.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Story of my life. So. Sorry. Don't be.
Speaker 3: Now you're a mom. Yeah. You have 4 beautiful girls?
Speaker 1: I do. Okay. We are in DC. The line to get in is Crazy long. This
Speaker 0: When Victoria White went to hear Donald Trump speak on January 6th, it was the first time she'd ever seen the capital. And in these videos heading to the rally, there was a sense of anticipation and of history being made.
Speaker 3: Truck twenty
Speaker 0: A few hours later, separated from friends and family in handcuffs and police custody, The smiles and excitement were gone.
Speaker 3: At this point, you have blood running down your face. Did anyone try to help you with medical Assistance?
Speaker 1: Mm-mm. No.
Speaker 3: No one even offered? And it's clear that you're under arrest?
Speaker 1: No. They never said I was under arrest. They never said I did I did anything wrong.
Speaker 0: Along with other protesters, Victoria was transported to the DC Metropolitan Police Station that night.
Speaker 1: They didn't even put real handcuffs on me. They put zip tight things on me. Never read any more rights. Never told me I did any anything wrong. They don't fingerprint me.
They don't take a picture. And then they finally cut the zip ties off me. And I go to put my, hair that had been in my face the whole time, out of my face. And then that's when I, when I realized that I've got blood, in my hair and my face, and I'm Like, oh. And then then they handcuffed me to a bench.
Speaker 0: Later, she said, without explanation, they cut her loose into the winter's night.
Speaker 3: You lost everything when you were being beaten?
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: Were you freezing?
Speaker 1: Oh, it was horrible. It was really, really cold.
Speaker 3: And dark? Yeah. When you left there, you had no idea that they would be coming after you.
Speaker 1: No. I knew it.
Speaker 3: You did?
Speaker 1: I knew without a doubt. I knew it. I was like, nope. They're gonna switch up everything that just happened to me.
Speaker 0: She was right. In late January of 2021, An FBI agent came looking for her at home in Rochester, Minnesota. Victoria said that terrified her daughters.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you want To arrest me, I said, just call me. I said, you have my cell phone number now. Just call me. I have no problem. I'll I'll turn myself in.
Just Don't scare my kids like that.
Speaker 0: But less than 3 months later, they were back.
Speaker 1: It was early in the morning, and it's that knock. You just, you know, that knock. And I had been sleeping in the living room. The window was cracked, you know, because to let in the fresh breeze. Like, Yeah.
We got a warrant for your arrest, and my girls are freaking out, and I'm freaking out.
Speaker 3: Do they show up with a lot of officers and agents?
Speaker 1: Yeah. Are they surrounded? My block, Not just my house, you know, it's a corner house. My block, my freaking block.
Speaker 0: The FBI and DOJ Treated Victoria not as a victim but as a criminal. And when we talked to her last summer, she was anxious about the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence and felt there was no hope of a fair trial in Washington, DC, where according to the DC Board of Elections, an founding 92% of residents voted for Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: At this point, would you take a PDL?
Speaker 1: You know, I really have nothing less left to lose. I should have died that day anyway.
Speaker 3: Do you still have any health issues from the beating? Can you get any help?
Speaker 0: Victoria did end up making a deal almost 3 years after January 6. On November 20th last year, she reluctantly plead guilty to a single felony for civil disorder. The prosecutor asked the judge, John d Bates, to lock her up for 4 months, citing her criminal history from a troubled past, Mostly from driving while intoxicated. But the judge sentenced her to 8 days in jail to be served over 4 consecutive weekends, A $2,000 fine and 3 months home confinement. In early January, with her case settled, Victoria White sued commander Jason Bagshaw, officer Neil McAllister, and the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, Right before the statute of limitations ran out, she's representing herself for now and told us it's about the truth as much as justice.
But she said the road ahead is long, the damage lasting, and the memories of what happened to her in the West Tunnel still cast a dark shadow over her life.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
What did the police officers defending the Capitol on January 6th mean when they said, “They set us up! They set us the f*** up!” Who would have set them up for failure, and why? https://t.co/6r3MQ2m7ER
Video Transcript AI Summary
Police officers on the west side were arguing near a fountain, with one officer admitting that they were hurting innocent people and making 10 others angry for every one they removed. This suggests that both the officers and the protesters were set up for failure. There is a video of officers saying they were set up, and they repeat this multiple times. The response from the authorities came two hours later.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: That has police offices on the west side by the fountain yelling at each other, and one of them says, we're hurting innocent people. And they say, for every 1 we're pulling out, we're making 10 angry at. In other words,
Speaker 1: a lot of pain is applied. And and not only that, we're taking out 1 and 10 of them are getting wangrier. It's it's it's we're multiplying them by hitting them.
Speaker 0: You know, when you listen to that, you have the sense that the offices We're set up for failure as much as the protesters.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And we've got a video of officers saying we were set up. They set us the fuck up. That's what they did. They set us up.
They set us up. They set us up. They set up 64. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
And then they answered the people 2 hours later. They set Let us
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
January 6th prisoners have been beaten, abused, and refused medical treatment since their arrest—actions which are neither normal nor legal. “People don’t listen to those that have been jailed.” -@replouiegohmert https://t.co/JpHk91N7JQ
Video Transcript AI Summary
People were not receiving the necessary medical help, including a cancer patient who was denied treatment. The situation was outrageous, with reports of prisoners being beaten or abused, although this is not the norm and is illegal. Unfortunately, society tends to ignore the voices of those who have been incarcerated.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: People needed medical help, and they weren't getting it. 1 guy had cancer, wasn't getting the treatment. It was it was just outrageous. Were any of the, prisoners beaten or abused? Some have been.
Yes. Is that normal? No. No. Is it even legal?
No. People don't listen to those that have been jailed.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Clay Higgins brought his investigative skills from the streets of Louisiana where he was a cop for years to the halls of congress, where he’s been investigating January 6th ever since it happened. We sat down for a tough, far-reaching interview to explore what he’s learned… https://t.co/engaZJp0np
Video Transcript AI Summary
Clay Higgins, a former law enforcement officer and current congressman, discusses his concerns about the FBI's involvement in the January 6th Capitol attack. He claims that undercover FBI agents were present in the Capitol before the protesters entered and that the FBI infiltrated online groups discussing COVID-related frustrations. Higgins calls for the release of all digital evidence related to January 6th and believes it will reveal the corruption within the FBI and DOJ. He also mentions the need for legal redress for J6 defendants if exculpatory evidence was withheld. Higgins emphasizes the importance of transparency and the right of the American people to know the truth.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: We're breaking with our regular series to bring you a rare in-depth interview with a man who's no stranger to controversy He doesn't seem to give a damn what people think of him. Clay Higgins has gone from cop to congressman and along the way did things law enforcement officers Don't normally do, like the way he delivered his message in Crime Stoppers videos that earned him the name, the Cajun John Wayne. If you look him up online, you'll find no shortage of articles condemning Clay Higgins as a far right conspiracy theorist Pedaling in crazy unfounded ideas about January 6th. Then again, these are the same people who told us Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. President Donald Trump was a Russian spy.
Simply put, they often lie, For example, we now know from court cases and the FBI itself that the bureau did have undercover assets on the ground. That's one of the reasons we wanted to speak to representative Higgins. He's one of the few in Congress who's challenged the insurrection narrative from the start And as a former law enforcement officer himself knows a thing or two about investigations, powerful people who dominate the flow of information don't want you to hear what he has to say or what he's learned over the past two and a half years. That alone seemed like a compelling reason This is a letter from Bennie Thompson, who is chairman of the January 6 Select Committee. And he sent this, to TSA, To the Honorable David Pakoski, who is the Administrative of TSA.
They want a briefing on efforts to address the travel of white supremacists And other domestic terrorist groups options for quickly denying air carriers service to individuals posing a potential threat And, current status of efforts to identify and enter watch list, how far does this go?
Speaker 1: That letter was the beginning of an executive action by the TSA to use its authority To instruct, America's air marshals to track and follow Trump supporters that had been charged with no crime, they were guilty only of of arriving by air Into DC on January 4th, 5th, or 6th. And those those manifests were turned over to the FBI. The FBI went through those manifests, and every American that they identified that the FBI identified as a Trump supporter That was on those manifests was added to the FBI's suspected domestic terrorist watch list. The FBI created a profile on those people, a suspected terrorist profile. And and the the TSA administrator used his authority To instructed air marshals of America to track those Americans wherever they fly.
And
Speaker 0: Still today.
Speaker 1: It's still happening. This is who our air marshals are following, the Trump supporters, and that letter signed by Bennie Thompson, who was chair of the j six select committee and signed by John Katko, the the who at the time was a ranking member.
Speaker 0: It
Speaker 1: means the lead Republican of the Homeland Security Committee advising the the Tchaikovsky, the TSA The senior guy to use all of that authority to track Trump supporters that had not been charged with a crime You're guilty only of arriving in DC by air.
Speaker 0: And every time they fly, they're being tracked.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: If they have never been convicted of terrorism, why are they on the watch list, it's a violation of the First Amendment, they exercise their First Amendment rights are being punished for it. It's a violation of the 4th Amendment. I mean, how many laws does this violate? How many rights does this violate? This is not a free country.
You're not a free country where you're tracked By air marshals by the way, at taxpayer expense, and we're not talking about an insignificant expense, teams of 3 air marshals tracing people all over the country, Putting you're putting physical detail onto people? That's the most expensive form of surveillance that exists.
Speaker 1: Let me say let me clarify. It's very comforting to Americans Is to think that there's that there might be an air marshal on our on our flight. Not they tracked you
Speaker 0: on that. Political beliefs.
Speaker 1: If they're being used for nefarious purposes. The people that are complaining about this are the air marshals themselves. These are the whistleblowers that are coming forward To tell a congressman that they felt would pay attention
Speaker 0: This may go on since January 21.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: And you just found out about it. What else is going on that we don't know about?
Speaker 1: We don't know, but I'm telling you, we're in uncharted waters as it relates to the weaponization of our government against the American people. I am not frightened of these people. I'd spent my life serving others, and and I love my country. This thing Is not gonna just slip away. They're not gonna take us without a fight.
I'm going to fight legally and peacefully and within the parameters of the constitution that I've sworn to serve, but they're going down. These, these men And their high perch, in their position of power and authority And are walking upon our entire history, our deepest core principles. They're not Gonna get away with it.
Speaker 0: They have so far.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 0: Powerful people in this country, they wanna make sure no one hears your your voice. They want everyone to look at you like a far right crazy conspiracy theorist. Is that who you are?
Speaker 1: No, man. I'm a regular American man. I'm an investigator, police officer by background. I'm gonna continue to speak the truth Whether anybody likes it or not.
Speaker 0: You've always been controversial. Even when you were in law enforcement, you did those, Crime Stoppers videos That went viral. People loved them. You got a lot of heat for them too.
Speaker 2: The Gremlin street gang is responsible for hundreds of violent crimes, Murders, armed robberies, witness intimidation, burglaries, drug trafficking, extortion, and brutal beatings. We've arrested 10 of these thugs and have warrants on 7 more. You will be hunted. You will be trapped. And if you raise your weapon to a man like me, We'll return fire with superior fire.
Darren Carter, do you think men like these are afraid of an uneducated 125 pound punk like you that's never won a fair fight in your life and hold your gun sideways? Young man, I'll meet you on solid ground anytime, anywhere, light or heavy. Makes no difference to me. You won't walk away. And for those who would use this message As a way to create false racial division in our country, take a close look behind me.
Standing next to every cop Is a leader of our black community. This is not about race. It's about right versus wrong.
Speaker 0: Was that your idea? What you the reason behind that?
Speaker 1: Those videos, those public service announcements were part of my job That the sheriff asked me to perform.
Speaker 0: Because you were the press officer of public affairs position.
Speaker 1: Public service, But that was late in my career. I didn't ask for that position. I'd been a SWAT cop for a long time. In fact, When the sheriff asked me to take that role, at first, I thought it was joking, and I told the sheriff, I don't know how to do that. And he said, well, it's easy.
You show up where the TV people tell you to show up and you stand where they tell you to stand and Somebody holds a script for you and you read it. I did that a couple of weeks. I read the script, but I was uncomfortable with that because it wasn't real. It wasn't reflective of what I had been telling actual suspects for Many years in the dead of night, that direct conversation that a lone cop will have Whether a young man has taken a wrong turn in life and has to be arrested, that's a very special communications for a good cop.
Speaker 0: How do you do that, Clay? How do you have that conversation?
Speaker 1: Well, you speak candidly and honestly and from your heart With compassion, but discipline and confidence. I mean, if if I show up in your In your life at 2 o'clock in the morning, it's it's not because you've had a good day. I don't consider you to be a bad man. You've just done Something that has crossed the line according to statute, and I'm gonna help you through the booking process and Hopefully, leads you to a better day. Their only path really to freedom was through my jail, and real freedom, spiritual freedom would be if they could break the bonds of darkness.
So The way I delivered the message when I began having to record video segments, I just communicated in that same honest manner, and and what started happening is people started turning themselves in.
Speaker 0: People responded and even beyond your little Sheriff's Department in Louisiana worldwide.
Speaker 1: Some of those videos, It would translate it into 8 languages. I'm told IT people told me they were viewed 150,000,000 times across The world and
Speaker 0: No one had seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: Crazy. Yeah. It was just honesty. And that's what I do in Congress.
Speaker 0: There is another video of you that went viral not so long ago, which is When you had that press conference on the hill, and that activist kept coming up, and you leaned in and took your sunglasses down, you told them, I'm gonna give you an interview. I'll give you You won, but this is what you got to do. And then he came back.
Speaker 1: You had a Freedom Caucus press conference immediately following A Bernie Sanders rally, so they had not necessarily a good mix. 1 could anticipate There might be some activists there that would not necessarily agree with the kind of things we were saying in our press conference, and One of those little fellas figured out that there was no police around, so he wanted to be more aggressive than he should have been. Can you talk about when your family did an ad all all endorsing your opponent? And he came on the inside, the barriers, you know, into the press area. He was not a journalist.
Speaker 0: He was walking right between the group of congressmen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He he came. He was trying to get around to Lauren Boebert, and I had already Dressed them down a little bit. Right. Continue. Put them in a box.
You can't answer the question that he has. No. I can answer the question. Okay. Listen.
I respect you first. I'm Clay Higgins. I represent south Louisiana. Clay Higgins.
Speaker 0: Asking you
Speaker 1: to do is just peacefully stand by with your camera,
Speaker 2: And I promise you look at me, I'll
Speaker 1: come talk to you straight up. I'll answer all your questions. That didn't last maybe a minute, and he decided to get even more aggressive. So I just I had to escort him out the area, and I did that and turned him over to the police. That was the end of it.
Speaker 0: I like the way you say escort him out. You basically kind of picked him up and kicked him over and put him down.
Speaker 1: That was an escort.
Speaker 0: That's a Clay Higgins escort?
Speaker 1: That that's a Clay Higgins escort. Yeah.
Speaker 0: And you Stayed very calm and said, calm yourself. Right?
Speaker 1: Calm down, son.
Speaker 0: Sounded like you'd said those words before.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Said them before. It's kind of where we are as a nation right now. Calls for the calm, consideration, and response to the Oppression that we face from within, it's it's quite nefarious.
Speaker 0: Tell me what you mean. What do we face as a nation?
Speaker 1: Generationally, we have allowed our federal law enforcement agencies to gradually become I'm commanded by corrupted men and they've been corrupted not so much by money, but by power. And that power really began manifesting itself insidiously within To the FBI and the DOJ and our intelligence services since 9eleven, since the Patriot Act. We gave them great authorities and power. Those powers are no longer being used to thwart terrorists. They're being used To oppress the the individual rights and freedoms of regular Americans like me and like the citizens I've sworn to serve.
So I have a problem with that.
Speaker 0: The counter to that would be these are not ordinary citizens. These are domestic terrorists Because that's I mean, it's very clear from Christopher Wray, the letter that he wrote about parents going to School board meetings, right, that need to be investigated as terrorists. You speak at a Moms for Liberty event today, you get targeted by the Anti Defamation League or the Not just social media companies, but with law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Regular patriotic American men and women are not Terrorists. Let me say the factions within our highest levels of federal law enforcement and the FBI and DOJ And intelligence services these corrupted men were discussing, they could be more readily identified and more accurately Described as domestic terrorists than than me. They're the ones treading upon my individual rights and freedoms. They're the ones They're spying on Americans. They're the ones traveling, great distances To insert themselves into the lives of Americans that are just communicating freely as is our right online or anywhere else at meetings as we congregate and gather.
Speaker 0: What about those who say your your right to gather And, and have a conversation doesn't give you a right to assault police officers and disrupt congress and so on.
Speaker 1: I don't support battery on police officers nor violent disruption of government operations, but I I will remind everyone that a free American has a right to resist an unlawful arrest.
Speaker 0: At the last hearing where you, addressed Christopher Wray, you produced a photograph of what you called ghost buses.
Speaker 2: These 2 buses in the middle here, they were the
Speaker 1: 1st to arrive at Union Station on January 6th, 500. I have all this evidence. I'm showing you a tip of the iceberg, mister Taylor.
Speaker 0: Your point really was that there were unmarked vehicles full of individuals They have not been explained. Is that right?
Speaker 1: A ghost vehicle in law enforcement is is not an uncommon reference. It's It's a vehicle that's been purposefully concealed to to whereby it's not easy to identify. So No license plate has been painted over from its original cover. In this case, these 2 buses were Totally painted white in, like, a a cheap, fast overspray over all of the markings. So when you have 2 charter buses show up, the very 1st buses to show up in Union Station on January 6th.
Speaker 0: Around 5 AM.
Speaker 1: Around 5 AM, initial witness, another charter bus owner arrived at at 5:20. He thought he would be the first to arrive because he knew the schedule of all the other charter buses, and he knew that most of buses would begin arriving around 6. So this Charter bus operator was a very experienced man, very squared away. When he arrived with his couple of buses. These 2 white buses were, to his surprise, already there, And he immediately noticed that there was these buses were odd because they were totally painted over.
It was a bad paint job. There was no markings, no phone numbers, no company name, totally outside the parameters of the way Charter buses are required to operate by law, so he said these buses are weird and no one was getting out. So something else that happens within that charter bus driver community is the drivers know each other. And the passengers may stay on a bus if they're If they're especially in a parking lot, they're not ready to disembark yet Sure. The passengers might stay on a bus, but the bus drivers get off.
And they talk to each other. They talk to the other bus drivers. So there are things that happen normally that the absence of that happening was odd. So he was suspicious enough of these buses as a professional that he collected some digital evidence those buses, and then estimated with him and and other eyewitnesses between 40 50 Guys that they described, they're Trump supporters. They all disembarked from the bus and they gathered in front of of the 2 buses, And they had like some kind of discussion or briefing, like the way a military leader would address his troops.
Speaker 0: Yeah, they call it a huddle.
Speaker 1: And then they Together went to the escalators and up in the Union Station and were gone.
Speaker 0: And they were all men?
Speaker 1: They were all men In all the Trump regalia, these men were in really good shape. They made comments like, wow. This He's a real serious Trump supporter to his guys, and they said they all had elbow pads and kneepads, And, they appeared like they had common equipment, but they were not in uniform. But they they behaved in a uniform manner, and we intend to get all of that video evidence from Union Station, from the escalators, from the parking lot, we have other eyewitnesses. Much to the chagrin of everybody that was in those buses And everyone who commanded them to be there, we've identified one of those buses, and You know what that means?
That means that's their ass because a bus is a serial numbered vehicle. And in America, the change of ownership of a serial numbered vehicle is documented. So that means We can begin to trace from the original owner of that bus, where it was sold and who bought it, and then who it was Lees 2 and Wu Ware disappeared, and then eventually, those buses were removed from the union station, And we're gonna document all of that.
Speaker 0: So you believe that those buses held undercover offices, not informants. Correct?
Speaker 1: I feel very, very confident that that everybody that was on those 2 buses were FBI assets, and I have a high degree of belief that they were actual FBI agents. And I'm I'm sorry to say, ma'am, my objective conclusion Is that, is that senior officials at the at the FBI were deeply involved there. You had a combination of FBI confidential informants, either registered, unregistered or Like a volunteer informant or actual FBI agents depending upon the group and how significant the group was. Like the agents inserted and said that Proud Boys groups that were going to come to D. C, those are most probably Actual FBI agents, whereas some random Facebook group of patriots from Arizona or something would most likely an informant.
So it would still fall under the umbrella of an FBI asset if they were communicating with the FBI Data that they were harvesting and information that they were recording and delivering to the FBI, screenshots of text Chats or or actual recordings of phone calls, things like that that they were delivering to the FBI, all part of the web of Surveillance of the American people.
Speaker 0: What have you seen? What can you tell us about it? I know you can't get ahead of everything. I know there's, Limitations on some of this, but can you tell us anything?
Speaker 1: I can tell you that That the FBI had established a formula in 2020 that they pursued with all their power and authority to infiltrate groups across the country of Americans that were essentially discussing online. They had formed online groups
Speaker 0: to Chat rooms?
Speaker 1: To just like yeah. Like chat rooms
Speaker 0: Discord and Telegram
Speaker 1: pages, etcetera, to discuss their frustrations with COVID oppression. And so the FBI identified groups and infiltrated them with undercover operations that were very effective, and they began Planting seeds of discord. If you track the text threads, which I've seen some of, again through Evidence that I've been able to witness, but I cannot I cannot share publicly because it would be in violation of of Court orders from individuals
Speaker 0: clear, this is
Speaker 1: I've seen it.
Speaker 0: This is video you've seen with your own eyes.
Speaker 1: Reports. Yes, ma'am. The evidence that was in criminal cases.
