A group that has been planning armed rallies in Washington, DC, as well as state capitals since November, plans to hold its events on Sunday despite an unprecedented effort to secure the Capitol.
In the days since supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in a violent riot that left five dead, officials have installed a huge security apparatus around the complex, where President-elect Joe Biden will take an oath on January 20. The FBI warned the law enforcement this week about a group calling on their supporters to come to Washington, DC, and state capitols armed at their “personal discretion”.
This specific call for armed protesters goes back to a November 24 post on a website called Tree of Liberty, an online forum for members of the extremist anti-government movement Boogaloo. The online pamphlet posted that day noted that the “Armed March on the Capitol and in all state capitals” it was planned for January 17 and it was planned to be peaceful, but it encouraged participants to “come armed at their personal discretion”. In a follow-up posted four days after protesters violated the Capitol – including some that prosecutors now say were intended to harm the vice president and other elected officials – the group wrote that its protest was in “pending status, data the events that have occurred Place, place. ”
But in an email to CBS News on Friday, a site administrator wrote that the group now intends to continue as planned. CBS News had contacted an email address listed on the Tree of Liberty website as the group’s press contact.
“1/17 events will continue and safeguards are in place to ensure that nothing violent happens in relation to the Boogaloo Boys. I cannot speak on behalf of the Proud Boys or MAGA staff, and we make it clear that we prefer not to see there” , said the press officer, who did not identify himself. The Proud Boys are another group of far-right supporters of President Trump.
The Anti-Defamation League, a defense group, describes the ideology of the Boogaloo movement as “mainly of an anti-government, anti-authority and anti-police nature”. Since 2019, group members have participated in “demonstrations around gun rights, pandemic restrictions and police-related killings,” according to the ADL.
The Justice Department described the Boogaloo movement as a “loosely connected group of individuals who advocate violent anti-government sentiments” in a press release of December 16, 2020, announcing that a member of Boogaloo had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Another member of the group was charged in this case and pleaded not guilty.
In June 2020, a U.S. Air Force sergeant was arrested for the shooting deaths of a Federal Protection Services officer and a deputy sheriff in Santa Cruz, California. When he was arrested, investigators discovered slogans written in his own blood that linked him to the Boogaloo movement, according to a federal complaint.
In the days leading up to the inauguration, some 25,000 soldiers will be stationed in and around the Capitol, alongside patrols from the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department, Capitol Police and city police across the country.
In far-right chats and forums on Telegram, MeWe and Discord – all popular platforms for open and invitation-only extremist discussions – users have warned each other against participating in the January 17 protests. Many accused the organizers of helping federal officials to set a “trap”.
The Tree of Liberty administrator said the group is in fact in contact with federal authorities, despite its anti-government ideology.
“We made it very clear that we are working with the authorities to choose anyone who has plans to do anything violent and to ensure that there is intervention before the event,” they said.
“Don’t get me wrong, if I had a choice, I wouldn’t want to get involved with the police. I don’t have that option anymore. I was cursed and now I either obey or I’m going to prison,” they said. “Doxxed” refers to a practice in which a person’s personally identifiable or private information is published on the Internet by strangers in an attempt to encourage harassment.
The FBI declined to answer questions about the allegation that its investigators were in contact with Tree of Liberty.
A company that hosted servers for the Tree of Liberty website closed it on Wednesday. Those trying to visit the site are now automatically directed to a YouTube page that plays a video clip of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley.