The week
The FBI says more than 100 people arrested for siege of the Capitol, including ‘liberal activist’, Confederate flag bearer
FBI Director Christopher Wray, in his first public comments since Jan. 6 violent siege of the US Capitol by supporters of President Trump, said on Thursday that the police arrested more than 100 people in connection with the attack and is aware of “an extensive amount of worrying online conversation” before President-elect Joe Biden took office on January 20. Most of the prisoners so far were far-right militants, out-of-service policemen, retired military personnel, Republican Party officials, QAnon supporters and white supremacists. For example, the man photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag on the Capitol, Kevin Seefried, and his son, Hunter Seefried, surrendered to the FBI in Delaware on Thursday, the Justice Department said. Sullivan on Thursday, making him, Politico says, “the first person to be accused who appears to have been active in liberal causes.” Sullivan, who filmed the siege, says he was just following the protesters as a “journalist”, but the FBI said his own video showed that he is a driver of illegality and even an active participant. Trump supporters, including Rudy Giuliani, and conservative media outlets pointed to Sullivan’s arrest to reinforce his counterfactual claim that “antifa” or Black Lives Matter was actually behind the attack on the Capitol. But “even before his arrest, leftist activists described concerns in that community for some time that Sullivan was a provocateur working with others, including his brother James, who has ties to the Proud Boys and runs a pro-Trump organization, “Marcy Wheeler notes on EmptyWheel.> Pic.twitter.com/oRri9hyHGv >> – New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) January 7, 2021” Sullivan’s presence on Capitol Hill and his previous history of anti-Trump activism have been focus of frantic attention in right-wing media, “reports Robert Mackey in The Intercept, while” left-wing organizers have made a point of emphasizing that they expelled Sullivan from their ranks months ago. ” Since adopting the war name “Activist John” last summer, Mackey notes, Sullivan has been blacklisted for “leftist organizers associated with Black Lives Matter and anti-fascism in Utah, California and the Pacific Northwest,” who say they he’s “right – winged infiltrator or a dangerously naive amateur.” More stories from theweek.com 5 more scathing caricatures about Trump’s second impeachment Trump’s vaccine delay is getting suspicious Here’s what Biden is supposed to plan to do on his first day in office