Speaker 0: Is this what it's based on? It's based on the digital evidence, what you have on camera and supporting evidence for that. I'm an eloquent.
Speaker 1: Yeah. An eyewitness testimony, sworn testimony, affidavits, text messages, emails, And, digital digital footage. Yes, ma'am?
Speaker 0: A lot of people would say, you're a lawman. Right? That's what we do. We infiltrate groups where we Perceive there to be a threat or potential of crime being committed. We have undercover offices.
We have undercover assets like informants. This is the bread and butter of law enforcement. What do you
Speaker 1: They were the criminals. They were the threat.
Speaker 0: Based on what?
Speaker 1: We were just Americans. We were Americans that were angry, and we were enraged that our freedoms were being oppressed And the FBI and the powers that had become corrupted, those bad actors within The federal government that had this authority, they said that these Americans, how dare those Americans Challenge the oppression that we're putting upon them.
Speaker 0: Can you share any of the messages yet that you have said you traced back to FBI, in, undercovers inside these groups No, ma'am. And these chats.
Speaker 1: No, ma'am. Does
Speaker 0: Will you share
Speaker 1: Yes. I will. The moment that I'm I'm able to to to to reveal that stuff, I will.
Speaker 0: You said specifically That you saw that there were undercover police officers who were inside the Capitol before any of the protesters came in?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: How do you know that? And can you give us any sense of what that means?
Speaker 1: I mean, if you clearly have men dressed as Trump supporters walking around inside the capitol On the other side of police officers who are, to one extent or another, not engaged with them, like they're not concerned about them, then you have A set of closed doors like exterior doors and interior doors closed, And you have police officers positioned outside and then in between the 2 doors and then on the inside of the 2nd set of doors. Doors weren't open yet. What time was this? Video. This was a a couple of videos that Trump was still speaking.
And then on the inside, look like Trump supporters walking around in groups of 5 or 6. So these would be clearly separated physically and by doors and by police officers from the guys on the outside. So any reasonable man Would come to the conclusion when you have videos of the doors being opened and police officers allowing Trump supporters that had gathered at the door to now enter, no violence, just walking in, just come on in, Some fist bumps and and come in and second set of doors open, and then there's a group of Trump supporters on the steps interior steps saying, Come on. This way. This way.
Speaker 0: What does that tell
Speaker 1: you? Reasonable man would look at that and say, this was a coordinated effort by law enforcement to have these people come in. So who was that? It had to be you know, I think it's nefarious Forces and part of the whole agenda of the of of the FBI with their involvement of this whole thing. We have other evidence, Specific observations of police officers, Capitol Police, a metro, both entering rooms And here in the capital, in uniform and coming out as Trump supporters and construction workers.
So You've
Speaker 0: seen that?
Speaker 1: Yeah. So
Speaker 0: Why has that video not been released yet?
Speaker 1: One would say that's a pretty good clue. Yeah. The the other reason that we believe it's just practical To have someone that knows how to get around. I mean, you know yourself. You can't walk around this place and know where you're going.
You have to be here for years and The
Speaker 0: capitalism is.
Speaker 1: That's right. And it's incredibly difficult to get around. You have to know where you're going. So you had to have people that that were very familiar with the the capital itself In order to lead some random groups of citizens that have come from every corner of the country, in many cases, never been to DC before, much less walked ran in the capital. So it just makes sense that the Trump supporters that were leading the way and were clearly already inside the capital Before the doors were opened, we're working in coordination with the FBI agents and assets that were embedded into the crowd, In some cases, and these groups had been embedded for months.
This is ugly stuff we're discussing, but the American people deserve to know the truth, and I intend to see that it happens.
Speaker 0: A lot of people just won't believe it. You know, without seeing they they gotta see the evidence, or they just don't believe you.
Speaker 1: I don't want to believe these things. I've been a cop for a long time when I was a little boy. The FBI shield was that was the baddest ass badge a cop could ever earn. It was An honored achievement to become an FBI agent. So it's with great pain, describe The corruption that has taken hold within our our FBI, and we intend to to clean it up because these rank and file FBI agents let me tell you, A lot of these men and women are quite disturbed about what has happened to their beloved FBI.
Same thing inside the DOJ. And we have an obligation as Americans to embrace truth whether it's ugly or not so that we can take corrective action.
Speaker 0: So you have the floor now, But you don't know how much longer you have it for. Right? And you don't have forever.
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 0: And it's been how long?
Speaker 1: 10 months.
Speaker 0: 10 months.
Speaker 1: Some things have not happened that conservatives within the people's house would like to happen. We've had some disagreements internally regarding who shall be our speaker. We just had to go through what we went through in order to arrive at that particular juncture of American history where a man like Mike Johnson became our speaker. Mike gets it that all the digital evidence of J6 has to be released to the American people. Talking about altogether between 4,050,000 hours of digital evidence, No one has a staff large enough to go through that evidence, so it has to be crowdsourced.
You have to give this stuff to the American people, and and then the truth will be revealed clip by clip.
Speaker 0: Mike Johnson has released precisely 12500 hours of that 40,000. And he's not releasing 5%, Which is 2000 hours, whether it's for a good reason or a bad reason. It provides opportunity to hide whatever you want In those 2000 hours. I'm not saying he's hiding something because I don't know. What I'm just saying is when you're withholding 2000 hours, You can put whatever you want in that 2000 hours.
There are American citizens who are sitting in jail. Some of them for 3 years without a trial. People have gone to solitary confinement For misdemeanor charges, nonviolent misdemeanor charges, they're still arresting people. You expect people to go to an election and vote when they don't even have answers on their questions on the last election. And over time, more and more and more evidence is coming out in court cases.
Right? Judges that wouldn't take those cases when the light was on them. Now they're not able to avoid them anymore. So what are you waiting for? The people who don't want the truth out Have complete information dominance, right?
You come out with something, you have a committee hearing, dismissed Conspiracy theories. Higgins, he's a far right lunatic. Don't listen to him. And so there are millions of people in this country I read The New York Times every day. Some of them are in this room.
Right? They hear you saying this and they think you're You're just a nut. And where's the evidence? So Mike Johnson's gonna release it? What is he waiting for?
Speaker 1: The truth of what happened on those days, j 4, 5, and 6 is in the digital evidence that speaker Johnson has control of, And thank God we have a speaker who has stated that he is committed to release all of that doubt. Now, he's restrained to the extent that he's restrained by attorneys, but he's an attorney himself. And and we'll see. When you when you say he's not gonna release at all, I say let's see.
Speaker 0: Well, those were his words, not mine.
Speaker 1: Well, I know the man's heart, and it is Pure. And he knows that America needs full truth. I believe I speak on behalf of We The People When I say we demand full release, the whole thing, not just from the Capitol grounds and within the Capitol proper, by the way, we want it all. We want all the D. C.
Metro digital evidence. We need evidence from Union Station and some other spots that we've identified.
Speaker 0: Can you tell me any of those spots that you've identified, Union Station being 1? What other spots?
Speaker 1: Parking areas and areas for disembarkment.
Speaker 0: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: Escalator areas where you can connect the dots from agents, disembarking from vehicles and going either on foot to their stations and their teams of of 3 and 4 and 5 or Getting into other vehicles that were dispersed and where some actions were noted that were born of of those vehicles where some actions were taken, the various stuff.
Speaker 0: What can potentially happen there? If you are a J6 defendant who's in prison or was convicted of a crime, but you find out later that that Brady material was withheld from you in violation of the law. Is there a legal redress?
Speaker 1: Yeah. That would flip the case. So the bottom line is that if Mike Johnson is successful at getting all the digital evidence from from j 4, 5, and 6 released entirely to the American people, Including the body cam footage of every police officer that was either operating in uniform Or not in uniform, shall we say. Then all these j6 I call persecutions, These political prisoners, those cases will be flipped because it's exculpatory evidence that's been withheld, and the prosecution has a legal to provide exculpatory evidence that they're in possession of to the defense. In this case, in every one of these J6 Cases that have been prosecuted.
The FBI and the DOJ has most certainly been in possession of all the digital evidence that we're describing right Now, if we're successful at releasing this evidence, the American people are going to be stunned into acceptance of the reality that our FBI, our DOJ, and In some cases, head people in our intelligence services have been corrupted by power.
Speaker 0: Have you seen all the video? I mean, I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, it it's a lot.
Speaker 0: Have you seen the key parts?
Speaker 1: I've seen many segments of video that most Americans have not seen that is incredibly condemning. They're so desperate To keep this digital evidence away from Americans, just regular citizens review That they're going through, through quite complex legal maneuvers To stop Americans from viewing this evidence. So every American that's watching this should ask themselves why. Whether you're liberal or conservative, why are you concealing that evidence from me? Why can't I see that?
It's video from my own capital. And people have a tendency to forget, especially my liberal brothers and sisters across the country. This is your country. This is your capital. You have the right to know what actually happened in 2020 in the months preceding j 4, 5, and 6.
You have the right to see the digital evidence of what truly happened in your capital On January 4th, 5th, and 6th, this is my position.
Speaker 0: What happens then at that moment when you find yourself inside the tunnel? What's the first thing you remember happening?
Speaker 1: I I
Speaker 0: was just trying to stand stand up and not be trampled. That's where my focus was until They hit to the head.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Clay Higgins brought his investigative skills from the streets of Louisiana where he was a cop for years to the halls of congress, where he’s been investigating January 6th ever since it happened. We sat down for a tough, far-reaching interview to explore what he’s learned… https://t.co/engaZJp0np
Video Transcript AI Summary
Clay Higgins, a former law enforcement officer and congressman, discusses the alleged surveillance and tracking of Trump supporters by the FBI and TSA. He claims that undercover FBI agents and assets infiltrated groups of Americans discussing their frustrations with COVID-19 restrictions and that the FBI and DOJ have been corrupted by power. Higgins calls for the release of all digital evidence related to the events of January 6th, stating that it will reveal the truth about what happened. He believes that the evidence will overturn the cases against individuals involved in the Capitol breach. Higgins also mentions his controversial Crime Stoppers videos and his commitment to speaking the truth.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: We're breaking with our regular series to bring you a rare in-depth interview with a man who's no stranger to controversy He doesn't seem to give a damn what people think of him. Clay Higgins has gone from cop to congressman and along the way did things law enforcement officers Don't normally do, like the way he delivered his message in Crime Stoppers videos that earned him the name, the Cajun John Wayne. If you look him up online, you'll find no shortage of articles condemning Clay Higgins as a far right conspiracy theorist Pedaling in crazy unfounded ideas about January 6th. Then again, these are the same people who told us Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation. President Donald Trump was a Russian spy.
Simply put, they often lie, For example, we now know from court cases and the FBI itself that the bureau did have undercover assets on the ground. That's one of the reasons we wanted to speak to representative Higgins. He's one of the few in Congress who's challenged the insurrection narrative from the start And as a former law enforcement officer himself knows a thing or two about investigations, powerful people who dominate the flow of information don't want you to hear what he has to say or what he's learned over the past two and a half years. That alone seemed like a compelling reason This is a letter from Bennie Thompson, who is chairman of the January 6 Select Committee. And he sent this, to TSA, To the Honorable David Pakoski, who is the Administrative of TSA.
They want a briefing on efforts to address the travel of white supremacists And other domestic terrorist groups options for quickly denying air carriers service to individuals posing a potential threat And, current status of efforts to identify and enter watch list, how far does this go?
Speaker 1: That letter was the beginning of an executive action by the TSA to use its authority To instruct, America's air marshals to track and follow Trump supporters that had been charged with no crime, they were guilty only of of arriving by air Into DC on January 4th, 5th, or 6th. And those those manifests were turned over to the FBI. The FBI went through those manifests, and every American that they identified that the FBI identified as a Trump supporter That was on those manifests was added to the FBI's suspected domestic terrorist watch list. The FBI created a profile on those people, a suspected terrorist profile. And and the the TSA administrator used his authority To instructed air marshals of America to track those Americans wherever they fly.
And
Speaker 0: Still today.
Speaker 1: It's still happening. This is who our air marshals are following, the Trump supporters, and that letter signed by Bennie Thompson, who was chair of the j six select committee and signed by John Katko, the the who at the time was a ranking member.
Speaker 0: It
Speaker 1: means the lead Republican of the Homeland Security Committee advising the the Tchaikovsky, the TSA The senior guy to use all of that authority to track Trump supporters that had not been charged with a crime You're guilty only of arriving in DC by air.
Speaker 0: And every time they fly, they're being tracked.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: If they have never been convicted of terrorism, why are they on the watch list, it's a violation of the First Amendment, they exercise their First Amendment rights are being punished for it. It's a violation of the 4th Amendment. I mean, how many laws does this violate? How many rights does this violate? This is not a free country.
You're not a free country where you're tracked By air marshals by the way, at taxpayer expense, and we're not talking about an insignificant expense, teams of 3 air marshals tracing people all over the country, Putting you're putting physical detail onto people? That's the most expensive form of surveillance that exists.
Speaker 1: Let me say let me clarify. It's very comforting to Americans Is to think that there's that there might be an air marshal on our on our flight. Not they tracked you
Speaker 0: on that. Political beliefs.
Speaker 1: If they're being used for nefarious purposes. The people that are complaining about this are the air marshals themselves. These are the whistleblowers that are coming forward To tell a congressman that they felt would pay attention
Speaker 0: This may go on since January 21.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: And you just found out about it. What else is going on that we don't know about?
Speaker 1: We don't know, but I'm telling you, we're in uncharted waters as it relates to the weaponization of our government against the American people. I am not frightened of these people. I'd spent my life serving others, and and I love my country. This thing Is not gonna just slip away. They're not gonna take us without a fight.
I'm going to fight legally and peacefully and within the parameters of the constitution that I've sworn to serve, but they're going down. These, these men And their high perch, in their position of power and authority And are walking upon our entire history, our deepest core principles. They're not Gonna get away with it.
Speaker 0: They have so far.
Speaker 1: We'll see.
Speaker 0: Powerful people in this country, they wanna make sure no one hears your your voice. They want everyone to look at you like a far right crazy conspiracy theorist. Is that who you are?
Speaker 1: No, man. I'm a regular American man. I'm an investigator, police officer by background. I'm gonna continue to speak the truth Whether anybody likes it or not.
Speaker 0: You've always been controversial. Even when you were in law enforcement, you did those, Crime Stoppers videos That went viral. People loved them. You got a lot of heat for them too.
Speaker 2: The Gremlin street gang is responsible for hundreds of violent crimes, Murders, armed robberies, witness intimidation, burglaries, drug trafficking, extortion, and brutal beatings. We've arrested 10 of these thugs and have warrants on 7 more. You will be hunted. You will be trapped. And if you raise your weapon to a man like me, We'll return fire with superior fire.
Darren Carter, do you think men like these are afraid of an uneducated 125 pound punk like you that's never won a fair fight in your life and hold your gun sideways? Young man, I'll meet you on solid ground anytime, anywhere, light or heavy. Makes no difference to me. You won't walk away. And for those who would use this message As a way to create false racial division in our country, take a close look behind me.
Standing next to every cop Is a leader of our black community. This is not about race. It's about right versus wrong.
Speaker 0: Was that your idea? What you the reason behind that?
Speaker 1: Those videos, those public service announcements were part of my job That the sheriff asked me to perform.
Speaker 0: Because you were the press officer of public affairs position.
Speaker 1: Public service, But that was late in my career. I didn't ask for that position. I'd been a SWAT cop for a long time. In fact, When the sheriff asked me to take that role, at first, I thought it was joking, and I told the sheriff, I don't know how to do that. And he said, well, it's easy.
You show up where the TV people tell you to show up and you stand where they tell you to stand and Somebody holds a script for you and you read it. I did that a couple of weeks. I read the script, but I was uncomfortable with that because it wasn't real. It wasn't reflective of what I had been telling actual suspects for Many years in the dead of night, that direct conversation that a lone cop will have Whether a young man has taken a wrong turn in life and has to be arrested, that's a very special communications for a good cop.
Speaker 0: How do you do that, Clay? How do you have that conversation?
Speaker 1: Well, you speak candidly and honestly and from your heart With compassion, but discipline and confidence. I mean, if if I show up in your In your life at 2 o'clock in the morning, it's it's not because you've had a good day. I don't consider you to be a bad man. You've just done Something that has crossed the line according to statute, and I'm gonna help you through the booking process and Hopefully, leads you to a better day. Their only path really to freedom was through my jail, and real freedom, spiritual freedom would be if they could break the bonds of darkness.
So The way I delivered the message when I began having to record video segments, I just communicated in that same honest manner, and and what started happening is people started turning themselves in.
Speaker 0: People responded and even beyond your little Sheriff's Department in Louisiana worldwide.
Speaker 1: Some of those videos, It would translate it into 8 languages. I'm told IT people told me they were viewed 150,000,000 times across The world and
Speaker 0: No one had seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: Crazy. Yeah. It was just honesty. And that's what I do in Congress.
Speaker 0: There is another video of you that went viral not so long ago, which is When you had that press conference on the hill, and that activist kept coming up, and you leaned in and took your sunglasses down, you told them, I'm gonna give you an interview. I'll give you You won, but this is what you got to do. And then he came back.
Speaker 1: You had a Freedom Caucus press conference immediately following A Bernie Sanders rally, so they had not necessarily a good mix. 1 could anticipate There might be some activists there that would not necessarily agree with the kind of things we were saying in our press conference, and One of those little fellas figured out that there was no police around, so he wanted to be more aggressive than he should have been. Can you talk about when your family did an ad all all endorsing your opponent? And he came on the inside, the barriers, you know, into the press area. He was not a journalist.
Speaker 0: He was walking right between the group of congressmen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: He he came. He was trying to get around to Lauren Boebert, and I had already Dressed them down a little bit. Right. Continue. Put them in a box.
You can't answer the question that he has. No. I can answer the question. Okay. Listen.
I respect you first. I'm Clay Higgins. I represent south Louisiana. Clay Higgins.
Speaker 0: Asking you
Speaker 1: to do is just peacefully stand by with your camera,
Speaker 2: And I promise you look at me, I'll
Speaker 1: come talk to you straight up. I'll answer all your questions. That didn't last maybe a minute, and he decided to get even more aggressive. So I just I had to escort him out the area, and I did that and turned him over to the police. That was the end of it.
Speaker 0: I like the way you say escort him out. You basically kind of picked him up and kicked him over and put him down.
Speaker 1: That was an escort.
Speaker 0: That's a Clay Higgins escort?
Speaker 1: That that's a Clay Higgins escort. Yeah.
Speaker 0: And you Stayed very calm and said, calm yourself. Right?
Speaker 1: Calm down, son.
Speaker 0: Sounded like you'd said those words before.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Said them before. It's kind of where we are as a nation right now. Calls for the calm, consideration, and response to the Oppression that we face from within, it's it's quite nefarious.
Speaker 0: Tell me what you mean. What do we face as a nation?
Speaker 1: Generationally, we have allowed our federal law enforcement agencies to gradually become I'm commanded by corrupted men and they've been corrupted not so much by money, but by power. And that power really began manifesting itself insidiously within To the FBI and the DOJ and our intelligence services since 9eleven, since the Patriot Act. We gave them great authorities and power. Those powers are no longer being used to thwart terrorists. They're being used To oppress the the individual rights and freedoms of regular Americans like me and like the citizens I've sworn to serve.
So I have a problem with that.
Speaker 0: The counter to that would be these are not ordinary citizens. These are domestic terrorists Because that's I mean, it's very clear from Christopher Wray, the letter that he wrote about parents going to School board meetings, right, that need to be investigated as terrorists. You speak at a Moms for Liberty event today, you get targeted by the Anti Defamation League or the Not just social media companies, but with law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Regular patriotic American men and women are not Terrorists. Let me say the factions within our highest levels of federal law enforcement and the FBI and DOJ And intelligence services these corrupted men were discussing, they could be more readily identified and more accurately Described as domestic terrorists than than me. They're the ones treading upon my individual rights and freedoms. They're the ones They're spying on Americans. They're the ones traveling, great distances To insert themselves into the lives of Americans that are just communicating freely as is our right online or anywhere else at meetings as we congregate and gather.
Speaker 0: What about those who say your your right to gather And, and have a conversation doesn't give you a right to assault police officers and disrupt congress and so on.
Speaker 1: I don't support battery on police officers nor violent disruption of government operations, but I I will remind everyone that a free American has a right to resist an unlawful arrest.
Speaker 0: At the last hearing where you, addressed Christopher Wray, you produced a photograph of what you called ghost buses.
Speaker 2: These 2 buses in the middle here, they were the
Speaker 1: 1st to arrive at Union Station on January 6th, 500. I have all this evidence. I'm showing you a tip of the iceberg, mister Taylor.
Speaker 0: Your point really was that there were unmarked vehicles full of individuals They have not been explained. Is that right?
Speaker 1: A ghost vehicle in law enforcement is is not an uncommon reference. It's It's a vehicle that's been purposefully concealed to to whereby it's not easy to identify. So No license plate has been painted over from its original cover. In this case, these 2 buses were Totally painted white in, like, a a cheap, fast overspray over all of the markings. So when you have 2 charter buses show up, the very 1st buses to show up in Union Station on January 6th.
Speaker 0: Around 5 AM.
Speaker 1: Around 5 AM, initial witness, another charter bus owner arrived at at 5:20. He thought he would be the first to arrive because he knew the schedule of all the other charter buses, and he knew that most of buses would begin arriving around 6. So this Charter bus operator was a very experienced man, very squared away. When he arrived with his couple of buses. These 2 white buses were, to his surprise, already there, And he immediately noticed that there was these buses were odd because they were totally painted over.
