Utah activist who allegedly rioted on Capitol Hill arrested

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John Sullivan said he was there to “watch the story” as a reporter but had no press references.

Photo by John Sullivan. Courtesy of Tooele County Sheriff’s Department.

| January 14, 2021 at 11:05 pm

| Update: January 15, 2021 at 2:20 a.m.

Utah activist John Sullivan was sentenced to Tooele County jail Thursday for allegedly participating in last week’s riots on the U.S. Capitol.

Sullivan was charged in District of Columbia federal court with civil unrest, being in a restricted area and disorderly conduct.

He previously told the Salt Lake Tribune that he was there to take videos and “watch the story” as a reporter. He said he took a video of Ashli ​​Babbitt being shot by police at the Capitol near the floor of the house. She later died.

“I was there to observe; I was there to see what they were going to do, ”he said.

A Department of Justice affidavit says Sullivan told federal agents he was a journalist but had no press credentials. An investigation found “no connection between Sullivan and journalistic organizations,” the affidavit said.

Much of the evidence against Sullivan comes from his own videos.

On January 6, after supporters of President Donald Trump surrounded the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, Sullivan shot video of rioters breaking down police barricades. Once the crowd has passed, Sullivan can be heard shouting, “We’ve accomplished this sh-. We did it together ”and“ we are all part of this story. … Let’s burn this, ”according to the affidavit.

Later, the video includes footage of rioters scaling a wall to reach a plaza outside the entrance to the Capitol building. Sullivan can be heard shouting “Let’s go” and other encouraging words to people climbing the Wall, according to the affidavit. At one point, Sullivan told a person trying to climb the wall to give Sullivan his hand.

Wearing a ballistic vest and gas mask, according to the documents, Sullivan entered the Capitol building through a broken window.

Once inside the Capitol, Sullivan walked into an office, walked to a window and said, “We did this…. We took this s — ”, according to the affidavit. A knocking sound is heard off the screen, and when the camera returns to the window, a part that was not broken when Sullivan arrived is broken. Sullivan can be heard saying, “I broke it. My hurt, my apologies, ”according to the affidavit.

At one point during the riot, Sullivan was part of a mob trying to force his way into a room guarded by police, according to the documents. He allegedly shouted that he had a knife and asked people to “let him up”.

In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Sullivan says he was not in Washington to participate in the riot. He says he only appeared to participate in the riots so that he could blend in with his own safety.

“I have to blend in with the crowd f —— because, you know, there are a lot of people who wanted to hurt me,” he said.

Sullivan is the founder of Insurgence USA, a Utah-focused police reform and racial justice group that he started after the death of George Floyd. An online fundraiser says the group wants to strengthen local power to enable the community “to intervene in violence decreed by the state and government vigilantes.”

However, he is not affiliated with Black Lives Matter Utah. Lex Scott, founder of BLM Utah, told The Tribune on Thursday that Sullivan had never been a member.

Sullivan also faces riot and criminal mischief charges in an ongoing case involving a June 30 protest in Provo where a truck driver was shot and killed. Police said he was an organizer of the protest and spoke to one of the men who allegedly fired the gun after the shooting.

The Salt Lake Tribune will update this article.

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