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Representative Mary Miller’s husband, R-Illinois, tried to distance himself from what the FBI says was a “radical militia group” linked to the Capitol siege last month after his van was seen in the field of the Capitol that day with a large decal promoting the group.
When news of the sticker promoting the “Three Percenters” militia surfaced this week, Miller’s husband, Illinois State Representative Chris Miller told the Daily Beast that he “didn’t know anything about [the group] until “fake news” started asking questions about the sticker seen on his vehicle.
In a statement to ABC News, Chris Miller said his son received the sticker “from a friend of the family who said he represented the patriotism and love of the country.”
Miller insisted that he had never been a member of the group.
But this is not the first time that he has participated in the promotion of the Three Percent. In videos posted online, including a video posted to his own Facebook page, he stood in front of a Three Percenters banner – and QAnon sign – last year as he spoke out against Democrats.
“We can be thankful [that] neither ‘Crooked Hillary’ nor ‘Creepy, Sleepy Joe’ will ever be the President of the United States, ” he said in the video, which was shot at a May 2020 rally in Springfield, in Illinois, where he and many others protested the state’s measures. to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. “We can be grateful … to have a great American patriot in the White House who is determined to make America great again.”
An Illinois-based group that helped organize the rally uses a logo that features “Three Percenters” images. The group promised supporters ahead of the rally that “a few great speakers” would attend.
In another video of his remarks posted online, Chris Miller said, “We have identified our domestic enemies as Nancy Pelosi.”
On January 6, the same day a violent mob stormed the Capitol over false allegations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump, his van was seen outside the Capitol building with the three percent sticker on its rear window.
The link between the truck and the Illinois lawmaker was first reported Thursday by the @capitolhunters Twitter account, which is helping track down those involved in the Jan.6 attack, according to the Daily Beast.
The day before the January 6 riot, Representative Miller faced calls for her resignation after quoting Hitler in remarks during a rally outside the Capitol building.
“Hitler was right about one thing: he said: ‘He who has youth has a future’,” she told her supporters at the event on January 5. She has since apologized, but said critics “misrepresented” her words.
A spokesperson for Representative Miller told ABC News that the congresswoman joins her colleagues in condemning the January 6 violence and that “she and her family were not involved in the violent attacks in any way.” The spokesperson did not respond to ABC News questions about Miller’s husband.
The Justice Department has publicly accused several of those involved in the Capitol siege of having ties to the Three Percent.
“For context, the Three Percenters… is a national militia that advocates for resistance to US federal government policy that it considers to infringe personal, local and property rights to firearms,” an officer wrote. FBI in a set of indictment documents.
The group’s name derives from the idea that only three percent of the population can successfully overtake a corrupt government.
According to Chris Miller’s statement provided to ABC News through a spokesperson, all the rioters on Capitol Hill linked to the Three Percenters have just “copied their names” because the “original Three Percenters” were “an anti group. -governmental nonviolent “which has since been” dissolved “.
Members of the most recent iteration of the movement “were not involved in the January 6 riots,” Miller said in the statement. But authorities disputed that claim, as photos showed Three Percenter banners during the riot, and the FBI – according to an ABC News tally – has arrested at least five supporters of the group on charges arising from their role. in the attack.
Nonetheless, Chris Miller has now removed the Three Percenters sticker from his truck, the statement said.
ABC News’s Ben Siegel contributed to this report.
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