It was a bad paint job. There was no markings, no phone numbers, no company name, totally outside the parameters of the way Charter buses are required to operate by law, so he said these buses are weird and no one was getting out. So something else that happens within that charter bus driver community is the drivers know each other. And the passengers may stay on a bus if they're If they're especially in a parking lot, they're not ready to disembark yet Sure. The passengers might stay on a bus, but the bus drivers get off.
And they talk to each other. They talk to the other bus drivers. So there are things that happen normally that the absence of that happening was odd. So he was suspicious enough of these buses as a professional that he collected some digital evidence those buses, and then estimated with him and and other eyewitnesses between 40 50 Guys that they described, they're Trump supporters. They all disembarked from the bus and they gathered in front of of the 2 buses, And they had like some kind of discussion or briefing, like the way a military leader would address his troops.
Speaker 0: Yeah, they call it a huddle.
Speaker 1: And then they Together went to the escalators and up in the Union Station and were gone.
Speaker 0: And they were all men?
Speaker 1: They were all men In all the Trump regalia, these men were in really good shape. They made comments like, wow. This He's a real serious Trump supporter to his guys, and they said they all had elbow pads and kneepads, And, they appeared like they had common equipment, but they were not in uniform. But they they behaved in a uniform manner, and we intend to get all of that video evidence from Union Station, from the escalators, from the parking lot, we have other eyewitnesses. Much to the chagrin of everybody that was in those buses And everyone who commanded them to be there, we've identified one of those buses, and You know what that means?
That means that's their ass because a bus is a serial numbered vehicle. And in America, the change of ownership of a serial numbered vehicle is documented. So that means We can begin to trace from the original owner of that bus, where it was sold and who bought it, and then who it was Lees 2 and Wu Ware disappeared, and then eventually, those buses were removed from the union station, And we're gonna document all of that.
Speaker 0: So you believe that those buses held undercover offices, not informants. Correct?
Speaker 1: I feel very, very confident that that everybody that was on those 2 buses were FBI assets, and I have a high degree of belief that they were actual FBI agents. And I'm I'm sorry to say, ma'am, my objective conclusion Is that, is that senior officials at the at the FBI were deeply involved there. You had a combination of FBI confidential informants, either registered, unregistered or Like a volunteer informant or actual FBI agents depending upon the group and how significant the group was. Like the agents inserted and said that Proud Boys groups that were going to come to D. C, those are most probably Actual FBI agents, whereas some random Facebook group of patriots from Arizona or something would most likely an informant.
So it would still fall under the umbrella of an FBI asset if they were communicating with the FBI Data that they were harvesting and information that they were recording and delivering to the FBI, screenshots of text Chats or or actual recordings of phone calls, things like that that they were delivering to the FBI, all part of the web of Surveillance of the American people.
Speaker 0: What have you seen? What can you tell us about it? I know you can't get ahead of everything. I know there's, Limitations on some of this, but can you tell us anything?
Speaker 1: I can tell you that That the FBI had established a formula in 2020 that they pursued with all their power and authority to infiltrate groups across the country of Americans that were essentially discussing online. They had formed online groups
Speaker 0: to Chat rooms?
Speaker 1: To just like yeah. Like chat rooms
Speaker 0: Discord and Telegram
Speaker 1: pages, etcetera, to discuss their frustrations with COVID oppression. And so the FBI identified groups and infiltrated them with undercover operations that were very effective, and they began Planting seeds of discord. If you track the text threads, which I've seen some of, again through Evidence that I've been able to witness, but I cannot I cannot share publicly because it would be in violation of of Court orders from individuals
Speaker 0: clear, this is
Speaker 1: I've seen it.
Speaker 0: This is video you've seen with your own eyes.
Speaker 1: Reports. Yes, ma'am. The evidence that was in criminal cases.
Speaker 0: Is this what it's based on? It's based on the digital evidence, what you have on camera and supporting evidence for that. I'm an eloquent.
Speaker 1: Yeah. An eyewitness testimony, sworn testimony, affidavits, text messages, emails, And, digital digital footage. Yes, ma'am?
Speaker 0: A lot of people would say, you're a lawman. Right? That's what we do. We infiltrate groups where we Perceive there to be a threat or potential of crime being committed. We have undercover offices.
We have undercover assets like informants. This is the bread and butter of law enforcement. What do you
Speaker 1: They were the criminals. They were the threat.
Speaker 0: Based on what?
Speaker 1: We were just Americans. We were Americans that were angry, and we were enraged that our freedoms were being oppressed And the FBI and the powers that had become corrupted, those bad actors within The federal government that had this authority, they said that these Americans, how dare those Americans Challenge the oppression that we're putting upon them.
Speaker 0: Can you share any of the messages yet that you have said you traced back to FBI, in, undercovers inside these groups No, ma'am. And these chats.
Speaker 1: No, ma'am. Does
Speaker 0: Will you share
Speaker 1: Yes. I will. The moment that I'm I'm able to to to to reveal that stuff, I will.
Speaker 0: You said specifically That you saw that there were undercover police officers who were inside the Capitol before any of the protesters came in?
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 0: How do you know that? And can you give us any sense of what that means?
Speaker 1: I mean, if you clearly have men dressed as Trump supporters walking around inside the capitol On the other side of police officers who are, to one extent or another, not engaged with them, like they're not concerned about them, then you have A set of closed doors like exterior doors and interior doors closed, And you have police officers positioned outside and then in between the 2 doors and then on the inside of the 2nd set of doors. Doors weren't open yet. What time was this? Video. This was a a couple of videos that Trump was still speaking.
And then on the inside, look like Trump supporters walking around in groups of 5 or 6. So these would be clearly separated physically and by doors and by police officers from the guys on the outside. So any reasonable man Would come to the conclusion when you have videos of the doors being opened and police officers allowing Trump supporters that had gathered at the door to now enter, no violence, just walking in, just come on in, Some fist bumps and and come in and second set of doors open, and then there's a group of Trump supporters on the steps interior steps saying, Come on. This way. This way.
Speaker 0: What does that tell
Speaker 1: you? Reasonable man would look at that and say, this was a coordinated effort by law enforcement to have these people come in. So who was that? It had to be you know, I think it's nefarious Forces and part of the whole agenda of the of of the FBI with their involvement of this whole thing. We have other evidence, Specific observations of police officers, Capitol Police, a metro, both entering rooms And here in the capital, in uniform and coming out as Trump supporters and construction workers.
So You've
Speaker 0: seen that?
Speaker 1: Yeah. So
Speaker 0: Why has that video not been released yet?
Speaker 1: One would say that's a pretty good clue. Yeah. The the other reason that we believe it's just practical To have someone that knows how to get around. I mean, you know yourself. You can't walk around this place and know where you're going.
You have to be here for years and The
Speaker 0: capitalism is.
Speaker 1: That's right. And it's incredibly difficult to get around. You have to know where you're going. So you had to have people that that were very familiar with the the capital itself In order to lead some random groups of citizens that have come from every corner of the country, in many cases, never been to DC before, much less walked ran in the capital. So it just makes sense that the Trump supporters that were leading the way and were clearly already inside the capital Before the doors were opened, we're working in coordination with the FBI agents and assets that were embedded into the crowd, In some cases, and these groups had been embedded for months.
This is ugly stuff we're discussing, but the American people deserve to know the truth, and I intend to see that it happens.
Speaker 0: A lot of people just won't believe it. You know, without seeing they they gotta see the evidence, or they just don't believe you.
Speaker 1: I don't want to believe these things. I've been a cop for a long time when I was a little boy. The FBI shield was that was the baddest ass badge a cop could ever earn. It was An honored achievement to become an FBI agent. So it's with great pain, describe The corruption that has taken hold within our our FBI, and we intend to to clean it up because these rank and file FBI agents let me tell you, A lot of these men and women are quite disturbed about what has happened to their beloved FBI.
Same thing inside the DOJ. And we have an obligation as Americans to embrace truth whether it's ugly or not so that we can take corrective action.
Speaker 0: So you have the floor now, But you don't know how much longer you have it for. Right? And you don't have forever.
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 0: And it's been how long?
Speaker 1: 10 months.
Speaker 0: 10 months.
Speaker 1: Some things have not happened that conservatives within the people's house would like to happen. We've had some disagreements internally regarding who shall be our speaker. We just had to go through what we went through in order to arrive at that particular juncture of American history where a man like Mike Johnson became our speaker. Mike gets it that all the digital evidence of J6 has to be released to the American people. Talking about altogether between 4,050,000 hours of digital evidence, No one has a staff large enough to go through that evidence, so it has to be crowdsourced.
You have to give this stuff to the American people, and and then the truth will be revealed clip by clip.
Speaker 0: Mike Johnson has released precisely 12500 hours of that 40,000. And he's not releasing 5%, Which is 2000 hours, whether it's for a good reason or a bad reason. It provides opportunity to hide whatever you want In those 2000 hours. I'm not saying he's hiding something because I don't know. What I'm just saying is when you're withholding 2000 hours, You can put whatever you want in that 2000 hours.
There are American citizens who are sitting in jail. Some of them for 3 years without a trial. People have gone to solitary confinement For misdemeanor charges, nonviolent misdemeanor charges, they're still arresting people. You expect people to go to an election and vote when they don't even have answers on their questions on the last election. And over time, more and more and more evidence is coming out in court cases.
Right? Judges that wouldn't take those cases when the light was on them. Now they're not able to avoid them anymore. So what are you waiting for? The people who don't want the truth out Have complete information dominance, right?
You come out with something, you have a committee hearing, dismissed Conspiracy theories. Higgins, he's a far right lunatic. Don't listen to him. And so there are millions of people in this country I read The New York Times every day. Some of them are in this room.
Right? They hear you saying this and they think you're You're just a nut. And where's the evidence? So Mike Johnson's gonna release it? What is he waiting for?
Speaker 1: The truth of what happened on those days, j 4, 5, and 6 is in the digital evidence that speaker Johnson has control of, And thank God we have a speaker who has stated that he is committed to release all of that doubt. Now, he's restrained to the extent that he's restrained by attorneys, but he's an attorney himself. And and we'll see. When you when you say he's not gonna release at all, I say let's see.
Speaker 0: Well, those were his words, not mine.
Speaker 1: Well, I know the man's heart, and it is Pure. And he knows that America needs full truth. I believe I speak on behalf of We The People When I say we demand full release, the whole thing, not just from the Capitol grounds and within the Capitol proper, by the way, we want it all. We want all the D. C.
Metro digital evidence. We need evidence from Union Station and some other spots that we've identified.
Speaker 0: Can you tell me any of those spots that you've identified, Union Station being 1? What other spots?
Speaker 1: Parking areas and areas for disembarkment.
Speaker 0: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: Escalator areas where you can connect the dots from agents, disembarking from vehicles and going either on foot to their stations and their teams of of 3 and 4 and 5 or Getting into other vehicles that were dispersed and where some actions were noted that were born of of those vehicles where some actions were taken, the various stuff.
Speaker 0: What can potentially happen there? If you are a J6 defendant who's in prison or was convicted of a crime, but you find out later that that Brady material was withheld from you in violation of the law. Is there a legal redress?
Speaker 1: Yeah. That would flip the case. So the bottom line is that if Mike Johnson is successful at getting all the digital evidence from from j 4, 5, and 6 released entirely to the American people, Including the body cam footage of every police officer that was either operating in uniform Or not in uniform, shall we say. Then all these j6 I call persecutions, These political prisoners, those cases will be flipped because it's exculpatory evidence that's been withheld, and the prosecution has a legal to provide exculpatory evidence that they're in possession of to the defense. In this case, in every one of these J6 Cases that have been prosecuted.
The FBI and the DOJ has most certainly been in possession of all the digital evidence that we're describing right Now, if we're successful at releasing this evidence, the American people are going to be stunned into acceptance of the reality that our FBI, our DOJ, and In some cases, head people in our intelligence services have been corrupted by power.
Speaker 0: Have you seen all the video? I mean, I know it's a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, it it's a lot.
Speaker 0: Have you seen the key parts?
Speaker 1: I've seen many segments of video that most Americans have not seen that is incredibly condemning. They're so desperate To keep this digital evidence away from Americans, just regular citizens review That they're going through, through quite complex legal maneuvers To stop Americans from viewing this evidence. So every American that's watching this should ask themselves why. Whether you're liberal or conservative, why are you concealing that evidence from me? Why can't I see that?
It's video from my own capital. And people have a tendency to forget, especially my liberal brothers and sisters across the country. This is your country. This is your capital. You have the right to know what actually happened in 2020 in the months preceding j 4, 5, and 6.
You have the right to see the digital evidence of what truly happened in your capital On January 4th, 5th, and 6th, this is my position.
Speaker 0: What happens then at that moment when you find yourself inside the tunnel? What's the first thing you remember happening?
Speaker 1: I I
Speaker 0: was just trying to stand stand up and not be trampled. That's where my focus was until They hit to the head.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
On Jan. 6, officers on the West Side of the Capitol building were heard saying, “We’re hurting innocent people!” Other officers were overheard shouting, “They set us up!” If Jan. 6 wasn’t a setup, then why did so many of the officers on the ground that day seem to think it was? https://t.co/tnilZhuxly
Video Transcript AI Summary
Police officers on the west side were seen arguing near a fountain, with one officer expressing concern about hurting innocent people. They mentioned that for every person they remove, they are angering ten others. It seems like both the officers and the protesters were set up for failure. There is a video where officers can be heard saying that they were set up, feeling frustrated and betrayed. They repeatedly mention being set up and express their urgency in needing everyone's help. This situation has left them feeling deceived and now they are unable to respond effectively.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: That has police offices on the west side by the fountain yelling at each other, and one of them says, we're hurting innocent people. And they say, for every 1 we're pulling out, we're making 10 angry at.
Speaker 1: And and not only that, we're taking out 1 and 10 of them are getting wangrier. It's it's it's we're multiplying them by hitting them.
Speaker 0: You know, when you listen to that, you have the sense that the offices We're set up for failure as much as the protesters.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And we've got a video of officers saying we were set up.
Speaker 1: They set us the fuck up. That's what they did. They set us up. They set us up. They set us up.
They set us up. They set us Set us up. They needed everybody right away. No. Right away.
They set us the fuck up. So now we ain't got sick.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
What are they still hiding about January 6th? Take a look at some of what we've uncovered so far on "The Rest of the Story" with @laralogan. https://t.co/BXdRp6g0XE
Video Transcript AI Summary
This video discusses the events of January 6th and raises questions about the government's involvement and potential setup. It features interviews with individuals affected by the aftermath of the Capitol breach, including Matthew Perna's family and the Brunson brothers. The Brunson brothers, who are not lawyers, filed lawsuits against Congress for failing to investigate election fraud allegations. The video also highlights the presence of undercover agents and informants during the Capitol breach. The committee investigating security failures on January 6th has identified an undercover officer, Nicholas Thomasula, who can be heard urging the crowd to advance. The video ends with a discussion about the potential cover-ups and the need for the truth to be revealed.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: They came from every corner of this nation. Around a 1000000 voices raised, now silenced from prison to the grave. There are American citizens sitting behind bars
Speaker 1: Mhmm.
Speaker 0: Who haven't had a trial
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 0: Some of them for 2 years, some of them going on 3 years.
Speaker 3: There are people that we have willing to talk to us right now. They're scared for their life.
Speaker 0: Is it potentially the biggest setup in the history of this country? Potentially. What are they still hiding about January 6th? What don't they want you to know? Take a look at what we've uncovered so far On the rest of the story with Lara Logan.
The last thing Matthew Perna expected after turning himself in for nonviolent offenses and pleading guilty was for the government to try to add years behind bars at the 11th hour, but that's exactly what prosecutors were planning, Only they never got the chance. You had a conversation with the prosecutor. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4: Yes. So he says, let me start off by saying that there are many people in my department that felt very bad that Matthew decided to take his life. I said, really? There are many people in your department, including you, who are the reason Matthew took his life. He hanged himself because of the people in your department.
He said, again, I am very sorry for your that your nephew took his life. And I said, I hope that every night before you go to bed, the last thing you think of is the name Matthew Perna and the role you played in his death.
Speaker 0: Matthew Perna's fate was sealed the moment his face appeared on this FBI wanted poster, his aunt said. Suspect number 73 stood out in his red Trump sweatshirt As cameras recorded him inside the capital, roughly 14 minutes, that cost him his business, his reputation, and the woman he planned to marry.
Speaker 4: I just stepped my foot in the tub, and my phone rang. And it was one of my brothers. And I said, Jerry, you need to get a plane ticket and come home. Matt just hang himself in his garage.
Speaker 0: They broke him.
Speaker 4: They completely broke him, and they broke his heart.
Speaker 0: And they knew what they were doing? Yes. What was it about his case that struck you?
Speaker 5: To see somebody That was a victim of our own Department of Justice, and especially somebody as peaceable and caring As Matthew obviously was, shame on anybody that doesn't care how the system abused this poor guy. It it's just too tragic. It we shouldn't have a repeat of that.
Speaker 0: From the start, Matthew saw things that did not fit the official narrative, And later that night, loudly called out those he believed responsible.
Speaker 6: Antifa was disguised as Trump supporters today. Yeah. And they were the ones Who really led the charge into the capitol building?
Speaker 2: We love the police, but a few empty fuck dressed up as Trump supporters Have you're causing violence and stirring up violence here at the Capitol steps, and they're playing on the emotions of you and every patriotic American. This is not right.
Speaker 0: When masked men started smashing windows, protesters objected and stepped in to stop them, Taking out this man first, then tackling another who'd stepped in to finish the job while the crowd Chanted. In this footage from January 6, a plainclothes officer from the Metropolitan Police Department, Badge, briefly visible, was captured talking to a Capitol police officer and told him
Speaker 7: Well, he go undercover his antique in a crowd. So
Speaker 0: Do you believe this was a setup? This was an intel operation?
Speaker 5: These people came to Washington to protest, but the masses had no intention to be involved in any violence at all.
Speaker 0: So you're dodging the question.
Speaker 5: I do think that a lot of what happened was stirred up by the federal government. There were people involved that manipulated them.
Speaker 0: They were framed.
Speaker 5: They were framed.
Speaker 0: 43 year old Marcus Priester grew up a stone's throw away from his friend in one of the 5 small communities that stretch across the Shenango Valley. And for him, the loss was beyond measure.
Speaker 1: I had so much anger in my heart, And I prayed for God to take that anger away. Yeah. I'll I'll never I'll never fill that void.
Speaker 0: Best friend you ever had?
Speaker 1: Best friend I ever had.
Speaker 0: I suppose it's a gift.
Speaker 1: I was blessed To be a part of his life. You know, he had many friends. I was just one of his.
Speaker 0: Summer was just settling in to the Chenango Valley where the forest reaches from western Pennsylvania into When we met up with Marcus Priester, he and Matthew Purna would come here to run the rocky dirt Trails, but also to listen and be still. It was a little more than a year since his best friend had killed himself. And this time he was taking Matthew's friends and family on a pilgrimage of sorts To a clearing deep in the forest where Marcus and Matthew's uncle Ron had scattered some of his ashes and planted a tree in his memory. Wow. This was Matthew Church.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Beautiful. Serenity.
Speaker 0: For Gerry Perna, in some ways, life stopped when Matthew died. But there was one moment as unexpected as it was comforting, when an honor guard from Ohio Stood with them as they said goodbye to Matthew.
Speaker 4: That night of the viewing, there were 2 officers there, And they took turns. We were all confused.
Speaker 0: We were in shock.
Speaker 4: Yeah. We we didn't understand why there was an honor card there. They had an American flag, and they did a flag folding ceremony. And they handed the flag to my brother. And after the funeral, my brother Said to them, I'm grateful that you came, but Matt wasn't in the service.
And they said, Matt was more of a patriot than most every veteran we've ever done a funeral for. That's what they said, and they handed Larry the flag.
Speaker 0: The words carved into the stone of the highest court in the land still read this under law. 4 brothers from Utah are testing that theory. They didn't go to the capital, but like many of those who did, they believe the most Powerful politicians in this nation aren't doing their duty. When we heard 4 brothers better known for blasting their horns than practicing law had weighed in on the 2020 election controversy and were suing congress for failing to investigate charges of fraud. We tracked them down earlier this year In the Rocky Mountain city of Provo, Utah, where they're from, to find out what they were thinking.
Speaker 8: War puts in the power its victor. A regulation does the exact same thing. It puts in a power. It's victor only there's not a loss of life and property.
Speaker 0: Meet Darren Brunson. Of the 4 brothers, believe it or not, he's the quieter one. He's not a lawyer, but he started suing banks years ago, and he's the legal brain behind the Brunson lawsuits. Then there's Loy, also known by his middle name, Arlen. He's the oldest, once ran for local office, Published a pocket constitution with all the founding documents, and at an event, got president Trump to answer his questions on the Federal Reserve.
Speaker 7: Hello, mister Trump. My name is Lloyd Brunson. You've inspired I'm over here on your right.
Speaker 9: Oh, you
Speaker 0: can go That's the one
Speaker 2: I wanna do. That's weird.
Speaker 0: Not to be overlooked, Rawlin Brunson. He's the funny one.
Speaker 8: She's looking at me and she's looking
Speaker 7: at me like this and goes, Alright. I'll take your $300.
Speaker 0: With a quick smile and a lot to say.
Speaker 7: I got my brother-in-law here talking to a gal. You know? And Yeah. My brother Gaynor here. He's wondering what he's gonna be doing next.
Speaker 0: At 60, Gaynor's the baby of the family And the only one who made music his full time career with a professional recording studio and a talent for drums that rivals his lips. In their emergency petition, the Brunson's had argued That lawmakers immunity from prosecution violated the first amendment rights of American citizens. That's because in the first amendment, The founding fathers also guaranteed the freedom to petition for redress of grievances. The Brunson's asserted that meant elected officials We're not immune from the lawsuits of everyday citizens. But over nearly 2 years, every court including the Supreme Court declined to hear their cases.
