John Sullivan’s bizarre path

John Earle Sullivan made his first appearance at the federal court in Utah on Friday on charges of having participated in violent riots on the United States Capitol.

There is little doubt that he participated. He filmed and posted on social media – including chilling images of a woman being shot by Capitol police trying to crawl through a broken window – then posted subsequent videos describing the experience.

The real question, in my mind, is: what was he doing there?

Trying to answer that Big Question made me fall into the rabbit hole of contradictions.

Let’s start with the basics: Sullivan was raised in a military family. His father was a lieutenant colonel, a devout believer in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who raised his children in a conservative home and taught them to love the constitution, said his brother James on the Tooele Happy Hour podcast this week ( more about James later).

John worked as a successful salesman, said his brother, earning more than $ 200,000 in a few years. He paid cash for a Mercedes and was building a house on Sandy when his political views were radicalized.

“He was doing incredible things with his life and said that capitalism is a cancer for black society, when capitalism literally gave him the Mercedes and the house he was building,” said James Sullivan.

In June 2020, John attended his first Black Lives Matter event, according to Lex Scott, the founder of the group’s chapter in Utah. No one had seen him before or knew who he was. Sullivan also founded his own group, Insurgence USA, in response to the assassination of George Floyd and organized his first protest in Provo.

“Her first protest was one in which someone was shot,” she said.

Police said the protesters blocked an SUV that was trying to turn when one of the protesters shot through the window, hitting the driver in the arm. Sullivan was arrested days later, accused of rebellion, making a threat of violence and criminal perversity. Prosecution documents say Sullivan was with the sniper most of the day and did nothing to prevent the act.

But Scott said he did something that was “just a big ban”.

“In his second protest, he invited the Proud Boys to the stage, he invited the militias to the stage and said, ‘We want to work with you, we want to be your friends,'” said Scott. “It was when he was officially rejected by the activist community.”

Scott said Sullivan never attended any of the BLM meetings, never worked on any of his initiatives, never helped in his push for police reform.

“This guy is an influence hunter, someone who is here just for fame or money or someone who just needs attention,” she said. “He’s a thorn in my side.”

In addition to being banned from Black Lives Matters events in Utah and avoided by groups in other cities, he is also accused of profiting from the cause.

On his website Insurgence, he wears face covers, gas masks, bulletproof vests, spear knives, T-shirts and jogging pants. And he promotes himself tirelessly through a network of social media accounts.

But how did it end up not just among a group of Trump supporters who sacked the Capitol, but actually surfing the crest of the wave?

Sullivan said in a video recorded after the riot that he does not support Trump or President-elect Joe Biden. He does not have BLM or Antifa. But he knew, based on social media posts, there would be an effort to break into the Capitol and he wanted to be there to film what happened as a citizen journalist.

“Was I a provocative agent? Was I there to invite violence? I can say no, ”said Sullivan in the video. “I was there to document the events and be part of the story.”

But he did much more than document. In a video, he can be heard shouting, “Come on! This shit is ours! … We got that shit! We did it together … Let’s burn this shit! “

He is seen climbing through a broken window, he confronts the police and tells them to go home, then he enters an office and – it seems and the federal charges against him claim – broke a window that overlooked the square.

Eventually, he and the mob arrive at the barricaded doors in Speaker’s Lobby, where he films Ashli ​​Babbitt trying to jump out of a broken window before being shot by a police officer. Sullivan subsequently shared the video with the media and had more than 18,000 views on Friday.

His participation in the riot is seen as evidence by Trump supporters that the events were caused by left-wing infiltrators. The main one is Sullivan’s brother James.

James Sullivan launched the Civilized Awakening, which aligns with the “Patriot Movement” and is decidedly pro-Trump. He spent 90 minutes on the Tooele Happy Hour podcast exchanging complaints from the right with the hosts and claiming that his brother was “indoctrinated by a radical socialist ideology”.

“The only way to see him going out is to go to jail to be completely honest. It will not stop. He won’t listen to anyone, ”said James Sullivan. “He is so indoctrinated that he has no logic.”

The two brothers are the subject of a documentary in progress and, after months without speaking, they were placed in the same room for filming. The producer asked John what he would do if James was stabbed and he had a phone. Would he call an ambulance? James said John’s response was, “I would step on his face and let him bleed.”

At the end of the day, I’m not sure if any of this brings us any closer to understanding Sullivan’s motives. It seems to me more thirsty for chaos and violence than a coherent philosophy or agenda.

“He incited violence,” said his brother, “people got hurt, and he took a step back and watched the movie”

But at some level, it doesn’t matter. The notion that Antifa made good people do bad things is clearly absurd. Everyone who participated in the Capitol riot is responsible for their own actions and needs to be held accountable.

I hope so – and that goes for John Sullivan too.