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Pro-Trump activists who promoted the January 6 protests that turned into a fatal riot on Capitol Hill try to distance themselves from future unrest as politicians and law enforcement brace for further violence ahead of inauguration .
Extremism experts focused on January 17, as well as the inauguration day and the days surrounding it, as potential hotspots for violence. Threat to inauguration day includes ‘Million Militia March’ encouraging armed Trump supporters to descend on DC Flyer circulating online calling for ‘armed march on Capitol Hill and all state capitals’ Jan. 17 was cited as evidence to protest it, although it is not known where the flyer came from or what traction it gained on the right.
Capitol Police officials are taking no chances this time around. They informed House Democrats late Monday of a series of potential threats, including plans for the “largest armed protest ever on American soil” and an alleged plot to prevent Democrats from reaching Capitol or to kill them outright so that Republicans can take over. the government.
Democrats have also been warned of a more general threat of violence against politicians and police, according to a person familiar with the briefing, which was first reported by HuffPost and confirmed by The Daily Beast.
So far, however, public online discussions of the alleged January 17 protests have been much less visible than the wave of discussion in pro-Trump forums that preceded the January 6 riot.
“We don’t see roughly the same level of online chatter about attending these events,” said Lindsay Schubiner, program director at the Western States Center, a group that tracks extremists in the Pacific Northwest.
Schubiner added, however, that discussions of the additional protests or violence that led to the inauguration may have simply been moved to less public online sites as social media companies crack down on extremists.
“We are in an extremely dangerous time for political violence, and it’s hard to say exactly what’s going to happen or when it might happen,” Schubiner said. “But everything we see is of great concern to us.”
As thousands of National Guard troops flock to Washington, Trump supporters have suggested, without evidence, that the proposed rally on January 17 was a trick intended to trap MAGA fans.
The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing hoax blog whose owner was invited to Trump’s White House, suggested the January 17 protest was a “deep state plot” intended to set the stage for mass arrests of supporters of Trump. Mark Taylor, a former firefighter who became a star on the far right after receiving a “prophecy” that Trump would be elected, warned his more than 185,000 followers on Tuesday to stay away from the January 17 protests.
“Folks any of these so-called peaceful armed protests in all state capitals and DC on January 17th is a left-wing organization,” Taylor tweeted Tuesday. “Don’t go! It’s a trap !!”
A number of Trump supporters have claimed that even the graphic design of the flyer, which is shown in red with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground, is proof that this is a ploy intended to hurt Trump and its allies.
“There is no organizer listed and it sounds like nothing a patriotic group could post at all,” Arizona State Representative Kelly Townsend (right) tweeted Tuesday.
This paranoia has filtered down to the state level. A Minnesota group that recently hosted “Stop The Steal” events in the state capital posted a Facebook warning to subscribers about the January 17 event.
“This is an infiltration and set-up tactic used to incite violence and blame us,” wrote the group, which hosted a Minnesota “Storm the Capitol” event on January 6. “DO NOT GO TO THE CAPITOL ON SUNDAY!”
The group told the Daily Beast that they advised people to stay home on January 17. On Facebook, the group shared posters for the Jan. 17 event and suggested it was an “anarchist” plot. These posters, however, have been circulated in earnest by members of the Boogaloo movement, a far-right, libertarian coalition aspiring to civil war. Although the Boogaloo movement has been promoting the event since last month, at least some members appear to have reassessed after the January 6 riot, with a Boogaloo news site releasing a statement from the alleged organizers of the event, claiming that the DC iteration of the rally was canceled.
Fears that Trump supporters are falling into a trap – or may be involved in the violence – have intensified as the FBI and federal prosecutors prosecute more people allegedly involved in the Capitol Riot. On Tuesday, Acting U.S. District Attorney Michael Sherwin said the scale of the investigation was “unprecedented” for the Justice Department, saying it had empowered a “strike force” to prosecute serious charges of sedition and conspiracy.
Yet the days surrounding January 17 are also potential dusts across the country. The Minnesota group that urged its supporters to stay home on the 17th said it is still planning a pro-Trump protest in the state capital on Saturday, January 16.
These plans coincide with the Jan. 16 event announced last month, in which organizers say they will “begin the process of exterminating Democratic ideology in America,” “will prevent Joseph Biden, or any other Democrat, to be invested as President of the United States. America ”and“ capture and detain all Democratic politicians, current and former ”who were instrumental in Biden’s victory. The event’s website has since been taken offline, but not before users of the now-closed social media site Speak seized on it to declare that “any force opposed” to the event “will be classified as an enemy of America and treated as such with extreme prejudices, foreign or national. “
In Virginia, protests long planned for “lobby day” in the state capital fall on January 18. Last year’s Lobby Day drew 22,000 gun fans, including members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and members of the then embryonic Boogaloo movement. This year, the Virginia Capitol Police are said to be on high alert, citing the riot on Wednesday.
A major pro-gun group wrote that they would be organizing trailers in Richmond for the event. “No doubt there will be ‘rumors’ and other uses of fear tactics [sic] to keep people at home, but we know better, ”the group wrote online.
Left-wing activists are mobilizing medics and homeless people ahead of the Jan. 18 event, in case violence breaks out or the scene becomes dangerous for the uninhabited population of Richmond, a local activist told the Daily Beast.
Some of the most prominent figures involved in planning protests in front of Congress on Jan.6 have said they are not planning to come to Washington either. InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed the January protests were a “false flag.”
Pro-Trump organizer Ali Alexander, who claimed to be one of the main “initiators” of the January 6 protest, was banned from financial services like PayPal and Venmo, as well as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in the wake of the the event. . Friends of Alexander distance themselves from him and ask him to quit politics altogether, according to a member of his entourage.
In an email to the Daily Beast, Alexander said he urged Trump supporters to stay out of Washington during the inauguration, and baselessly claimed that the posters promoting the events in Washington were fabrications democrats.
“No one should be going to Washington this month,” Alexander told the Daily Beast.
-Additional report by Sam Brodey
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