For anyone but the Brunssons, that would have likely been the end. What's the evidence?
Speaker 2: It's
Speaker 7: not about whether there was enough evidence or not to make to change the outcome. That's not what this case is about, really.
Speaker 0: This is about What is it about, Lauren?
Speaker 7: It's about investigating to make sure that the conclusions are Sound and correct and true.
Speaker 0: Well, I don't believe there was fraud in the election. What if what if they say that?
Speaker 9: Well
Speaker 0: You're putting our democracy at risk, Lloyd.
Speaker 10: What exactly are we putting at risk? What exactly are we threatening?
Speaker 0: Well, you're threatening people's faith in the elections. This election has already been declared The most secure election in history, and there's been hundreds of court cases that have failed. And you are shaking the foundations of this country because if people don't accept the results, it's damaging.
Speaker 8: You know what I say? What? Good. Because your faith should be shaken up. Because if you don't, You're gonna see hell pour upon you like you've never seen before in this country.
We're fast moving in the wrong direction. Yes. We're gonna shake your faith with what is called the truth. Do you wanna see the truth? If you're afraid of the truth, then, yeah, you shouldn't be here.
You should wanna know the truth.
Speaker 0: The Brunssons are really just a band of loyal brothers
Speaker 11: Who
Speaker 0: grew up in a time and a family where defending the constitution was still regarded as a sacred duty, not an act of domestic terror. In front of a studio wall lined with photographs and legendary faces, we took a stroll down memory lane.
Speaker 4: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 0: Okay. But what about
Speaker 4: that one up there, the White House?
Speaker 0: What does it say taking a tour at night?
Speaker 12: Oh, yeah. The Secret Service gave us a private tour in the evening, then They took us on a tour of the Oval Office, and this stuff was just us.
Speaker 0: Here are the Brunson Brothers. They performed for that same president In the NBC Christmas special in Washington DC in 1988, Taught Regis how to blow the horn
Speaker 8: first thing you have to do is you have to make make a buzz sound from your list. Like,
Speaker 0: Alright. Great. Great. Led the kickoff classic halftime show at New York Giants Stadium. The music that's all led by the Brunson Brothers.
Their act Drew the attention of the famous and the soon to be things.
Speaker 7: We were playing at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. After the show, we would be there and sign. We had Our albums, and we would sign them, and this young guy came up, and he says, you guys are so great, I wanna you bought an album. He says, could you please sign this? And he And I'm a musician, and I just auditioned for a TV show, and it's looked like it's gonna happen.
And it's called now remember this. It's gonna be called 21 Jump Street. Wow. So what shirt is this? Johnny Depp.
Remember that.
Speaker 0: Are you Trump lovers? Would you be doing this if it wasn't Trump?
Speaker 10: Absolutely. In fact, even in the case we're talking about, it it has nothing to do with Trump.
Speaker 7: That's not what this is about. This is not about the results of an election. This is about, violating their oath of office by not investigating an election. Well, actually. See, we're asking that both sides be removed, not just Democrats, but Republicans as well.
Speaker 0: Many think the Brunson Brothers' legal theories are fanciful, Not grounded in statutory or constitutional law. They were hoping to settle that at the Supreme Court. Rollins' case did make it onto the docket twice, and so did Lloyd's.
Speaker 8: They have an obligation, even under their oath, as supreme court justices, To protect and defend the constitution Where
Speaker 0: is it? They that the remedy to that is that they can remove every member of congress that voted for it and the president and so on and so on. Because over and over and over and over again, the legal opinions are that that supreme court does not have that
Speaker 10: We are hit with that question all the times. They have actually broken a constitutional law. And you're saying, well, what law was that? What's the oath of office? Okay.
So who gets to judge them? When you break your oath of office, when you committed that crime, you are now, Automatically, according to article 3, in the jurisdiction of the
Speaker 2: Judicial.
Speaker 10: Judicial branch, automatically. And they get to judge that.
Speaker 0: Unfortunately for the Brunson brothers, they did not get to make their argument before the Supreme Court justices, As these letters they received from the clerk of the court show, their petition was denied every time, no reason given.
Speaker 8: And you gotta remember, sometimes, when you go to battle, sometimes, you might lose the 1st battle. You might lose the 2nd battle, but you may end up Winning the war.
Speaker 12: I'm just so blown away by these guys.
Speaker 2: Hey, Renee. That's nuts and out there.
Speaker 0: No. Tell me.
Speaker 12: Okay. Well, yeah, these guys I mean, the only way we can have freedom is that people want freedom more than life. And that's the attitude that it took to get what we have. Now, everyone that hasn't really worked for the freedom, Hasn't sacrificed for it. They're the ones 1st in line to sell it.
And so what these guys have done is they've given up their time. They are eating And drinking and sleepingness, and they are praying. And I'm just telling you that I believe they need To be heard, and it's so awesome because now they're being heard, and you're giving them a chance
Speaker 2: to be heard.
Speaker 0: Did undercover agents or Assets for the federal government agitate people to go into the capital and encourage or incite violence. In short, was January 6 a kind of set up, more of a Fed's direction than an insurrection? It was a moment that will live in infamy at an informal stop the steal rally in Washington DC On the eve of January 6th when people in the crowd turned on a 58 year old man with a lot to say. That man was Rex.
Speaker 11: No. I'm gonna put it
Speaker 13: out there. I'm probably gonna go to jail for it.
Speaker 2: Okay? Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capital. Into the capital. No. No.
No. Peaceful. Dead. Dead.
Speaker 0: Take me back to that moment. Take me back to the moment when you looked at Ray Epps and the thought came into your head And you said Ted. Ted. Ted.
Speaker 2: Ted. Ted. Ted.
Speaker 14: Right when he said that, something clicked into my head. I was, like, woah. This is scripted because he said the same exact line word for word
Speaker 0: And that's not natural.
Speaker 14: It's not natural. And he was he kept saying, none of this matters, tomorrow we need to go in to the capitol. Maybe the first time he's being silly or Saying something crazy. But when he said it the 3rd time, word for word, I knew there's a strong possibility this guy's a fed.
Speaker 0: To be clear, Because it's very difficult to prove these things.
Speaker 14: Right.
Speaker 0: Nobody is saying for certain, Ray Epps is A confidential source, he, of course, denies it.
Speaker 14: Right.
Speaker 0: And his attorney denies it. He's taken legal action against people who say it, and he has many cheerleaders in the media.
Speaker 14: Yeah. The New York Times, the January 6th Commission, Liz Cheney.
Speaker 0: 60 minutes.
Speaker 14: What? 60 minutes?
Speaker 0: Then when things were dying down, shortly before midnight, we discovered another conversation we hadn't Seen or heard before.
Speaker 2: I just buy the anti gun. I stood and down myself with the army then. I respect that. Queen Creek, Arizona. That's where that's where I live.
Are you my neighbor? I care. Get out
Speaker 9: of there.
Speaker 2: I live in Queen Creek.
Speaker 13: I wanna choke you, man.
Speaker 2: Wait. This guy's antagonizing me, man. Maybe it's because you're my neighbor.
Speaker 0: Then he leaned in and whispered something he apparently did not want to say out loud.
Speaker 3: We're not here to We're here
Speaker 2: to you're the storm. I'm not kidding you. We're here to storm the capital. Hell, yeah. Alright.
Have Have a good night. Be safe, Owen. Be safe, brother.
Speaker 0: That one moment changed what we knew about Reyes that night When he whispered, storm the capital, before it had happened and echoed the official narrative before it was broadcast across the nation. It turned out January 5th was not the 1st time Rea Epps encountered Big Tallaska. You can see him circling During this live stream recorded by Big Tallaska at a stop the steal rally in Phoenix on November 30th, shortly after the 2020 election. It appeared to have been scrubbed from the Internet. Here, it showed Raheps pacing back and forth a short way from Bate Alaska Who seemed to have his attention as he looked over in his direction repeatedly 13 times by our count.
Then Epps Stopped and pointed his camera right at him. Snagging a photo before putting his phone down and walking away. Only to reemerge on camera roughly a minute later, taking another photo in the same area. Wherever there was trouble to be found outside the capitol on January 6th, there was also a decent chance you could find Raef's.
Speaker 2: We are going to the capital.
Speaker 0: The self declared Trump supporter from Arizona wasn't just directing people.
Speaker 2: The capital's misdirection.
Speaker 0: He was at the 1st main breach around 12:52 PM with what the department of justice described in the statement of offense from his case As the vanguard of rioters, trespassing on restricted grounds and whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsel, Who's in prison for what he did seconds later. Then Epps joined the flood of rioters who stormed through the downed barricades and breached the first line of defense according to the DOJ. A short way down the path, when rioters took down more barricades, The DOJ said Epps continued to penetrate the restricted grounds and headed for the west plaza, Also a restricted area. Thanks to his tall frame and red hat, you can make him out amidst the crowd at these barriers, where he is once again in the 1st group to break through and get past the police. Jim Haft runs the Gateway Pundit, An online news site that's been a thorn in the side of progressives and establishment censors ever since he started blogging some 20 years ago When the Internet was still fairly new, few have devoted as much time to covering January 6th as Haft and his team of reporters who've published well over a 1000 stories in two and a half years.
Speaker 15: We have video of Rahab's holding up this Huge MAGA sign, steel MAGA sign, and he's actually helping push it. Some of the men who were touching that sign, They're in prison today.
Speaker 14: As someone who, you know, people have called me a fit, I understand how serious it is. So, you know, I say this is allegedly this is what I believe. I I don't have, like, a smoking gun
Speaker 0: That you can prove it.
Speaker 14: Yeah. I can't I do know he was an oath keeper.
Speaker 0: We did confirm Raheps's involvement Years ago with the oath keepers as seen in this video from Tucson, Arizona in 2011 where Ray Epps is wearing the t shirt and marching along. This is the organization that according to the DOJ led the so called insurrection. Kate Hilton said she was at that event with Rhodes and Epps. What made you join the oath keepers?
Speaker 16: I like the concept Then the mission statement, which is the revere, follow the constitution, and It was directed at anyone that's taken the oath to remind them that regardless of what's going on around us, We are bound to that oath.
Speaker 0: Is there something sinister in that?
Speaker 16: No. Absolutely not. Unless you think the constitution's sinister.
Speaker 11: So I'm gonna put
Speaker 13: it out there. I'm probably gonna go to jail for
Speaker 2: the jail. Tomorrow. We need to go into the capitol.
Speaker 16: He's yelling, go into the capitol. That's Not something I, could see him saying. That's totally the opposite of the image that he had presented previously. In what way? Well, he was a marine, very disciplined.
They don't cross those lines.
Speaker 0: No.
Speaker 16: Yet here he was screaming to Total strangers should cross that line.
Speaker 0: Epps made it onto the FBI's list of unidentified January 6 suspects but was removed around 6 months later without being charged. That was taken by many as a sign he was being protected. But his criminal attorney, John told Politico he thought Epps was removed in part because he'd contacted the FBI and was no longer unidentified. However, we found other suspects who'd been identified and were still on the FBI list, Their pictures updated with a banner saying arrested. We also found Matthew Perna still on there more than a year and a half after he'd committed Suicide in February 2022.
The presence of undercover agents and informants amidst the crowd on January 6th has been coming to light and can no longer be dismissed as conspiracy. We turn to investigators like congressman Barry Loudermilk Since the FBI and DOJ won't comment, he's chairman of the house administration's oversight subcommittee investigating security failures around January 6th.
Speaker 3: There was 1 video clip that had made it out, in public that some people had claimed this was definitely a police officer. We verified that to be true.
Speaker 0: This is the clip recorded on the body cam of the undercover officer in question.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like this.
Speaker 0: He can be heard chanting
Speaker 2: USA. USA. USA.
Speaker 0: And at times, urging the crowd to advance.
Speaker 2: Go. Go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
That's
Speaker 1: it. It's tear gas. Tear gas.
Speaker 0: The committee has not made his name public yet, But he was identified to defense attorneys as officer Nicholas Thomasula. There is a video that has police officers on the west side by the fountain yelling at each other, and one of them says we're hurting innocent people. And they say, For every 1 we're pulling out, we're making 10 angrier.
Speaker 2: A lot of pain is applied
Speaker 12: when you
Speaker 2: hit innocent people. And and not only that, we're taking out 1, and 10 of them are getting It's it's it's we're multiplying them by hitting them.
Speaker 0: You know, when you listen to that, you have the sense that the offices were set up for failure as much as the protesters. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And we've got a video of officers saying we were set up.
Speaker 9: They set us the fuck up. That's what they did. They set us
Speaker 2: the They
Speaker 9: set up 64 with Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And and
Speaker 9: then they answered 2 hours later. They set us up. They needed everybody right away. No. Right away.
They set us the fuck up. We
Speaker 0: Is it potentially the biggest setup in the history of this country?
Speaker 3: Potentially.
Speaker 0: One of the greatest crimes against the American people.
Speaker 3: That's why it's so important to get the truth with us. That's What we're working for and the cover ups that happened after January 6th is what I'm really after as well.
Speaker 0: What about the Republicans involved in those cover ups? I know it's hard for you to address those things. This is your own party, but this is the reality.
Speaker 3: We're gonna go where evidence leads.
Speaker 0: No matter what.
Speaker 3: No matter what.
Speaker 0: I'm gonna hold you to that.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 0: What happens then at that Moment when you find yourself inside the tunnel, what's the first thing you remember happening? I I was just trying to stand stand up and not be trampled. That's Where my focus was until they hit to the head.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
When Ray Epps urged people to trespass inside the Capitol, he knew it was a crime because he had an outstanding warrant for criminal trespass in Pennsylvania from 2015. He wasn’t the only one removed from the FBI suspects list - so what really happened on J6? https://t.co/oIbaklzqh5
Video Transcript AI Summary
Multiple undercover agents and informants have been involved in various incidents throughout history, including the recent plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan and the infiltration of left-wing groups like Occupied Cleveland. On January 6th, there are suspicions that undercover agents were present and may have encouraged the crowd to enter the Capitol. One individual, Ray Epps, was seen pushing a large MAGA sign towards the police, but he has not faced any charges. Other protesters who touched the sign have been imprisoned. The coverage of January 6th has been controversial, with some questioning the fairness of the sentences given to the defendants, many of whom are poor or middle-class individuals. There are also concerns about the involvement of undercover officers and provocateurs in the events of that day.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: When federal agents go undercover these days there's often more than 1. That's how you end up with at least Five FBI agents and informants in a tiny right wing militia in Michigan supposedly plotting to kidnap the governor only to find out there were more informants and undercover agents than kidnappers. And in April 1991, According to senior counterterrorism expert, JM Berger, agents posed as members of an invented racist militia group called the Veterans Aryan Movement, whose cover story was that they robbed armored cars to buy weapons and support their extremist ideology. But it's not just the right. The FBI also has a history of infiltrating left wing groups like Occupied Cleveland.
6 anarchists were arrested in 2012 for plotting to blow up a bridge in Ohio, but in court it emerged they were led by an FBI informant. And when we started looking into the role of government agents and informants on January 6th, It seemed as if there wasn't much political will to find real answers.
Speaker 1: Wherever there was trouble to be found outside the capital on January 6th, there was also a decent chance you could find Raheps.
Speaker 2: We are going to the capital.
Speaker 1: The self declared Trump supporter from Arizona wasn't just directing people.
Speaker 2: The capital's misdirection.
Speaker 1: He was at the 1st main breach around 12:52 PM with what the department of justice described in the statement of offense from his case As the vanguard of rioters, trespassing on restricted grounds, and whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsell, Who's in prison for what he did seconds later. Then Epps joined the flood of rioters Who stormed through the downed barricades and breached the first line of defense according to the DOJ. A short way down the path, When rioters took down more barricades, the DOJ said Epps continued to penetrate the restricted grounds And headed for the west plaza, also a restricted area. Thanks to his tall frame and red hat, You can make him out amidst the crowd at these barriers, where he is once again in the 1st group to break Through and get past the police. After that, he's seen all along the defensive police line walking up and down and here and there.
Hot commander, hot peacemaker.
Speaker 2: They're not the army. Thank you for making this. Appreciate that. I can keep them on your step. Is that okay?
Speaker 1: As noted by the media, the DOJ and the January 6th committee We have all come to the defense of Rayap's, and there's one thing that hasn't come up as much in interviews or under oath.
Speaker 3: We have video of Rahab's holding up this huge MAGA sign, steel MAGA sign, and he's actually helping push it. Some
Speaker 4: Some of the men who
Speaker 3: were touching that sign, they're in prison today.
Speaker 1: Jim Haft runs The Gateway Pundit, an online news site that's been a thorn in the side of progressives And establishment sensors ever since he started blogging some 20 years ago when the Internet was still fairly new, Few have devoted as much time to covering January 6th as Haft and his team of reporters who've published well over a 1000 stories In two and a half years, he told us they were one of the first to report on the possibility, still unconfirmed, That Ray Epps may be an informant.
Speaker 3: Couple of these guys touched it because it went over their head, and they didn't wanna get hit in the head. It got pushed at police. No police officer was injured, but these these people were still sent to prison. So they're in prison today for this. Ray Epps is pushing the sign, and he was never arrested for that.
Right? So it's just another incident of Ray Epps This suspicious activity, the media won't report this, but, we have the footage and we'll be glad to share it with you.
Speaker 1: Haft did share the footage with us and you can see the sign going over the crowd as he described. Here, Epps reached up and touched it for about 10 seconds and then made this gesture with his hand signaling toward the capital and the police. As the sign passed and changed direction, Epps can be seen on camera pushing it towards the line of officers and then joined in in pushing the crowd forward. We couldn't ask him about this because he didn't respond to our requests for an interview, And his attorney declined. There's no doubt about Epps touching the sign.
That was confirmed by the DOJ and Ray Epps himself In the statement of offense he signed when he plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for disorderly conduct on restricted grounds In September of this year, it said he touched the sign with both hands and specifically mentioned the hand signal seen on camera where Epps pointed forward toward the line of officers several times. The government offered no explanation for what that meant and did not address Epps pushing the sign at police, an act that got others charged with various offenses, including assault. Also not in dispute, the fact that Epps was pushing with the crowd. According to the statement, a group of rioters, including Epps, Pushed forward, leaning their bodies on each other. Again, no explanation was offered.
Speaker 5: REAPS denies Being a source or undercover or anything, you know, says it's all nonsense, not true in the least. His wife says the same, so does his attorney. Why don't you believe him?
Speaker 3: Oh, I think, it's the strangest Story, isn't it? Here you have, the January 6th committee. You have the media Defending this man who's clearly leading efforts to get people inside the capital.
Speaker 5: How does anyone prove that someone is a Confidential source for law enforcement, whether it's the armed homeland security, JTTF, Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, ATF, right, or as we found out even TAB, I mean, how do you find out? These agencies are never going to admit it.
Speaker 3: You know, I think the what what's interesting is, Raps had threatened to sue some people.
Speaker 5: He has sued some people.
Speaker 3: He he needs to put his money for where his mouth is.
Speaker 1: In a series of news reports, Hafden, the gateway pundit, traced what happened to other protesters who touched the sign and ended up in prison. Brad Smith, Who was 24 years old when he was raided by the FBI, got an assault charge and almost three and a half years for placing his hands on the sign for a few seconds and a conspiracy charge for texting with friends about Saving DC according to his mother. One of his friends, marshal Neef, a young father from Pennsylvania with severe mental health issues, Also got close to three and a half years for, according to the DOJ, carrying a wooden club and participating in hoisting and pushing A large metal sign frame into a defensive line of officers. 30 year old Thomas Patrick Hamner Pledged guilty to one charge for grabbing and assisting in throwing the sign and got 30 months. Jose Padilla from Tennessee and Sean McHugh from California both got six and a half years 78 months for touching the sign and other charges, McHugh, a young father, spent 2 years in prison waiting for his trial.
Vietnam vet Howard Richardson and Alan William Bialy, both from Pennsylvania, also touched the sign But were imprisoned for unrelated assault charges. Two and a half years later, Reaes has yet to set foot in jail, Although he could get anything from 0 to 6 months for his misdemeanor charge when sentenced in December. In his plea agreement, the justice department cited his lack of criminal convictions as a factor in sentencing. We took a closer look and found no convictions, but our search turned up what appeared to be an outstanding arrest warrant In Pennsylvania from 2015, it was ironically for the same crime Epps was urging people to commit at the capital, Criminal trespass. We contacted the victim named in the arresting officer's report, but have withheld her identity for privacy reasons.
She declined to comment, but we did reach the judge in the case, Daniel O'Donnell. Case records showed he signed off on two updates, 1 in July 2022, the other in October of this year. But he stressed the class c misdemeanor for defiant trespass was minor. Judges in Washington, DC seem to have taken a different view. By July this year, they'd sent close to 200 January 6th defendants To prison for trespassing and other charges.
Jim Hoff said he's tried to cover as many cases as he can, But it's hard to keep up. Prosecutions and arrests continue to this day.
Speaker 5: What about rehabs? And he gets death Now he's afraid for his safety.
Speaker 3: I think that's tragic. I don't I don't recommend that for anyone. You know, I don't recommend it for you, for, conservatives, I don't recommend it for for liberals. That's, that's very sad, right? I've had death threats.
I know I've had the police come to my door telling me, that they got calls from Washington, D. See, and my name is on a Antifa hit list, and so we're gonna have somebody sit outside your house for a while because, Your your name is on this list. So I know how that is.
