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Brandon Straka, a gay Trump supporter who launched the #WalkAway social media campaign encouraging voters to quit the Democratic Party, was arrested in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol this month.
Straka was arrested Monday in Nebraska, where he grew up, and has been charged with preventing law enforcement officers during civil unrest, knowingly entering restricted land and having had a disorderly conduct with intent to disrupt a congressional hearing, NBC New York reported.
Straka, 44, who describes himself as a “former liberal,” was a scheduled speaker at a “Stop the Steal” rally on January 5 at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC The FBI received multiple tips about his presence at the meeting. of the murderous siege the next day, according to a federal affidavit, including advice from a woman who claimed to be a relative of Straka.
Special Agent Jeremy Desor detailed a series of tweets and videos Straka made during and after the attack. They have since been deleted.
In a tweet, he called on “the Capitol Patriots” to “hold the line!” according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says that a video posted to YouTube by a witness shows Straka at the gates of the Capitol saying, “We are entering. They say we are entering. We are entering.”
At one point, the crowd was challenged by a Capitol policeman with a shield. Straka told them, “Take it away from him,” according to the affidavit.
The clip ends with Straka at the top of the stairs, the document says.
“I was about to enter myself as the police started spraying tear gas at us from the door,” read a screenshot of a tweet the FBI said it received. “I inhaled tear gas and got it in my eyes. The Patriots started coming out shortly after they said Congress had been cleared.”
Straka reportedly tweeted after the assault that he was “confused” by the conservatives who disowned the rioters.
“For 6 to 8 weeks, everyone on the right has been saying ‘1776!’ & That if the Congress advances, it will mean a revolution! So the congress is moving forward, ”he wrote, according to the complaint. “The Patriots are storming the Capitol – now everyone is virtually signaling their shame that this has happened.
“Maybe I missed the part where it was agreed that this would be an ice cream cone revolution and hair braiding parties to stop our government from lying and fooling swamp pests interested in the world. “, he added. “My fault.”
Straka also rejected conspiracy theories that the protesters were anti-Fa or anti-fascist activists in disguise, according to the complaint.
“Be embarrassed and hide if you need to – but I was there. It wasn’t Antifa on Capitol Hill. It was freedom-loving patriots who were desperate to fight for our Republic’s last hope because that nobody cares about them. denounce them. I will not do it, “he wrote on Twitter, according to the complaint.
At least 150 people have been charged in connection with the attack.
Straka, who has made her Twitter account private, did not respond to a request for comment.
Straka, a former hairdresser and aspiring actor, became a right-wing social media star in 2018, when he posted a YouTube video explaining why he decided to ‘walk away’ from the Democratic Party, using #WalkAway as his slogan of his nascent movement. .
“Once upon a time there was a liberal,” Straka says in the six-minute clip. “For years, I have watched the left become intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, threatening, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascist. behavior and rhetoric. “
The video, which has been viewed millions of times, saw Straka follow Sarah Palin and Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, as well as a $ 10,000 donation from Alex Jones of Infowars and an invitation to appear on Fox News’ Ingraham Angle. The Alliance for Securing Democracy, which tracks Russian interference in the US elections, alleges that # WalkAway’s success is the result of Russian robots.
Last year Straka’s campaign held rallies in Dallas, West Hollywood, California and Washington, DC In June, Straka was banned from American Airlines after refusing to wear a mask on a flight from New York to Dallas .
On President Joe Biden’s inauguration day, Straka acknowledged his supporters’ sadness in a Facebook Live video but said he was “excited about our future.”
“I just feel like there is so much to be excited about. This is such an era of great reform that is only just beginning,” he told viewers, adding that there is now. an opportunity for us to wake people up. [and] connect with people. “
“I don’t think the rallies are going to stop,” he said in the clip. “I don’t believe our families or our communities are going to stop.”
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