A left-wing activist who told Fox News last week that he had followed a pro-Trump crowd to the Capitol to “document” the siege is now the subject of a criminal complaint in connection with his alleged participation, according to the Department of Justice.
John Sullivan can be heard urging protesters in a video he provided to the FBI, according to a federal criminal complaint. He also shared the video on his YouTube and Twitter accounts under the pen name Jayden X.
He was arrested by the FBI and remains in custody in Toeele County, in his home state, Utah, in a detention request from the US Marshals Service.
(Toeele County Sheriff’s Office)
BLM ACTIVIST INSIDE CAPITOL CLAIMS THAT IT WAS ‘DOCUMENTING’ MOTIMAS, WHEN HE SAID ‘BURN ALL’
Inside the building, he told rioters that “We need to have this burned” and “It’s our home ————“, according to a statement signed by FBI Special Agent Matthew Foulger.
He faces federal charges of civil disorder, entry into a restricted building and violent entry or disorderly conduct.
Sullivan also reportedly told Foulger that he was on the Capitol during the rebellion, entering through a broken window while wearing a ballistic vest.
As protesters climbed a wall near the entrance to the Capitol, he allegedly exclaimed in the video: “You are f —— wild. Come on!”
“There are so many people,” Sullivan’s voice can be heard as the camera shows a large group of people walking towards the building. “Come on. This is — it’s ours! F — yes. I can’t believe this is reality.”
“We did it just —,” he said elsewhere. “We did it together. F — yes! We are all part of that story.”
John Early Sullivan – A Utah activist facing criminal charges in connection with a Provo protest he organized in June, said he participated in a pro-Trump demonstration that turned into a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to see “the truth. “about protests by himself and the organization he represents.
(Utah County Sheriff’s Office)
In an interview with Rolling Stone published on Wednesday, Sullivan said he was acting to build a relationship with the protesters.
“I had to relate to these people and build trust in the short time it took me to get where I need to,” he told the magazine. “To the front of the crowd to see the dynamics between the police and the protesters, because nobody wants to see the back of people’s heads from afar.”
He apparently managed to get there. During the unrest, he tweeted a video from close to the moment when a Capitol Police officer fatally shot Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt during the riot. He had been taken a few meters away, in the height of the chaos outside the Speaker Hall.
Investigators used this detail and other aspects of the video to confirm Sullivan’s alleged whereabouts within the Capitol, they said.
Sullivan, the founder of a Utah-based group called Insurgence USA, told Fox News last Thursday that he entered the besieged Capitol to “document” what was going on and to challenge “this circulating narrative” that Antifa instigators played a role in the riot.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Although he denied links to Antifa in recent interviews, his group Insurgence USA had announced an event called “Kick those fascists out of DC” on Wednesday, at the same time as a pro-Trump rally near the National Mall that preceded chaos in the Capitol.
Antifa is the abbreviation for “antifascist”.
After Trump’s demonstration, a crowd of protesters stormed the Capitol, ransacked Congressional offices and stormed the Senate floor, leading to a chorus of condemnations by members of both major parties. The violation interrupted a joint session of Congress with the aim of validating Joe Biden as president-elect. Congress met again late in the evening and completed the process.
Sullivan, who was still in custody on Thursday, could not be reached for comment.
Sam Dorman of Fox News contributed to this report.