Speaker 1: In light of his security concerns, we agreed not to close the exact location of Jim Haft's home in Saint Louis, Missouri where we met. Haft, now 61, Lives with his partner and runs the Gateway Pundit from here. He said it's become one of the biggest online news sites With almost 3,000,000 page views a day in spite of the left's best efforts to discredit him and his work.
Speaker 5: And I'm following you.
Speaker 3: You're in charge. The the big office. Yep.
Speaker 1: The nerve center.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So much for the newsrooms of old. Right?
Speaker 3: See this picture there? So my family's from Iowa, and my grandfather, in World War 1, when on armistice day, he put up a flagpole when he was a little boy, and it was in a town called Herring. And everybody moved away from the town. The only thing left Today is a flagpole that my grandfather put up, so I bought the town. So I own this plot of land with the flagpole, and those are my little Nice as we did a celebration.
Town?
Speaker 0: But the whole town is just
Speaker 3: A flagpole left. Everything was torn down. Isn't that a great little Americana story? It's just
Speaker 6: This is you. Right? You're in this picture? Yeah. That's you up there.
Speaker 1: Haft showed us some of the footage Gateway Pundit has featured in its reporting. His critics love to say he's far right fake news, But he'll tell you that's because he's exposing what they don't want known or seen.
Speaker 3: This is a slow motion Of the actual flashbang grenades being fired into the crowd. Look at this. And these people have no idea that this is about to blow up in their face.
Speaker 1: They also don't seem to be doing anything
Speaker 5: but standing around. Can you Yeah. Can you go back
Speaker 3: on that
Speaker 1: list, Jim?
Speaker 3: They're just standing around. They're not even looking at the police or anything. They're talking to each other. They're conversing. They're have no idea what is about to happen to them.
And they're not they're not pummeling cops. They're not spray painting buildings.
Speaker 5: What have we learned about January 6th? That we learned because of you first, stories you broke before anyone else.
Speaker 3: Well, I know our one One of our writers, exceptional writer, Cassandra Fairbanks, after, officer Sicknick, she was the first one to talk to the family, and she Broke some stories about the officer and about the, fire extinguisher. I believe Cassandra was the first one to point out that, after speaking with the family that it he he wasn't hit.
Speaker 5: Which was a really, really big story.
Speaker 3: Huge Story.
Speaker 5: I mean, because the whole narrative of January 6 hinged on officer Sicknick's death.
Speaker 4: Right. Because
Speaker 5: he was the only person they claimed had been murdered by protesters.
Speaker 3: At that time, yes.
Speaker 5: And it was false.
Speaker 3: It was completely made up. And not just killed, but he was beaten in the head with a Fire extinguisher. I mean, that was her story, and they all ran with
Speaker 5: it. Everyone.
Speaker 3: Our reporter, Kara Castronova, she interviewed, the gentleman who got pushed off the 2nd story ledge by the police officer.
Speaker 5: Sir. So That footage is clear as day. There is the balustrade, and people are climbing up there. And a police officer with a blue helmet?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Kill people. He Should've killed him. He's lucky to be alive. People, you know, had to drag him away.
Speaker 1: Was he badly injured?
Speaker 3: I think he was injured pretty Badly. He didn't wanna speak about it because he was afraid he's getting arrested, so he didn't talk about it for a long time, this guy.
Speaker 1: This guy was Derek Vargo, A 31 year old man living in Tennessee who suffered severe foot and spinal injuries and broke his ankle when he hit the ground some 20 feet Below, people like him don't usually get to tell their stories to the New York Times, but Jim Haft will give them a voice and a chance.
Speaker 4: Most of
Speaker 3: these people were poor or middle class or lower middle class. These weren't people with a lot of money. These were people who went there for the first time. Of the prisoners that I've spoken with, I spoke with an attorney a a week or two ago, and she told me that She believes 90% of these people are on have, attorneys that are appointed to them because they just don't have the money. You know
Speaker 1: So public defenders Yes.
Speaker 0: Who are typically left leaning or far left in their views?
Speaker 3: Well, certainly in Washington, DC. Absolutely. And in most big cities across the country.
Speaker 5: So you have people whose politics is the exact opposite of those protesting representing them in court?
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 5: And somehow they're supposed to get a real defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. And we've seen the results of these trials. And It's heartbreaking. And you see a woman who walked through the capitol with a flag.
She's a former Social worker. She dealt with addiction, addictive people, and she carried the flag and she has cancer, And they arrest her and and put her in jail for 60 days because she walked through the Capitol. What kind of sense does that make in this country? How can anyone who has any integrity say that this was a fair sentence? And it's she's not the only one.
We've seen a lot of people like that.
Speaker 1: Or would the counterargument to that
Speaker 5: be, well, they interrupted an official proceeding, and they were part of an insurrection? We don't care what people actually did in the capitol. It's the fact that they were there where they had no legal right to be.
Speaker 3: Well, they can say that, but, I mean, you could say the same thing about any Black Lives Matter, protests that was going on when they're burning down a building. I mean, these are bogus charges. To me, this is a political hit. It's it's it it breaks my heart because a lot of these people don't have a pot to piss in. I had mentioned a defendant who just went to court last about 2 weeks ago.
This defendant is Camping because he doesn't have any money to stay in a hotel. And
Speaker 1: So he has to come to Washington, DC to For
Speaker 3: his trial.
Speaker 5: Trial. But he he has to pay to get himself there, and he has to
Speaker 3: And he has to pay to eat or stay somewhere. And I put up the story, and it's It's heartbreaking. It's to me, it's absolutely heartbreaking. This is sort of my background. 9 kids in a Catholic family in Iowa.
My father was always struggling to own a business. I I can relate to these sorts of things. I can relate to running out of gas, you know, and Walking to the gas station and things like that, that's my that's my background. We put up a Gibson Go form, and I'm very proud of this. These stories make me the most happy, And that is that we our audience, god bless them, raised $29,000 for this guy in 24 or 36 hours.
29,000 they donated so he could stay in a hotel. Well, obviously, that's gonna cover more than a hotel. Probably more money than this guy's ever seen in his life.
Speaker 1: Do you think
Speaker 5: Those, people on January 6th were framed.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. Not a one of them was there for to plan an insurrection. The people were there to protest the election, and I think the only organization Organized activity that day came from, many of these what I who I believe are operatives. Will we ever know everything? Probably not.
But I think there's enough evidence there right now to to definitively prove that the government and several agencies were involved, in the violence that day.
Speaker 5: How does that absolve people of, the violence that took place and, so on?
Speaker 3: Well, that's a great question. I think it's very evident from the video. So it's not just that they admitted that they had people in the crowd, but we have video now from some of the operatives. There was 1 operative, a female operative. She's got a mega megaphone, and she's, you know, telling people on the way walking over to the cabin, we're going inside.
We're going inside.
Speaker 1: He's talking about this woman, Megan Paradise, number 9 on the FBI wanted list and seen here holding a baseball she reportedly stole From Nancy Pelosi's office inside the capitol, Hauft has dubbed her the female Ray Epps because like Epps, She went too far for others in the crowd who immediately pushed back.
Speaker 2: If a if a woman tells you to charge the line, you never charge
Speaker 4: the line.
Speaker 2: No. Dude, She's up there saying we need to go. It's like what are you
Speaker 3: talking about?
Speaker 2: Don't listen to her.
Speaker 1: And Lyceps made a reference to getting arrested. Yet she's never been locked up. And paradise was not the only one. This man was identified as Luke Philip Robinson by the far left site sedition hunters who've been relentless in pursuing January 6 suspects. He was photographed with an earpiece and dubbed hashtag ginger gun Because he was caught on camera carrying a weapon.
His pistol exposed when his shirt got stuck On the back of the grip. That made him one of the few supposed protesters who came armed to the capital, Which after 911 was designated a counter terrorism zone and has a higher level of security by law, More stringent than the federal district of Washington DC, which has the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. Yet like Rea Epps, Robinson was removed from the FBI suspects list and has remained a free man. We traced him through public documents To a business that started in Tennessee and is now based in Arizona. That's where he was in this footage from the JFK report When confronted by another January 6th defendant, Mikasia Jackson.
Speaker 4: Got an earpiece and a firearm, man. That's that's a you had a firearm on federal property. That's serious Stop.
Speaker 1: He appeared uncomfortable and did not answer any of his questions.
Speaker 4: What's with the earpiece at the capitol? Where who were you talking to? I'll see you guys later. Who were you talking to, though? I'm sure you
Speaker 2: wanna buy this bike or
Speaker 4: not. No. Thank you.
Speaker 1: According to at least 8 ballistic experts and arms dealers we consulted, the gun he was carrying appeared from what was visible to be a SIG 320 and either the m 17 or m 18 model. On their website, SIG said it was specifically built For the US military, we reached out to the DOJ and the FBI for comment, but we're still waiting for a response.
Speaker 5: What have you learned so far?
Speaker 7: We're tracking down different ideas and theories. And one of those theories was that there were undercover law enforcement officers In the crowds, we know that to be true. Some would have a reason to be there, but there's also been speculation that there were Federal agents or local law enforcement, they were encouraging people to go into capital.
Speaker 1: Congressman Barry Loudermilk, Georgia's 11th congressional district, Has been on the hill for almost a decade. He's the chair of the house administration's subcommittee investigating the investigators, Trying to get to the bottom of the security failures around January 6th.
Speaker 7: When there was 1 video clip that had made it out, in public that some people had claimed this was definitely a police officer. We verified that to be true.
Speaker 1: This is the clip recorded on the body cam of the undercover officer in question.
Speaker 2: I've never seen anything like this.
Speaker 1: He can be heard chanting.
Speaker 2: USA. USA. Yes? Yeah. They're fucking they're they're throwing shit off the hook everywhere.
Speaker 1: And at times, urging the crowd to advance.
Speaker 2: Go. Go. Let's go. Go. That's it.
It's tear gas. It's tear gas.
Speaker 1: The committee has not made his name public yet, But he was identified to defense attorneys as officer Nicholas Thomasula.
Speaker 7: We've already been able to say confirm, yes. This was a Metropolitan Police officer?
Speaker 5: Undercover.
Speaker 7: Undercover.
Speaker 5: Who was doing what?
Speaker 7: He was at at one point, He was helping people climb up the scaffolding because remember out on the West Terrace, the scaffolding was being built for the inauguration. He was helping people get up the scaffolding and telling them, go. Go. Go. Keep going.
Keep going.
Speaker 2: Come on. Go. Go. Go. Keep going.
Keep going.
Speaker 1: Well, according to what police told
Speaker 5: the New York Times and other reporters right after January 6th, People use that scaffolding to get to the upper west terrace,
Speaker 1: and they define that as
Speaker 5: a critical access point that day. So if you have an undercover police officer assisting people in climbing up there, that doesn't sound insignificant.
Speaker 7: No. It it isn't. Now the next question is, what was he doing? Right? Why was he telling those people to go?
Speaker 5: And why was he there?
Speaker 7: And and why was he there? And that's a coup a key question. There?
Speaker 1: Who who put him there?
Speaker 7: Exactly. Now could it be he's trying to get up to the top to help? Right? He's got other officers there, and so he's just telling them, go go go. I'm trying to get up there.
But the fact is when he gets up there, he doesn't help. He just turns and walks away from the capitol.
Speaker 5: So he's encouraging and assisting other people?
Speaker 7: That's what it appears that
Speaker 5: they have to go in.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Loudermilk, a 59 year old air force veteran, Told us he doesn't like leaks, and he's played his cards close to his chest intentionally.
Speaker 5: There is a video That has police offices on the west side by the fountain yelling at each other, and one of them says we're hurting innocent people. And they say, for every 1 we're pulling out, we're making 10 angry at
Speaker 6: Not only that, we're taking out 1 and 10 of them are getting wangry. It's it's it's we're multiplying them by hitting them.
Speaker 1: You know, when you listen to that,
Speaker 5: you have the sense that the offices We're set up for failure as much as the protesters.
Speaker 7: Yeah. And we've got a video of officers saying we were set up.
Speaker 2: They set us the fuck up. That's what they did. They set us
Speaker 6: up. They
Speaker 2: set up 64. Oh, absolutely. And And then they asked y'all to come up 2 hours later. They set us up. They needed everybody right away.
No. Right away. They set us the fuck up. We're not we ain't got sick.
Speaker 6: We ain't got a
Speaker 2: motherfucking thing. They set us the fuck up.
Speaker 7: That's one of the things that we wanna know. What do they mean by that? What exactly do you mean that you were set up? Because there's a lot of interpretations.
Speaker 5: Are you investigating the possibility that pinstigators And other people inserted themselves in the crowd and, and took action
Speaker 0: to provoke the crowd and
Speaker 1: to provoke The police, so they were provoking both sides.
Speaker 5: I mean,
Speaker 7: there was there was definitely that there. I don't know who they are. We're looking into that. But, you know, as you're talking about the great contrast, you've got the people over here that When we do have audio, we're saying, hey. We appreciate you guys, you know, talking to law enforcement.
Speaker 5: Yes. Protesters in the midst of the violence saying we're on your side.
Speaker 7: Yeah. And then we've got other folks that have steel pipes that are, you know, beating officers with it.
Speaker 5: So when has that ever happened at a Trump rally?
Speaker 1: Never. For the congressman, it's somewhat personal after being falsely accused of leading a surveillance mission Inside the capital the day before January 6th, he said the truth has to get out and subpoenas may be next.
Speaker 0: What have you learned About what really happened that
Speaker 5: day that you didn't know at the time.
Speaker 2: Well, first, I've learned about pain.
Speaker 6: All I said, I put my hands up. I said, don't touch me. Please don't hurt me. Please. I said and he's like, I'll do whatever the hell I want to you.
And I said, I have constitutional rights. Please don't. He's like, you don't have Any rights in here?
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
It turned out January 5th was not the first time Ray Epps met @bakedalaska. In November 2020, Epps was seen circling Baked Alaska at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Phoenix, pacing around him, and even taking pictures of him. The Ray Epps story with @laralogan continues on Monday… https://t.co/bsRbepCoxM
Video Transcript AI Summary
On November 30th, during a stop the steal rally in Phoenix, Ray Epps and Baked Alaska crossed paths. Baked Alaska recorded a live stream where Ray Epps can be seen circling nearby. Epps caught Baked Alaska's attention, as he repeatedly looked in his direction. Eventually, Epps stopped and pointed his camera at Baked Alaska, taking a photo before leaving. This encounter took place before their interaction on January 5th.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: It turned out January 5th was not the 1st time Ray Epps encountered Baked Alaska. You can see him circling during this live stream recorded by Baked Alaska at a stop the steal rally in Phoenix on November 30th shortly after the 2020 election. Here, it showed Rayebs pacing back and forth a short way from Big Telaska who seemed to have his attention as he looked over in his direction repeatedly, 13 times by our count. The devil. Then Epps stopped and pointed his camera right at him, snagging a photo before putting his phone down and walking away.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Was Ray Epps the victim of right wing conspiracies and speculation? Or was he being used, like everyone else on January 6th, but for a different purpose? https://t.co/nu8zLJPjaK
Video Transcript AI Summary
The video discusses the case of Ray Epps and his alleged involvement in the events of January 6th. Epps, a former member of the Oath Keepers, was recorded whispering about storming the Capitol the day before the attack. Many have speculated that he may have been a federal informant or undercover agent. However, Epps denies these claims. The video explores Epps' background and his association with the Oath Keepers. It also highlights the reactions of those who knew him and the suspicions surrounding his actions. The video raises questions about Epps' true intentions and the possibility of undercover agents being present during the Capitol attack.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: When people use the term fed, most of us assume they're referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI when in fact, fed could mean anyone working for an agency or office at the federal level. That could be the CIA homeland security or the state department to name a few. It could also be a federal office for any senator or congressman. And there are many forms employment can take. Staffer, contractor, informant, and so on.
In our last report, We looked at the curious case of Ray Epps and why a number of those around him on the eve of January 6th suspected he may be a fed. To be fair, Epps has repeatedly denied working for any government agency and that may very well be true. Our job as journalists is not to prove a case where neither lawyers nor activists. But we are supposed to get as close as possible To the whole truth and let you decide. And everyone should have a chance to speak for themselves.
So we would like to invite Ray Epps once again to sit down with us and tell his story. One question that we have for him Is what if anything he may have known about a plan to storm the capital since that's what he was recorded talking about on January 5th When he spoke to live streamer Big Tallaska and just happened to discover the 2 of them were neighbors back home in the tiny city Of Queen Creek, Arizona. As we showed you before, when Tim Giannay known as Big Tallaska Was live streaming in Washington DC the night before January 6th. Raheps leaned into him and whispered something He apparently did not want to say out loud.
Speaker 1: Goose on my face. Am I kidding?
Speaker 2: We're here to serve the capital. Hell yeah. Alright. Have a have a good night. Be safe, Owen.
Be safe, brother.
Speaker 0: Somehow, the January 6th committee with a budget of more than $18,000,000 And over 40 staffers seem to have missed the most revealing, some would say incriminating thing Epps said. The
Speaker 3: Conspiracy theory about Ray Epps is is just a lie. It's just Not true. There's some there's a conspiracy theory. Obviously, I've seen it out there.
Speaker 0: January 6 committee members like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, Both republicans have put a significant amount of effort into defending Epps on social media and in this case, Speaking to students at the University of Chicago.
Speaker 3: It's one of those pieces of of What we've seen around January 6th that is pushed by people that wanna suggest that it this was this attack was something other than, What it really was.
Speaker 0: And to remind you, so far it appeared no one had asked Deppes what he knew when he whispered, storm the capitol before it happened And before Americans got the message.
Speaker 4: Protesters stormed into the building. Stormed the doors. People stormed the Capitol. The Capitol had been stormed.
Speaker 0: Storm the US Capitol.
Speaker 2: Nobody cared about the Rayup story for the 1st year after January 6th. It was just a nothing burger to everyone for some reason. I thought it was a big story, but, I was banned off Twitter. I was banned off YouTube. I was banned off all social media, so I couldn't get the story out.
Or, you know, I I was not able to get it into the mainstream. I was arrested probably a week after January 6th. And when I got out, my followers and my fans, we all started looking into, Ray Epps. And someone's like, he used to be an oathkeeper, and he used to be military intelligence, and on and on and on. And we just started finding these Crazy things about Rayaps, and then
Speaker 0: is it confirmed that he had a background in military intelligence? Or
Speaker 2: Yes. I've talked to his, Well, I believe so.
Speaker 0: Believing and being certain are 2 very different things. And, of course, this is it's a serious thing to say someone's a fed. Right? You can't just make that charge.
Speaker 2: As someone who, you know, people have called me a fit, I understand how serious it is. So, you know, I say this is allegedly this is what I believe. I I don't have like a smoking gun
Speaker 0: That you can prove it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I can't. I do know he was an oath keeper. I do know he was in the military because there's There was an old Facebook photo of him that I've seen on his on his actual Facebook. Right.
I haven't
Speaker 0: Right.
Speaker 2: And that's why even when When I say he's a fed, I say allegedly, that's what I believe based off the evidence that I saw.
Speaker 0: We did confirm Raeb's involvement Years ago with the Oath Keepers as seen in this video from Tucson, Arizona in 2011, where Ray Epps is wearing the t shirt and marching along. This is the organization that according to the DOJ led the so called insurrection, And at EPSTE's side, the man who led them, Stuart Rhodes, founder of the group and one of the few convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy who's currently serving 18 years, among the longest sentences of any January 6th defendant. Depending on your politics, the oath keepers were either far right anti government extremists or to use their words, A nonpartisan association of current and former military, police, and first responders who are upholding their oath To defend the constitution. What made you join the Oath Keepers?
Speaker 4: The I like the concept and the mission, statement, which is The revere follow the constitution, and it was just directed at anyone that's taken the oath. That to remind them that regardless of what's going on around us, we are bound to that oath.
Speaker 0: Is there something sinister in that?
Speaker 4: No. Absolutely not, unless you think the constitution's sinister.
Speaker 0: Kate Hilton said she was at that event with Rhodes And ep's, a memorial the oath keepers held for a young marine combat veteran, Jose Garena. He died tragically at home in Tucson killed by police when a SWAT team raided his house and riddled his body with bullets. Police provided conflicting accounts, But in the end, reportedly paid his family $3,400,000 without admitting fault.
Speaker 1: Excessive bills shall not Be required.
Speaker 0: At the time, Kate said, Epps was president of the Arizona Oath Keepers, where she had been a member since early 2010, Having joined not long after the group itself was founded. What was the
Speaker 4: purpose, really? What was the point? The point was mostly educational. They had a motto, reach, teach, and inspire. Basically, to reach out to different Entities from children to, Eagle Scouts, veterans organizations, and teach About the constitution because that had been stopped in most schools.
Speaker 0: Is it essentially locally based?
Speaker 4: It was nationally based, but with local chapters And it exploded because a lot of people could, relate to that and have been wanting that.
Speaker 0: When was this happening?
Speaker 4: Stuart Rhodes announced the formation of Oath Keepers April 19th 2009 at Lexington Green in Massachusetts Patriots Day.
Speaker 0: Kate had taken her oath when she joined the border patrol auxiliary and said she'd worked in operations along the border in Arizona and California since 2006. Now 70 years old with grown up children and a rescue dog, Sky, who never leaves her side, she said she works from home in Arizona, A long way from the ice and snow of the north and the tiny town in Michigan where her life began. She told us she's a lifetime member of the Oath Keepers and was active for more than a decade. Kate said before January 6, They had about 35,000 members who would step up when disaster hits as they did in Houston, Texas In August 2017, when hurricane Harvey overwhelmed the city, they'd carried out thousands of operations From rescue missions to security, and until January 6th, Kate said, they'd not been charged with a crime.
Speaker 4: It was a common request If Oath Keepers could come and help with security.
Speaker 0: Was it paid?
Speaker 4: No. Everything is volunteer. So who would request security from the
Speaker 0: Oath Keepers? What kind of people?
Speaker 4: And range of people from Local shopkeepers like Ferguson because the stores were being burnt down and broken into and looted. So they requested Oath Keepers provide security.
Speaker 0: Black and white businesses? Mostly black, but,
Speaker 4: yeah, both.
Speaker 0: Of course there's, you know, there's the narrative out there that Oath Keepers are white supremacists. Right? Yeah. It doesn't really fit with black owned businesses having them come in to do security them in Ferguson.
Speaker 4: And the black owned business owners thanking them for saving their business. And so they provided a lot of, saved a lot of businesses during the Ferguson riots.
Speaker 0: Kate, seen here with Stuart Rhodes, Said Epps left the Arizona Oath Keepers in late 2011. Her sense was that he wanted to focus on his work with the Mormon church And the family business he was building. But Epps gave a different reason when he testified before the committee. According to the transcript, He said it was when Antifa had first come out in Portland, and they were burning things and doing different things on the news. Stuart Rhodes wanted to go there and try to direct them, according to Epps, and he did not agree with that, so we kind of split ways.
He added, they were too radical for my likes. We looked into Rose City, Antifa, the main anarchist group in Portland, and searched for news coverage of them burning things at that time as Epps had testified. We found that in 2011, they were 4 years old, Relatively small in number and mostly focused on social justice issues. We did not find news stories about Antifa burning anything, But we did find news coverage of the Occupy Portland movement that was forcibly removed from 2 parks that year. Kate said Stuart Rhodes never suggested infiltrating Antifa or anything like that to her.
And as far as she knew, Epps left on good terms.
Speaker 4: No one saw him again, no contact till I saw the footage from January 6th.
Speaker 0: And what did you think?
Speaker 4: I thought, he's changed. I mean, he's yelling go into the capital. That's not something I Could see him saying. That's totally the opposite of the image that he had presented previously. In what way?
Well, he was a marine, very disciplined. They don't cross those lines. No. Yet, here he was screaming to Total strangers to cross that line. And it was so out of character from what I knew of him.
Speaker 0: Did you talk to anyone else about it? Stuart. You spoke to Stuart.
Speaker 4: Stuart, and as the only other person that I'm aware of that knew Ray Epps that has been in the organization that long. And Stewart was shocked as well. We had a con several conversations about it. He said that's not the Ray we knew.
Speaker 0: And when you saw the media start to, you know certain parts of the media start to say, he might be working for the government in some capacity. Maybe he's an undercover cover informant or something, maybe he's a contractor, all of which he denies, of course. Did that strike you as realistic or possible?
Speaker 4: Or was it yes? Yes. Because it was so out of character that I would think someone that would have to be instructing him On how to conduct himself, that I couldn't think of any other logical explanation for his behavior, His, demeanor, his words, any of it. But I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And the more he heard, The more it seems to me that he was an informant.
Speaker 0: Base that on because obviously he's been on national TV protesting his innocence, He's been defended by the January 6th committee.
Speaker 4: I guess he's going on the offense because he's guilty. The Louder you get, the guiltier you probably are. Where attack
Speaker 0: is the best form of defense.
Speaker 4: Right. Exactly. Look at everybody else. They've got Grandmothers with cancer that walked in and took a selfie that are in prison. It just doesn't add up.
Here he is actually on film verbalizing going into the capital. Both the night before and the day out. Exactly. That's what you call ginning up a crowd.
Speaker 0: Incitement.
Speaker 4: Incitement.
Speaker 0: What about people who say, well, there's, you know, there's nothing there and you're you're making life traumatic for an innocent man. And now he's been charged by the FBI anyway.
Speaker 4: With the misdemeanor. Yes. My question would be then, what's the logical Explanation of why he has not spent a day in jail all this time. Anybody else doing far less, not only were picked up and put in jail to await trials indefinitely, but, you know, had to wait for their day in court In a jail cell. He wasn't.
And he's the only one literally on film that I'm aware of that is actually calling to breach the capital.
Speaker 0: With your history in the border patrol auxiliary and the kind of work that you did, is there any experience that you have from your past that sort of contributes to how you look at this?
Speaker 4: You have to rely, be able to trust and rely on people and be able to read them because it's your safety, not only theirs. Yes. Nobody wants to be associated with someone they can't trust or feel they're lying to them more. And I he fooled me. That may have been him then, but he changed.
Something happened And after he left Oath Keepers until January 6th, what, I don't know. But those were 2 different people.
Speaker 0: We really wanted to ask Re Epps that question and reached out again to his attorney, Michael Teter, but got no response. Tita was in some ways an odd choice for Epps. How did a Trump supporter who believed the 2020 election was Stolen. End up with a lawyer who's leading the effort to punish Trump's attorneys for questioning the election. Michael Teter runs the 65 project, which according to their website, is working with bar associations so that lawyers who subvert democracy Will be punished.
One of his main allies in this effort, David Brock, a major political operative for the Democratic Party, who told Axios in 2022, the idea was also to shame attorneys and make them toxic in their communities and in their firms. In media interviews, Michael Teter has said his client's life has been ruined by right wing conspiracy theories And speculation which forced him to sell his home in Arizona amidst death threats and go into hiding. When he spoke to 60 minutes in April of this year, Epps and his wife, Robin, were shown living in an RV in an undisclosed location, Although it was unclear if that has since changed. According to public records, in April last year, Epps sold his property in Queen Creek For $2,200,000.
Speaker 2: Beat him join us. I I
Speaker 0: Remember when Epps told Baked Alaska this about Antifa.
Speaker 1: You guys. I despise the Antifa. I'm just going down myself with the army then. I respect that. Queen Creek, Arizona.
That's where that's where I live.
Speaker 0: We couldn't find any record of Antifa in Queen Creek, and Kate did not recall them ever being there. We're still looking for evidence of a Clash with army vets.
Speaker 2: What's up, guys?
Speaker 0: But we did find something else.
Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you?
Speaker 0: It turned out January 5th Was not the 1st time Ray Epps encountered Baked Alaska. You can see him circling during this live stream recorded by Baked Alaska At a stop the steal rally in Phoenix on November 30th, shortly after the 2020 election. Go. It appeared to have been scrubbed from the Internet. According to forensics experts we consulted, who found a single copy buried deep in an online archive
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 0: And managed to Track the full livestream of 11 hours 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Here it showed Ray Epps pacing back and forth A short way from big Telaska who seemed to have his attention as he looked over in his direction repeatedly, 13 times by our count. The devil. Then Epps stopped and pointed his camera right at him, snagging a photo before putting his phone down and walking away, only to reemerge on camera roughly a minute later, taking another photo in the same area. Not long after that, he interrupted this argument.
Hey, ma'am. Let's give me some laws. Give me some statuses.
Speaker 2: I don't need some time. We don't want you here, so skedaddle Pam.
Speaker 0: With a common
Speaker 2: price Everybody's welcome. It's a free speech summon for
Speaker 1: Americans, and we're all You're right. You're right.
Speaker 2: You're right. You're right. I didn't Realize this honestly until someone put out on Twitter, and they were sort of, like, accusing me of being, like, a fed or something, and they're like, oh, baked Must be a fed, because here's Ray Epps on one of his streams. I'm like, what? I expose feds.
Like, how dare you? But But if I listen to everything online, I'd go insane.
Speaker 0: Where was this?
Speaker 2: This was in downtown Phoenix at Stop the Steel. I meet a 1000 people a day, You know, as you as you know, so these are long streams, 8 hours, 10 hours. I didn't remember that interaction at all.
Speaker 0: Did you even notice him at the time?
Speaker 2: No. No. Because like I said, I talked to so many people.
Speaker 0: Was Ray Epps simply a curious bystander, or was there more to it? Without being able to ask Epps directly, that's a question we couldn't answer. Ironically, It was Baked Alaska, not Epps, who ended up going inside the capital, live streaming all the way, and Baked Alaska the one who ended up in jail.
Speaker 2: What's up, everybody? Your boy Baked Alaska here about to go into federal prison. Let's go.
Speaker 0: Epps made it onto the FBI's list of unidentified January 6 suspects, but was removed around 6 months later without being charged. That was taken by many as a sign he was being protected. But his criminal attorney, John Blishak, told Politico he thought Epps was removed In part, because he'd contacted the FBI and was no longer unidentified. However, we found other suspects Who'd been identified and was still on the FBI list. Their pictures updated with a banner saying arrested.
We also found Matthew Perna still on there more than a year and a half after he'd committed suicide in February 2022, And his case had been closed. The January 6th committee in a statement dismissed concerns about the FBI website as unsupported and said Epps told them he was not working for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency on January 6th And never had. Epps has now been charged more than two and a half years later with a class a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, according to public case records. Those records also show Epps did not have to appear in court When he plead guilty, the DOJ waived his obligation and allowed him to appear via Zoom, not so much for Baked Alaska, Also charged with misdemeanors but arrested on January 15, 2021, less than 10 days after January 6. When we met up with him in Florida where he now lives, he said he was on his way back to Arizona and had stopped overnight in a hotel When this happened.
Speaker 2: I was driving home from DC in Houston, Texas, and there was someone who Came to my door, and it it was a guy, a towel guy, and he said, excuse me. Do you need more towels? I was like, no. And I I was barely awake, and I the door, and I was, like, I could've sworn that guy had a vest on, like, a bulletproof vest on and he was in a hotel uniform. I went down to my parking garage to get my rental car.
Our 20 US marshals jumped out. Get on the ground. Guns, rifles threw me on the ground, handcuffed me, and it was just like they sent And the whole squad over to make this big scene wasted taxpayer money, put me in danger. For what? We, my attorney and I said, if you want us Right.
I'm gonna peacefully surrender, and and and that happened not just with me, but with everyone. I've heard stories of doors getting kicked Down and, you know, these these late night or morning raids and the family having to go through the trauma, it it's absolutely insane. And so I I had PTSD just from that, And, the it is
Speaker 0: Is it so scary?
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's it's scary, and it just seems like it, Never ended. I I kept the cops kept coming to my door trying to get me on more charges and more charges, so it's like, I'm here with you technically free in Florida, but I'm on a 2 year federal probation, and the FBI just tried to charge me with conspiracy, but they they couldn't, but they admitted
Speaker 0: that. For what?
Speaker 2: In the New York Times, They were trying to charge me with conspiracy for going to January 6th and meeting up with friends, and they were saying, oh, that was part of some big plan, And
Speaker 0: but they couldn't find evidence. Are you still under investigation, do you think, by the FBI?
Speaker 2: I submitted a FOIA request, asking, skiing, and they said they couldn't tell me that it was confidential information, so I would guess I'm probably on a never ending investigation because they, you know, they they find any reason to put me behind bars.
Speaker 0: Are you on any, no fly list or anything like that?
Speaker 2: I am on the quad s list, it's called. So every time I fly, 4 s's appear in the top left of my ticket. I can't check-in online. I gotta go about 3 hours early. They have to manually call Homeland Security, treat me like a terrorist, go through every single thing My own with a bomb squad and all I'm not joking.
And then pat me down in every way possible, and then I get to the gate and It's not done. Then they come back again, pat me down in front of everybody. And so really what this is, it's a humiliation
Speaker 0: Intimidations.
Speaker 2: They want to humiliate me, intimidate me in the public square, and say, this is what we're doing at Baked Alaska. And if you speak up, if you step Out of line, they're gonna do it to you.
Speaker 0: The presence of undercover agents and informants amidst the crowd on January 6th Has been coming to light and can no longer be dismissed as conspiracy. What have you learned so far?
Speaker 1: We're tracking down different ideas and theories, And one of those theories was that there were undercover law enforcement officers in the crowds. We know that to be true.
Speaker 0: We turn to investigators like congressman Barry Loudermilk since the FBI and DOJ won't comment. He's Chairman of the house administration's oversight subcommittee investigating security failures around January 6th. Is it potentially the biggest setup in the history This country Potentially. One of the greatest crimes against the American people.
Speaker 1: That's why it's so important to get the truth with us. That's what we're working for. And the cover ups that happened after January 6th is what I'm really after as well.
Speaker 0: What about the Republicans involved in those cover ups. I know it's hard for you to address those things. This is your own party, but this is the reality. I mean
Speaker 1: We're gonna go where evidence leads.
Speaker 0: No matter what.
Speaker 1: No matter what.
Speaker 0: I'm gonna hold you to that. Yes. For the January 6th committee, the congressman from Georgia and his team of investigators What proved to be the problem that wouldn't go away. Did the DOJ and the January 6th committee overlook a felony arrest warrant for Ray Epps in Pennsylvania from 2015?
Speaker 5: We have video of Rahab's holding up this huge MAGA sign, Steel MAGA sign, and he's actually helping push it. Some of the men who were touching that sign, they're in prison today.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Why was Ray Epps treated as victim by the same people who condemned almost everyone around him as a threat? We try to answer some lingering questions about the one "election-denying-Donald Trump-supporter" the media and the government didn't seem to hate. https://t.co/1u5dXtSGLv
Video Transcript AI Summary
The video explores the question of whether undercover agents or assets for the federal government played a role in instigating the events of January 6th. It focuses on Ray Epps, a man who has been accused of being a government informant and encouraging violence at the Capitol. The video presents evidence from various sources, including livestream footage, suggesting that Epps may have been acting suspiciously and repeating certain phrases to manipulate the crowd. However, it also acknowledges that there is no concrete proof of Epps' involvement as a confidential source. The lack of attention given to this story in the past is also highlighted.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: For more than two and a half years, Americans tied to January 6th have been vilified as insurrectionists, but charged and often imprisoned for mostly misdemeanor trespassing offenses. And there's 1 unanswered question That threatens the insurrection narrative more than any other. Did undercover agents or assets for the federal government Agitate people to go into the capital and encourage or incite violence. In short, was January 6th a kind of setup More of a fedsurrection than an insurrection. The FBI alone had so many informants, Steven D'Antuono, A senior leader in the Washington field office at the time admitted in sworn testimony that they lost track And ordered an audit to account for all of them.
We still don't know exactly what those undercover assets were doing, Whether their actions were legal or not, we don't even know exactly how many government agencies were involved. But we do know that protesters themselves quickly recognized there were provocateurs in their midst and called some of them out. One of them was a man named Ray Epps, who rightly or wrongly has become the face of the alleged Fed's erection. Epps has repeatedly denied working for any government agency and has gone so far as to sue some of his accusers. So we decided to take a closer look, and what we found may surprise you.
It was a moment that will live in infamy. At an infomerulus stop the seal rally in Washington DC on the eve of January 6th when people in the crowd turned on a 58 year old man With a lot to say, that man was Ray Epps.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna put it out there.
Speaker 2: I'm probably gonna go to jail
Speaker 1: for a day. Tomorrow, we need to go Into the capital. Into the capital. What? No.
No. No. Peacefully. Dead.
Speaker 0: There it was Before a single protester ever set foot inside the capital, some of them suspected they were being set up. Take me back to that moment. Take me back to the moment when you looked at Ray Epps And the thought came into your head, and you said Fed. Fed.
Speaker 1: Fed. Fed. Fed. Fed. Fed.
Speaker 3: When I first saw Ray Epps, He came up to me. This is January 5th. We're outside BLM Plaza. We're protesting. The police are protecting Antifa.
And the last few years, that's been a common theme here is that the left, You know, BLM can burn down cities for 6 months. Antifa can attack people. The cops do nothing. And then, you know, you do a little joke on your live stream and And you're this domestic terrorist all of a sudden.
Speaker 0: His real name is Tim Gurney, but he goes by baked Alaska, what he called his stage name. Your stage name.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 0: That makes you sound like a stripper.
Speaker 3: No. I'm not a stripper. It's my, my rapper name. My entertainment name, I guess.
Speaker 0: The controversial 35 year old e celebrity from Anchorage has made a career out of social media that's lasted more than a decade Despite being banned from one platform after another. For a while, he was associated with the alt right, which he told us he regretted and said he since cut ties. He's gathered thousands of followers with his confrontational style and no shortage of haters.
Speaker 1: Get out of my door now. A cringe lord, a poser, and a white trash provocateur.
Speaker 0: He's often spudded in the land of memes.
Speaker 1: Can I take your order? Dude, let's go. I got ketchup mixed with last year.
Speaker 0: And landed a shoutout from Joe Rogan himself On the world's most popular podcast
Speaker 1: this Baked Alaska guy who's, like, a famous shit poster. Do you know what shit posters? They say, like, ridiculous And their memes, and they fuck with people, and they get people upset. Yeah. It's pretty funny stuff.
Speaker 0: Great. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I'm so honored to live in a country where our president is shit posting on Twitter. It really makes the world a better place. Oh,
Speaker 0: that's hilarious.
Speaker 1: We are in Washington DC, boys.
Speaker 0: Fans across The country were watching his livestream that freezing winter night as lines of police separated the crowd of Trump supporters From a small number of antifa agitators in a fairly tense standoff, we learned that Raebbs talked to Bayt Alaska about going into the capital Twice. Two conversations roughly 10 minutes apart. This is what he said happened the first time, shortly after 10:30 PM.
Speaker 3: Ray Epps came up to me and started saying, we need to go into the capital. Now I'm someone who creates funny content and I just Like to agree with everyone, and you know, if someone's saying something crazy, a lot of times I'll just agree. Be like, yeah. Yeah. Because I, You as an interviewer understand you want to allow them to continue speaking.
So the 1st time he says this, and I'm like, let's Go, which is a phrase that I say all the time. I'm sorta just encouraging him. I'm like, that's some crazy boomer. Okay. He's he's saying some stuff.
Speaker 0: Here, you can see it for yourself.
Speaker 1: In fact, tomorrow,
Speaker 4: I don't even like to say
Speaker 1: it because I'll be arrested. Well, let's not say it. We need we need to go I'll say it. Alright. We need to go in to the capital.
Let's go.
Speaker 0: What stood out in this first exchange, the way Epps Stopped and paused after he said in.
Speaker 1: We need to go in to the capital.
Speaker 0: Big Alaska's reaction said it all.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming up. And he was like, don't beat that guy up, but let's go into the castle.
Speaker 3: And then I get weirded out. So I'm I move to a different group. I'm like and and everyone around is, like, what is this guy saying?
Speaker 0: And And you're filming at this point?
Speaker 1: I'm
Speaker 3: filming live the whole time. Yeah. So you're seeing this unfold in real time, then I'm just Saying let's go. Alright. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm like, I'm getting away from this creep. He's he's weirding me out. I'm getting weird vibes. Something's off.
Speaker 0: Right.
Speaker 3: I go to another group way far away from him. He follows me, and then he starts instructing the crowd, and that's That's the famous moment. He says, we need to go into the capital.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow, we need to go into the capital. Marino. Into the capital.
Speaker 3: Right when he said that, something clicked into my head. I was like, woah. This is scripted. Because he said the same exact line word for word.
Speaker 0: And that's
Speaker 3: It's not natural. And I've been doing this for about 10 years. I go to every single type of rally, film, and not just Film clips. No. I live stream for extended periods of time.
So I'm able to see, I guess, the micro dynamics of how, the crowds Act and respond to things, and, you know, what are natural statements. And so I was also tipped off by, why is he going around to all the groups Instructing them what to do, and he was he kept saying, none of this matters. Tomorrow, we need to go in to the capital. Maybe the 1st time he's being silly or saying something crazy, but when he said it the 3rd time word for word, I knew there's a strong possibility this guy's a fed. I started that chant, and guess what?
The whole crowd joined in with me within seconds.
Speaker 1: Then. Then.
Speaker 3: And that wasn't planned or coordinated. That was just the spirit moving. That was God saying, There's something up here. Like, we watch out. There's something going on.
And and that's what I felt in my heart as a believer, Truly.
Speaker 0: To be clear, because it's very difficult to prove these things
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 0: Nobody is saying for certain, Ray Epps is A confidential source. He, of course, denies it.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 0: And his attorney denies it. He's taken legal action against people who say it, and he has many cheerleaders Yeah. In the media.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The New York Times, the January 6th commission, Liz Cheney.
Speaker 0: 60 Minutes.
Speaker 3: 60 Minutes. Once again, like, yes, that's my opinion. I believe he is a fed Okay.
Speaker 0: Well,
Speaker 3: that's my information, but I can't say a 100%.
Speaker 0: Beg Telaska agreed. Opinion was not evidence. And we reminded him Reaaps also denied working for the government When he testified under oath before the January 6th committee, since his defamation attorney, Michael Teter, The FBI, the Department of Justice, and Epps all declined to comment. We turned to firsthand original recordings From multiple sources, control through every frame we could find. Metadata from the live stream showed that from the start of his first encounter with Big Until they parted ways.
A period of 1 hour 32 minutes and 39 seconds, Epps repeated certain phrases Over and over, he told them at least 12 times what he wanted them to focus on.
Speaker 1: We are here to do something.
Speaker 0: Our whole lives matter.
Speaker 1: It is not Something To mess with Antifa, it is not to mess with Black Lives Matter. That doesn't matter. Keep your focus. Keep focus. Keep your focus.
You're losing focus. Don't lose focus. I have been losing focus. You're losing focus. Keep the focus, guys.
Speaker 5: You're not here for this garbage.
Speaker 0: And said around 6 times, this is not why we are here.
Speaker 1: Stop it. Not what we're here for. Yes. It is. Yes.
It is. Not what we're here for. Why you want to talk to me? Don't. But that's not why we're here.
Job. You let me talk to you. That's not why we're here. Let me getting off the subject, man. We're here for another reason.
Speaker 0: So many times it drew this response from Baked Alaska.
Speaker 1: You may be here for a reason, but other people might be. I
Speaker 0: can tell the difference between a news story in propaganda because I've been a journalist for more than 35 years.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 0: And in propaganda, they repeat themselves. Right.
Speaker 1: You're
Speaker 0: making a point because you want to focus people on that. When you tell a story Mhmm. You don't keep repeating yourself. Your audience isn't dumb. Yeah.
And I saw this guy there, and I'm thinking, first of all, who are you? Mhmm. Why are you directing this?
Speaker 3: Directing people around? Who does that?
Speaker 0: Who gave you the authority? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't
Speaker 3: I don't go up to the crowds and say, do this, do that. We gotta no.
Speaker 0: The immediate reaction was concerned.
Speaker 1: What's the next shot? It's not gonna happen. Okay.
Speaker 0: And Epps' insistence that Antifa and BLM don't matter.
Speaker 1: It's not about them. That's the not about them.
Speaker 0: Seemed to pour gas on the fire for people who had endured years of antagonism from Antifa's black bloc. Ever since Trump's victory in 2016, his supporters had been targeted by the so called brown shirts of the left who'd shown up at his rallies to start fights and more recently at stop the steel rallies in Washington DC in December Right after the 2020 election, when the violence and intimidation escalated. Antifa turned streets in the capital into no go areas for Trump supporters. Some pushed back in anger and at least 4 people were stabbed according to police.
Speaker 1: We don't really know exactly what happened, but somebody came out of a doorway and stabbed one of our leaders.
Speaker 0: Several protesters told us That's why many came prepared for the Trump rally on January 6th, swapping golf shoes and sneakers for combat boots and stab vests.
Speaker 1: VLM and Antifa are burning down our cities and destroying our country. Matter right now. Yes. It does. That's making It does not matter right now.
That's
Speaker 0: Epstein on message And later told the January 6th committee he was trying to stop violence. Congressman Adam Kinzinger credited him for that, And we did find Epps inserting himself in a number of arguments.
Speaker 1: I called you. They attacked you for what? It's all good, man. For bird
Speaker 0: But the violence seemed to be over by then As confirmed by Baked Alaska and others who were present, Epps also told the committee he thought the capital would be open because it was a weekday. And although he said this twice.
Speaker 4: I don't even like to say
Speaker 1: it because I'll be arrested. So I'm gonna put it out there.
Speaker 2: I'm probably gonna go to jail.
Speaker 0: He testified he did not believe he would be arrested and was trying to find some common ground. Epps did have a number of supporters in the crowd.
Speaker 1: My man. Jack. My man. Jack. He's right.
He's right. I'm not here right now. From what I've heard so far, I We're not gonna win.
Speaker 0: But with Big Tallaska, It got a little heated.
Speaker 1: Shut up. Get out of get out of here. Get out of here. I I'm done with you. I'm done talking to you.
Punked the one. I'm I'm no. Get out get out of here. Yeah. You realize how when he gets proven wrong, he just makes shit up because, oh, you guys are trying to cause violence.
Speaker 0: And a little personal.
Speaker 1: The media calls us Nazis, you fucking retard. Are you serious? Don't argue with him. He's making money on you. That's what this is.
You said. About The money. Oh. It's all about the money.
Speaker 0: Baked was still convinced Epps was working an angle.
Speaker 1: No. No. He he's definitely a plan. Okay. 100%.
That's better. I'm telling you, Any sort of interaction we have, this this fucking guy comes in. He's, like, and has some fucking thing to say We're the only one. To buy this.
Speaker 0: Then when things were dying down, Shortly before midnight, we discovered another conversation we hadn't seen or heard before. Here, Epps took a different tone with Baked Alaska.
Speaker 1: I despise. I despise the enemy. There we go. The old There we go. I despise the anti I'm myself.
With the army then. I respect that. Queen Creek, Arizona. That's right. That's where I live.
Are you my neighbor? I swear. You know how that I live in Queen Creek. I'm gonna I choked you, man. Wait.
This guy You antagonize with me, man? Or maybe it's because you're my neighbor. What do you mean?
Speaker 0: Then he leaned in and whispered something he apparently Did not want to say out loud.
Speaker 1: We're not here to fight, man. We're here to I'm not kidding My kitty We're here to serve the capital. Hell, yeah. Alright. Have a have a good night.
Be safe, boy. Job. Be safe, brother.
Speaker 0: That one moment changed what we knew about Raheps that night When he whispered, storm the capital before it had happened and echoed the official narrative before it was broadcast across the nation.
Speaker 3: Of supporters of president Trump stormed the US Capitol building. Thousands storming the Capitol. This mob that stormed the Capitol.
Speaker 0: Stormed the Capitol. Stormed
Speaker 1: The capitol Stormed the capitol.
Speaker 3: Stormed the US capitol building.
Speaker 0: Stormed the United States capitol. He ran it through forensic software That technical investigators use for analyzing audio and video to make sure we heard correctly and it had not been altered. I'm here for someone.
Speaker 1: Hey. My We're here to serve the capital. Hell, yeah. Well, alright. Have a have a good night.
Be safe.
Speaker 0: And search through hours of footage, Countless news stories, EPPS's FBI case documents, and his deposition before the January 6th committee to see if it had been discussed With the exception of 1 rider we found on substack, it hadn't.
Speaker 1: To the capital, where our problems are. It's that direction.
Speaker 0: Epps, who continue to direct people to the capital In the cold light of day on January 6th did not go into the capital himself according to the January 6th committee And the FBI. He's never explained publicly why he said storm the capital, what he meant by that, Or what you may have known. Alright. So why hasn't it been addressed?
Speaker 3: Nobody cared about the Rayap story for the 1st year after January 6th. It was just a Nothing Burger to everyone for some reason. I thought it was a big story, but, I was banned off Twitter. I was banned off YouTube. I was banned off all social media, so I couldn't get The story out, you know, I I was not able to get into the mainstream.
Speaker 0: The lack of curiosity would not be enough once the Rayeb story caught fire.
Speaker 6: Something happened after he left Oath Keepers Until January 6th, what? I don't know. But those were 2 different people.
Speaker 0: It turned out January 5th Was not the 1st time Ray Epps encountered Baked Alaska. We recovered live stream video from a rally in Phoenix where Epps seemed to point his camera right at him and take a photo.
Speaker 5: We're looking at every angle that we can. No preconceived ideas.
Speaker 1: That's how you get to the truth.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Prosecutors knew Matthew Perna was suicidal when they tried to lock up this non-violent January 6th defendant for as long as they could. It was more than he could bear. The rest of Matthew’s disturbing story continues…
Video Transcript AI Summary
Matthew Perna, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, took his own life after facing public shaming and legal troubles for his involvement in the January 6th Capitol riot. The Department of Justice sought harsher jail time for minor acts of civil disobedience, causing Perna to become suicidal. His family and friends remember him as a kind and peaceful person who was unfairly condemned. They believe that the media and local newspaper played a role in falsely portraying him as a threat. Perna's family is advocating for the Matthew Lawrence Perna Act, which aims to protect nonviolent political protesters. They feel betrayed by the justice system and hope to prevent others from experiencing the same fate.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Matthew Perna was 37 years old when he put a rope around his neck and took his own life. For more than a year, US leaders and media had shamed him and many others for the sin of supporting president Donald Trump And going into the capital on January 6th. Purna never hurt anyone and never tried to overthrow the government. But his family said he may as well have done both. In the court of public opinion, he was a condemned man, guilty by association.
And the Department of Justice wanted him locked up for minor acts of civil disobedience that would normally merit a slap on the wrist. After being at their mercy for over a year, Perna was suicidal. And the DOJ, who'd requested his medical records, knew it. Then out of nowhere, prosecutors decided to seek years more jail time. Those closest to Matthew Perna Said it was the final blow.
To learn more, we traveled to Sharpsville, a small town of iron and steel in Western Pennsylvania, Where his family had lived since they fled Mussolini's Italy more than a century ago. And we met up with his best friend, Marcus Priester, Who told us Matthew Perna had rotted away from stress right before his eyes. Summer was just Settling into the Chenango Valley, where the forest reaches from Western Pennsylvania into Ohio, when we met up with Marcus Prester, He and Matthew Perna would come here to run the rocky dirt trails but also to listen and be still. It was a little more than a year since his best friend had killed himself and this time he was taking Matthew's friends and family on a pilgrimage of sorts To a clearing deep in the forest where Marcus and Matthew's uncle Ron had scattered some of his ashes and planted a tree in his memory. Wow.
Speaker 1: This goes Matthew Church,
Speaker 2: Yeah. Beautiful. Serenity. To where he came to unplug from the Hectic lives we live.
Speaker 0: For Matthew's strongest advocate, his aunt, Geri Perna, this journey had been a long time coming.
Speaker 3: You know, it's strange, I feel like Matt is walking this with us.
Speaker 0: Yeah. We tackled 4 miles of winding paths And so we came to a place where the river runs quietly and the trees were not so thick.
Speaker 1: This is the spot he chose?
Speaker 2: This is it. Where he requested to be placed. Need some water.
Speaker 3: It's a
Speaker 2: little dry, but it's doing okay. Yeah. It is. And this is his water bottle.
Speaker 1: Wow. Did
Speaker 0: he carry that everywhere? He
Speaker 2: did. And all these stickers on it? Yeah. They're from all his travels. Wow.
He would always just put another layer on. There's about 3 layers of stickers on there.
Speaker 0: Really? Yep. The moment for Geri, more bitter than sweet, recalling the pain she said drove her nephew to an early grave.
Speaker 3: People literally hated you that didn't even know you. They hated you. I could post something on Twitter Mhmm. With Matt's picture, and I can almost always count on somebody to come on and tell me that he deserved it or he was a coward. He took the coward's way out.
And it sickens me To my core, because he's dead, how much more how much more could these people want from him? He's dead. Spitting on his grave brings you joy. I I don't understand that mentality in people. I don't understand how anybody can have That much hatred in their heart that they would they would say things so horrible about somebody who's dead, Knowing that their family member is grieving, have they never lost anybody that was close to them?
Have they never had that feeling That I feel and that my family feels and that my friends feel. If you've never had that, then I feel sorry for you because you've never known love. You've never known love if you don't feel what we're feeling about somebody we loved so much.
Speaker 1: And that, I mean, he had he had his family, he had his friends, and he had help.
Speaker 3: But he needed somebody to tell him what was going to happen. He needed somebody to to lay it out for him, and nobody could tell him. Nobody. There wasn't 1 person. That's why he searched his bible.
He searched his bible so often. His bible is just filled with notes, and oftentimes, there's sentences with a question mark on the end asking god, why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Send guilt, shame, remorse, depression.
Speaker 3: Numb the pain, bitterness, anger. He just Couldn't find the answers in this book. And after he died and we went into his home, and this was sitting on his coffee table, And I could tell that this book had been thrown many times.
Speaker 1: All his notes.
Speaker 2: And they painted him out to be this person that he wasn't. And there were conversations, and he he was starting to believe it.
Speaker 3: He did. He was starting to
Speaker 2: believe it. What's wrong with you, man?
Speaker 3: In our last conversation, he said to me, they keep telling me I'm guilty, aunt Cherry. I must be guilty. I must be guilty. I'm getting what I deserve. And I was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 0: The aftermath of January 6 had swept through Matthew Perna's life like a hurricane, his face all over local news As the protest that was turned into an insurrection became a death sentence. Out of more than 1100 arrested, Less than 2% were charged with conspiring to overthrow the government, but you'd never have known from watching the news or listening to leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 4: January 6th was the very definition of an insurrection.
Speaker 2: It was a violent insurrection. These were rioters and insurrectionists. Trump incited insurrection.
Speaker 0: The nation watch is insurrectionists. Attacked by insurrectionists.
Speaker 2: It's not protest. It's insurrection.
Speaker 0: To mark the 1st anniversary of January 6, about 7 weeks before Matthew killed himself, The most powerful justice department official in the nation promised more arrests.
Speaker 4: The actions we have taken thus Far will not be our last.
Speaker 0: Matthew Perna's fate lay in the hands of those sending political protesters to prison For nonviolent offenses, something they did not do to those protesting Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the supreme court In September 2018 where 100 had the charges dropped or were ordered to pay fines around $50 Under a Washington DC law known as post and forfeits, nor did it happen to those in Portland, Oregon during the summer of 2020 Who night after night tried to burn down the federal courthouse with federal agents inside, those responsible got to skip jail With no criminal record in exchange for community service and staying out of trouble for a time. Yet for January 6th, the FBI turned SWAT teams and battering rams on American citizens, often for misdemeanor crimes.
Speaker 2: Watch me. This is a crime. Your fucking ears off you. Don't touch me. Step back over there.
Speaker 0: And Matthew Perna felt the working class streets of home I turned on him and his family.
Speaker 2: His father had received hate mail, threats. So some of the most awful things you could say about a person.
Speaker 0: And that bothered Matthew?
Speaker 2: It sure did. And he got to the point where he was he he he didn't feel comfortable showing his face in town. He would, Him and I would have to drive out of town to a place where he felt more comfortable because he didn't he didn't wanna show his face in the community.
Speaker 0: That Sentiment echoed in a letter his father, Larry Perna, wrote to John Bates, the judge in Matthew's case, where he said we were no longer comfortable going out in public, something I never in my life thought I would experience In the town where our family was respected and well known, Marcus and others close to Matthew laid much of the blame with the Sharon Herald, A local paper whose narrative they felt was one-sided falsely cast Matthew as a threat and after he hanged himself, altered his obituary as confirmed by the funeral home, removing 2 lines they didn't want to print. One said he was ushered in by police. The other, many people are responsible for the pain he endured. We reached out repeatedly to the Sharon Herald for comment, but no one would talk to us. As Matthew Perna's case dragged on, His family said they felt him slipping away.
Speaker 3: He didn't wanna go out with his friends. Sometimes he answered his phone. Sometimes he didn't. He became a recluse In a sense
Speaker 0: And if he didn't answer his phone, what would you do?
Speaker 3: We panicked, And we kept calling.
Speaker 0: Matthew warned his friends in text messages that were hard to read. And in his Bible, among his many notes, next to Psalm 13, he asked, how much longer? Some friends went to his attorney, others to police who went to his house 3 times to check on him. The prosecutor in his case, Nihar Mohanty requested a mental health evaluation to help his supervisors know more about mister Purna's mental health status. The evaluation sent to the DOJ in July, the psychologist stated Matthew was at moderate risk of harming himself, Was not aggressive, had no intent to engage in criminal behavior when he entered the capital, and presented no significant risk For current or future offending, that did not appear to move the D.
O. J, who still wanted to send Matthew Perna away for years and refused the misdemeanor plea deal. Time and again, the prosecutor in DC indicated his office was calling the shots, not him. In desperation, aunt Gerrie said, after almost a year, Matthew collapsed under the weight of the justice department and plead guilty to 3 misdemeanors and the felony charge of obstructing an official proceeding, even though the senate chamber was empty When Matthew walked through the capitol building, with no criminal history and no violent crimes, Matthew pinned his hopes On a sentence of months, not years, and prepared for prison. That Christmas when he came to stay with her, Aunt Jerry said he was not the same.
And there was a picture
Speaker 3: of him and my son and I On that Christmas, that last Christmas, and every time I look at that picture and I compare it to every picture of Matt that I have Prior to that, there was a sparkle in Matt's eye before, and that picture on Christmas The day after Christmas that picture was taken. That sparkle has gone, and it's then that I realized His spirit was dead at that point, and nothing was gonna get it back.
Speaker 0: When the news came that the D. O. J. At the last minute was seeking a harsher sentence that could add 5 to 7 years of jail time, Aunt Jerry said Matthew was crushed. He told Marcus and Jerry it was a terrorism enhancement.
According to the DOJ, it wasn't. There's no official record because Matthew died before the paperwork was filed, But his family said they were told it was based on a threat to cause physical injury from a comment Matthew made in his Facebook live video On the evening of January 6th.
Speaker 5: Before we wrap this up, I just want to clarify all of the people that are really concerned thinking that this is over now, that Trump's lost. It's not fair. Style, RunTrust Media Today. The purpose of today was to expose pets to the trader.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 3: They used a couple of sentences from that video that they took completely out of context. They took Mike Pence as a traitor. It isn't over yet.
Speaker 0: As if it was a threat.
Speaker 3: And that is the terroristic threat that they were trying to use.
Speaker 0: And you had a conversation with the prosecutor. Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3: Yes. There was an operator on the line, and she said, I'm gonna have the attorney on the phone with you. I want you to know that you are on a recorded line with several witnesses listening in. Like, okay. So he gets on the phone, tell him who I was.
I said I am Matthew Perna's aunt. He says, let me start off by saying that there are many people in my department that felt very bad that Matthew decided to take his life. I said, really? I said, there are many people in your department, including you, Who are the reason Matthew took his life? He hanged himself because of the people in your department.
I said, what exactly about Matt's case warranted a terrorism enhancement? Exactly what did he do? He said, If he just could have waited, I don't think the terrorism enhancement would have stuck with his judge. That infuriated me. And I said, do you not understand?
It was the threat Of that enhancement that caused my nephew to hang himself. I said, do you not understand these are human beings that you're playing with? You throw out an idle threat that could have taken his sentence from 6 to 12 months to 5 to 6 years? And he hangs himself because of that fear that you instilled. And now you're saying you don't think it would have stuck?
He said, again, I am very sorry For your that your nephew took his life. And I said, I hope that every night before you go to bed, the last Thing you think of is the name Matthew Perna and the role you played in his death.
Speaker 0: We tried to speak with Nehar Mohanty, but he was unable to comment. And his office disputed Jerry Poner's memory of that call.
Speaker 4: There's an old adage. Democracy ensures people are governed no better than they deserve. If You don't protest. You don't demand that your elected officials do something about injustice. You're gonna be governed with injustice, and you're going to be the victim.
Speaker 0: Louis Gohmert was one of the few in congress, Jerry Purna said, who always made time for her and seemed to care about Matthew. What was it about his case that struck you?
Speaker 4: To see somebody that was a victim of our own department of justice, It's just and especially somebody as peaceable and caring as Matthew obviously was. Shame on anybody that doesn't care how the system abused this poor guy. It it's just too tragic. It We shouldn't have a repeat of that.
Speaker 0: Gomut was on the floor of congress on January 6, objecting to the certification of results In contested states, his 4th electoral college vote count in 18 years on the hill.
Speaker 4: It wasn't until January 6, 2021 Republicans objected, and the Democrats are all saying that's a crime for you to object. It's treasonous, seditious, I'm going, what? You? We're doing exactly what you did.
Speaker 0: And you witnessed that firsthand?
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I'm going, this is crazy. You guys did this. So were you being treasonous in 2017, 2005, 2001? It didn't make sense.
Speaker 0: Did you have the sense that some of your Republican colleagues were in lockstep with, the Democrats on this? I mean, Mitch McConnell and others.
Speaker 4: There were Republicans that got mad because we were objecting. Yes.
Speaker 0: So your own party Some. Some in your own party.
Speaker 4: We're not happy The majority of of the Republicans were concerned.
Speaker 0: Are you a dying breed, Louis, In the GOP
Speaker 4: I would like to thank there are more people in Congress now that will say what they believe than, Even if it costs them a committee or a chairmanship.
Speaker 0: What are we going from? 1% to 2?
Speaker 4: Well, I think there are more now.
Speaker 0: When we caught up with Gomut in the lone star state, retirement seemed to have set him free. So we asked a few tough questions about January 6. Do you believe this was a setup? This was an intel operation?
Speaker 4: These people came to Washington to protest, but the masses had no intention to be involved In any violence at all.
Speaker 0: So you're dodging the question.
Speaker 4: No. I do think that a lot of what happened was stirred up By the federal government. All those people that showed up, they showed up of their own accord, but there were people involved that manipulated them.
Speaker 0: They were framed.
Speaker 4: They were framed.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. No metal, no metal. Thank you, sir. Love you,
Speaker 0: Gohmert served on the hill for so long, many had forgotten he had served on the bench before that, 10 years as a federal judge in Texas. In his view, Matthew Perna should never have gone to court, let alone prison. From the sit ins of the civil rights era In the Vietnam War, Americans have a long tradition of breaking laws in the name of civil disobedience, and few cities have seen as much resistance As the nation's capital, where Democrats obstructed an official session of congress for 26 hours, The 22nd June 2016.
Speaker 4: We will occupy this floor.
Speaker 6: Go Bill. Go Bill. Go Bill. Go Bill.
Speaker 0: Gomez, who was there, said no one went to prison. What stood out to us in Washington, D. C. Was the ease and enthusiasm with which many republicans tossed their own under the January 6th bus. Gohmert and Marjorie Taylor Greene fought mostly alone to see January 6 prisoners inside the DC jail, Renamed the gulag by those inside whose cries for help were mostly ignored, including veterans and retired law enforcement, Some held without trial for 2 years or more.
Gohmert said what they found there was a shock.
Speaker 4: People needed medical help, And they weren't getting it. 1 guy had cancer, wasn't getting the treatment. It was just outrageous.
Speaker 0: Were any of the, prisoners Beaten or abused?
Speaker 4: Some have been. Yes.
Speaker 0: Is that normal?
Speaker 4: No. No.
Speaker 0: Is it even legal?
Speaker 4: No. People don't listen to those that have been jailed.
Speaker 1: He lost income. He lost his friendship. He lost his standing in his community. But we stood by Matt as his family because we knew him.
Speaker 0: From the stormy streets of DC to Mar a Lago, where she met with President Trump, To the hill where she testified at a field hearing held by congressman Matt Gaetz, Jerry Perna has made justice for Matthew her full time job.
Speaker 3: I ask you to bring this bill to the table and incur your encourage your constituents to pass it. Please, I ask you do not let My nephew's death be in vain.
Speaker 0: The Matthew Lawrence Perna Act of 2022, written by Louis Gourmet's team to Protect nonviolent political protesters on all sides would end pretrial detention for defendants like Matthew not charged with violent crimes. But the bill may never become law. So far, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the only member of congress to cosign.
Speaker 3: The people's house. They call it the people's house. Which people? Not you and me.
Speaker 0: Actually, the founding fathers did mean you and me.
Speaker 3: But it's not what it means now. It's that's not what it means. When we joined Matthew's family
Speaker 0: in the forest, the pain of his death had not faded, Not for his uncle Ron nor for his aunt Mani, his mother's identical twin. Matthew had slept at her house Nearly every night between his arrest and suicide.
Speaker 1: To me, it was just driven. It was just driven to this. And I can't accept this.
Speaker 2: Do you
Speaker 1: think you'll ever accept it? I believe that God is good and maybe he said it's time, Matt. Quit suffering now. Come up. No.
I don't know because I always thought suicide was wrong. It's hard to see someone you love suffer like that Yeah. To that point. I just I think what really upsets me is I really believe this country is good. And the more and more I see, I don't know that it is.
Do you feel betrayed? Yeah. I do. I and that's why I love Trump. Because finally you have somebody who's willing to stick up for us, Normal people that say they can't trample on you, I won't let them because otherwise, hell, we could be next.
What's the city won't come and throw us in jail and say there's nothing you can do?
Speaker 0: Well, some people blame Trump.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 0: In Matthew's last letters to his family, A suicide note he'd written just for her. I cared too deeply, aunt Mani. There was the war and I chose to fight in it. Hats off to Pelosi and Shuma. Heck of a snare they had me in.
Please don't think of me as a coward. I just couldn't handle these feelings, This fear and uncertainty any longer.
Speaker 2: And that was Matt, an old soul. Here he is, this guy. He's 5 years younger than me, And he had this quality that my grandfather had, and it was just beautiful.
Speaker 0: You miss him?
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 0: What do you miss the most?
Speaker 2: Just him be in there.
Speaker 0: He never goes away.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't I don't expect it will.
Speaker 0: For Gerry Perna, in some ways, life stopped when Matthew died. But there was 1 moment as unexpected as it was comforting when an honor god from Ohio Stood with them as they said goodbye to Matthew.
Speaker 3: And that night of the viewing, there were 2 officers there, And they took turns, and my brother was very confused. I we were all confused.
Speaker 0: Oh, in shock?
Speaker 3: Yeah. We we didn't understand Why there was an honor card there?
Speaker 0: Just the 2 of them?
Speaker 3: The 2 of them. The same officers came the next day, and they had an American flag. And they did a Flag folding ceremony, and they handed the flag to my brother. And after which after the funeral, my brother Said to them, I'm so confused. I'm grateful that you came.
But Matt wasn't in the service. And they said Matt was more of a patriot than most every veteran we've ever done a funeral for.
Speaker 1: That's what they said, and
Speaker 3: they handed Larry the flag.
@Truth_InMedia - Truth In Media
Matthew Perna was a Bernie Sanders fan until Trump came along. Then he was treated as a terrorist. Find out how a man who’d never been in trouble in his life ended up on the FBI wanted list after January 6th.
Video Transcript AI Summary
Matthew Perna, a Bernie Sanders supporter turned Trump protester, found himself on the wrong side of the justice system after participating in the January 6th Capitol riot. Despite being a nonviolent offender, he faced harsh charges and the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence. The stress and pressure took a toll on Matthew, leading to his tragic suicide. His family believes that the government's treatment of him and the backlash from the public contributed to his despair. They argue that the justice system showed a double standard in its handling of the Capitol rioters compared to other protests. Matthew's friends remember him as a kind and passionate person who loved his country but felt betrayed by it.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: When Matthew Purna followed his conscience and his curiosity into the US capital on January 6th, He had no idea what it would cost him. Like millions of Americans, he had doubts about the outcome of the 2020 election And went to Washington DC to protest, exercising his first amendment rights the way Americans have done since this country was founded. He was not an insurrectionist and had no plans to overthrow the government. In fact, Matthew Perna Was a Bernie Sanders fan until Trump came along and donated twice to Sanders presidential campaign. So how did a young man, then 36, Who was known for his gentle nature and had never been in trouble in his life, get on the wrong side of the justice department, facing prison For actions that at any other time in US history, would have been treated as civil disobedience.
The last thing Matthew Perna expected, After turning himself in for nonviolent offenses and pleading guilty, was for the government to try to add years behind bars at the 11th hour. But that's exactly what prosecutors were planning, only they never got the chance.
Speaker 1: Matt called me on the phone that Monday after he got done Speaking to his attorney, and he was sobbing. And he was stuttering uncontrollably like I had never heard Matt Speak this way before. And I said, Matt, don't worry. I'm crying on the phone with him. Don't worry.
God is not gonna let you fail.
Speaker 0: Geri Perna was a constant in her nephew, Matthew's life. Growing up in a tight knit Italian family, she said they were always close. And she stayed
Speaker 2: close to him
Speaker 0: in the turmoil of his life after January 6th.
Speaker 1: The last word I said to him was I love you. And he said, I love you too, aunt Jerry. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry you lost all your friends because of me.
Speaker 0: Matthew Perna's fate was sealed The moment his face appeared on this FBI wanted poster, his aunt said. Suspect number 73 stood out in his red Trump sweatshirt As cameras recorded him inside the capital, roughly 14 minutes, that cost him his business, his reputation, and the woman he planned to marry. It also shattered the sanctity of home where he was shunned and shamed by people he knew and others he'd never met. Jerry said he felt like the walls of Sharpsville, this small town of iron and steel that over the past century had forged Four generations of their family in Western Pennsylvania were closing in. Then came the call that changed everything.
Speaker 1: I just stepped my foot in the tub and my phone rang and it was one of my brothers. It said, Jerry, you need to get a plane ticket and come home. Matt just hang himself in his garage.
Speaker 0: Jerry Perna was a 1000 miles away at home in Florida On that icy Friday night in late February 2022, when her nephew put a rope around his neck and took his last breath, She said he'd been at the mercy of the US justice system for over 13 months.
Speaker 1: He was pushed to the point where he didn't feel life was worth living They robbed him of his spirit. They robbed him of his hope, His will to live. They took his fight away from him.
Speaker 2: They broke him.
Speaker 1: They completely broke him. And they broke his heart.
Speaker 2: And they knew what they were doing.
Speaker 0: Yes. Or at least that was how it felt. Stressful moments in Matthew's case would collide with stressful events in his life, Jerry said, like the hearing the DOJ scheduled for the anniversary of his mother, Ronnie's death. As the pressure mounted, those watching over Matthew fretted.
Speaker 3: He had a friend who was a caterer. When Matt was a teenager, he used to work With Tim, that's how he got to know him.
Speaker 2: So he's older than him?
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Much older than him. He's a black gentleman. He's a very good friend of our families.
Speaker 2: Matthew loved him.
Speaker 3: Oh, yes. He loved him with all his heart. Different sides of the political arena, but it didn't matter to Matt. They were friends, and he prayed for Matt all the time. He encouraged him daily.
And he told Matt, he said, I'm gonna bring
Speaker 1: you some dinner. What time do you want me
Speaker 3: to come by? And Matt told him to come by around 5:30. And so he went there, and he went up to the porch, and there was a note on the door.
Speaker 2: What did it say?
Speaker 3: It said, I'm in the garage. Call 911.
Speaker 0: What did he do when he found him?
Speaker 3: He tried to Cut him down the rope. And actually, one of the police officers that was first on the scene was a friend of Matt's, And he he tried so hard giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation for the longest time because Matt was so warm at that point, But he was gone.
Speaker 0: In a town of 4 a half 1000 people that spans less than 2 square miles, Matthew Perna's death reached into many homes. In his memory, more than 10,000 people signed the online guest book.
Speaker 4: A man about to be sentenced in connection with the January 6th riot at the US Capitol has died. Matthew Perna was from Mercer County. No cause of death given, but his family says he died of a broken heart.
Speaker 0: The stigma of January 6 hung like a dark shroud over the family. And Geri said threats and hate mail started pouring in as if the politics of division that tortured her nephew in life Followed him without mercy into the grave. Grace that was given to those Who burned down businesses and buildings protesting George Floyd's death is going to be arrested. Was not afforded to those an election they believed stolen. So much.
The same department of justice that according to the leftist guardian newspaper Dropped or never filed charges against, on average, 90% of those arrested during the summer of love went after hundreds of January 6 Protesters like Matthew Perna with a vengeance. Jerry Perna let us see this note her nephew left behind Etched in his own hand, I sacrificed my freedom when I entered into the capitol building on January 6th And in despair, took my own life the night I wrote this. It was what the family had feared, And they leaned on Geri as they often did. No one more so than her brother Larry, who'd already lost his wife, now his oldest son.
Speaker 5: Merry Christmas from Dixie. Hey, guys.
Speaker 1: It was heartbreaking. I experienced loss before when Matt's mom died. This was so much worse.
Speaker 2: And he wasn't suicidal before January 6th, before any of this happened.
Speaker 3: No. Matt brought people together. That's not a person who's suicidal. That's not a person who isn't enjoying life. It's a person who had a zest for life, and we watched it like a candle losing its flame over 13 months.
We watch that candle die.
Speaker 0: 6 years earlier, Matthew had given up a life teaching English in South Korea to come home. 1st, to nurse his mother, Ronnie, through leukemia, then to help his father, Larry, battle Parkinson's. A devoted son and a wanderer As these postcards attest, filled with memories and insight from distant lands. With his flair for languages, He'd mastered Thai and was almost fluent in Korean, but his heart belonged to this country. A love affair that began when he was little.
Speaker 1: He loved this country, And this country destroyed him in many ways. Its citizens, the media, the government, They destroyed him like he was nothing.
Speaker 0: Do you remember the last thing he said to you? Your last conversation?
Speaker 6: Yes. He had delivered the news about what they were going to be doing, how they were gonna add enhancements. They were gonna add time to his sentence, and he was having a hard time talking. He was, happened to clear his throat like he was choking. And he kept checking the rear view mirror of his car.
He was very anxious. He had some restless nights and was actually coughing up blood that he had himself so worked up.
Speaker 2: From stress?
Speaker 6: From the stress.
Speaker 2: So it must have been difficult for you to see him like that.
Speaker 6: Oh, my. Yes. He literally rotted Away from the inside out.
Speaker 0: 43 year old Marcus Priester grew up a stone's throw away from his friend in one of the 5 small communities that Stretch across the Chenango Valley, he told us that unlike Matthew, he was a loner. And for him, The loss was beyond measure.
Speaker 6: I had so much anger in my heart, and I prayed for God to take that anger away. Yeah. I'll I'll never I'll never fill that void.
Speaker 0: Best friend you ever had?
Speaker 6: Best friend I ever had.
Speaker 2: I suppose it's a gift.
Speaker 6: I was blessed to be a part of his life. You know, he had many friends. I was just one of his.
Speaker 0: Marcus and Matthew found common ground in running, Pushing each other along the muddy trails that weave throughout the rich green forest that lined the valley where they train for ultra marathons. At times, Marcus said, Matthew would ditch his shoes.
Speaker 2: You didn't run barefoot with him?
Speaker 6: I tried it one time at a beach, And, it didn't go so well.
Speaker 2: But he would.
Speaker 6: He sure would. Yep. Why? He had a love for the nature, a love for the Earth And all the elements.
Speaker 2: He wanted to feel it through his feet.
Speaker 6: Yep. He loved to breathe it in and to be a part of it.
Speaker 0: These are not The actions of a weak person.
Speaker 6: No. This man has run 15 miles of mountainous trail, And he ran it barefoot. I couldn't believe. I mean, his he got back and we we took a good look at his feet, and they weren't looking too good.
Speaker 0: As they ran, Marcus said they would often talk politics. At first, Matthew did not share his support for Trump.
Speaker 6: Oh, we argued some and tossed it around quite a bit. And I opened his eyes. We like Trump because we're open minded and we're We're all about looking outside the box. And when you got a guy that's stepping up against the establishment, he was the 1st political leader I ever heard Talk about fake news. We love that because we knew there is an agenda.
I think everybody should know that by now. And if you're not walking in line with that agenda, look out.
Speaker 2: Some people would say, but he's a white Premises and racist, and he's divisive, and he's offensive, and he's xenophobic, and he's Misogynist treats women badly. Unpresidential. Mhmm. It's a long list.
Speaker 6: Yeah. There sure is. Yeah. And a lot of it's, I would say most of that is not true.
Speaker 7: Joseph r Biden junior is elected the 46th President of the United States.
Speaker 0: The results of the 2020 election made no sense to either of them, Marcus said, and drew them to DC on January 6th Along with another friend, Stephen Ayers, then 38, they hoped vice president Mike Pence would send contested results Back to state electors for a closer look. It wasn't the 1st Trump rally Marcus had gone to with Matthew, and he told us the scene was familiar. The kind of crowd you'd find at any ball game.
Speaker 7: I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building To peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard today.
Speaker 0: When they joined the sea of Trump supporters heading for the capital, Marcus Said violence was the last thing on their minds. So what they found when they got there surprised them.
Speaker 6: There are people all around me and this crowd was forcing me forward. And it was it was hard to to move away. These were mostly, you know, larger, stronger men. I I felt a military presence. A military style presence.
You know, I don't I don't know who these people were. They they didn't seem like the same kind of people that I was with at the rally.
Speaker 0: So there was a noticeable shift?
Speaker 6: Yes. In everything. In the energy. In the the people that are that were there. Yeah.
Speaker 0: That happened the moment you reached the capitol? Yes. He recalled being swept up.
Speaker 6: The crowd was so violent. And it went from just peaceful people, and all of a sudden it was like people all around me Pushing and, like, forcing their way. And there was people coming out with tear gas. And I said, that's close enough. And I I had turned back.
And I had lost track of Matt. And I just I take myself back to that day over and over. And I wish I could have Grabbed him and and made sure that he didn't go forth to to go through that way.
Speaker 0: What lay ahead for Matthew is described in the notes an FBI agent took at his 1st interview a week later. He and his friend, Stephen Ayers, managed to stay together as they Approach the capital from the west side. This was the scene outside the senate wing doors less than 10 minutes before they entered the building. Purna stated there was no police presence at the top of the stairs, which surprised him. A mob of people started pushing their way into the doorway, Pushing him inside the capitol building.
That's where we first see Matthew Perna in security camera footage, caught up in that mob of people. Now you can see a line of police blocking the entrance, and Matthew appeared trapped between those attacking him from behind And officers in front fighting back. He managed to wrestle the flagpole away and kept his arms mostly raised to protect his face From the hard edge of a police shield that struck him over and over. Somehow, the use of unnecessary or excessive force Was never raised in his case, and the DOJ would not comment when we asked, not until all January 6 cases are over. Once the mob burst into the senate hallway, Matthew stayed a few minutes at times filming, mostly observing.
Police stood down. People wandered in and out, and the tension seemed to ease.
Speaker 7: Hey. We have our car.
Speaker 0: Then according to the FBI case notes, an officer led them through the building. He was picked up briefly with Steven Ayers on this police body cam footage we found as we tried to retrace his steps. After exiting on the south side a little after 3 PM, it appeared Matthew walked this way, stopping at the Columbus stores Where we found him on camera again. By now, he seemed to be sucked into the unrest. 1st tossing a water bottle, then with a baton in hand.
He then went on to the north side where at one point, he tossed a pole at a closed door. No police visible, no damage, but some regret expressed in a post on Instagram later where he wrote, I foolishly allowed myself to get drawn into the negative energy emanating from that building. Matthew Perna was not charged with a violent crime. And in these email records from his case files, the assistant US attorney, Nehar Mohanty, stated there is no evidence that he causes any Property damage or threatened anyone with the flagpole. From the start, Matthew saw things that did not fit the official narrative, And later that night, loudly called out those he believed responsible.
In this Facebook live video recorded with his friend, Stephen Ayres, And a woman they called Ashley.
Speaker 5: Antifa was disguised as Trump supporters today. Yeah. So Antifa wasn't walking around like they typically are, all dressed Black with their fast anti fascist symbolism, their shield. Like, they were disguised as Trump people, and they were the ones who really led the charge Into the capitol building.
Speaker 0: He had seen Antifa at Trump rallies before and identified tactics he felt exposed their presence.
Speaker 5: They were the ones smashing the windows and smashing on the doors and and getting it into into it with police. And so they were the instigators like they typically are. Like, that's how they operate. And so they were trying to bait the Trump quarters into kinda following their lead and retaliating and letting a lot of their frustration help.
Speaker 0: Hundreds, politicians, and the FBI Denied, Antifa had a rule.
Speaker 7: Do you have any evidence that the capital attack was organized by, quote, fake Trump protesters?
Speaker 5: We have not seen evidence of that At this stage, certainly.
Speaker 0: They look like anti But Matthew wasn't the only eyewitness who called out signs of trained instigators.
Speaker 5: These are people that love
Speaker 7: We love the police, but a few Antifa dressed up as Trump supporters have been causing violence Insuring up violence here at the Capitol steps, and they're playing on the motion with you and every patriotic American. This is not right.
Speaker 0: For years, Trump supporters had been confronted by Antifa at many of their rallies. The menacing all black uniforms, masked faces, And violent clashes, a constant threat from the moment president Trump was elected. So when masked men started smashing windows, protesters objected and stepped in to stop them. Taking out this man first, then tackling another who'd stepped in to finish the job while the Proud, chanted. Time and again, protesters reacted with the same thought as Matthew Perna.
And there were other indicators. In this footage from January 6, a plainclothes officer from the Metropolitan Police Department, badge briefly visible, Was captured talking to a capitol police officer and told him
Speaker 7: When we go undercover, his aunt keeps in a crowd. So Can you put that back in?
Speaker 0: And about 2 miles from the capital, a transgender left wing activist, Logan Leslie Grimes, Was one of 3 counter protesters arrested that morning described by NBC News as Antifa. According to the police report we obtained, Grimes was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm and unregistered ammunition that police said was found in the trunk of his car. Prosecutors dropped the charges, and Grimes's family declined to comment. Then there's the case of Landon Copeland, an Iraq war veteran and convicted Jacek prisoner who clashed with police and later claimed to be part of the secretive anarchist movement. In an open letter, he wrote, we are Antifa.
We stand diametrically opposed To all centralized autocratic fascist governments. In this interview from prison, Koprin told Jim Hoft of the gateway pundit He was one of some 250 Antifa members who met in Alexandria, Virginia the night before January 6th.
Speaker 7: Were you familiar with other Antifa activists who were there?
Speaker 8: Yes. Absolutely. I don't wanna go into any names or anything like that because I don't want to Engage your their well-being.
Speaker 6: Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 8: There was there was meetings beforehand. There was text messages. There was Facebook messages. There was all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 7: Hey. What made you come out now and and and come clean?
Speaker 8: It's been one of the rules for NTPA members to never declare to law enforcement that they're NTPA members. Like, actually, really part of, like, Alright. One of our core principles is being an Antifa member.
Speaker 0: So far, no one has disputed Copeland's claims, but high level Antifa members Are not known to ever go public or support president Trump, as Copeland claimed he did. We reached Shout to rose city Antifa in Oregon where Copeland is incarcerated, and we're still waiting for a response. Matthew Perna knew none of this When he first spoke out about Antifa and his world was about to change, first came retribution from Facebook Who took his account down within hours. For someone whose work selling alternative health treatments depended on his online presence.
Speaker 5: This is your opportunity to invest in the growth of CBD.
Speaker 0: Being censored was a death blow. Then came the FBI. A week later in the middle of the night, Matthew found out he was on the bureau's website. And by 9 AM the next day, his aunt Jerry said he'd called the FBI in New Castle, Pennsylvania To turn himself in.
Speaker 3: He didn't waste a minute. And so they sent 2 FBI agents to my brother's house. I said, maybe you need
Speaker 1: to get a lawyer. And Matt said,
Speaker 3: no. I don't think so. I think this is a misunderstanding, aunt Jerry. I didn't do anything. I didn't break anything.
I didn't touch anything. I didn't steal anything. Believe me, once I explain this, this is this is all just a huge misunderstanding. That's how he felt. That's how he truly believed this was gonna play out.
Speaker 0: Matthew Purna wasn't known as a troublemaker. He'd rather spend his time in places like Haiti doing volunteer mission work or delivering alkaline water to cancer patients he'd never met Because they couldn't afford the water filtration machines he was selling online. Aunt Terry said he once gave up a job so an older man wouldn't lose his During a round of company Laios.
Speaker 3: He made friends everywhere he went. He loved playing chess with old people in the park and talking to them and learning about their life. And he just Had this way about him that people opened up to him.
Speaker 0: Would he talk to anyone?
Speaker 3: Anyone. Matt didn't discriminate against anyone. He was just such a kind, kind person.
Speaker 0: Aunt Terry told us she insisted on an attorney, And they went together to meet him.
Speaker 3: There was a Biden sign in front of his office. I said, Matt, this guy's a Democrat. It is okay, and Jerry. It's okay. Let's hear let's hear what he has to say first.
Let's not judge him. And he had 42 years of experience, and he said, oh, this is nothing. This is a piece of cake. He said, have you ever been arrested before? And I said, no.
I don't think you ever had a parking ticket or, You know, nothing. If you got nothing to worry about, I've got this.
Speaker 0: What they were about to find out, how much politics rather than law would drive Caperna's case and shatter the life he had built.