Newly released footage shows the surreal moments in which D.C. insurrectionists broke into the Capitol Building, clashed with officers, snooped through and milled around the Senate chamber, and destroyed media equipment. This follows up on a Friday report from The New Yorker‘s Luke Mogelson, who detailed these events. The outlet went ahead and released his footage on Sunday morning.
“Although the footage was not originally intended for publication, it documents a historic event and serves as a visceral complement to Mogelson’s probing, illuminating report,” they write.
Supporters of President Donald Trump raided the Capitol Building after POTUS continued to lie that he actually won the 2020 presidential election, and that it was being stolen from him. They postponed but did not prevent Congress from certifying electoral college results on behalf of President-elect Joe Biden.
Law&Crime readers may recognize some faces and names in this new footage. There’s Larry Rendell Brock, wearing a green helmet. He can be seen telling another insurrectionist not to sit in the chair of Vice President Mike Pence.
“It’s not our chair. Look, I love you guys, you’re brothers, but we can’t be disrespectful,” he said.
“They can steal an election but we can’t sit in their chairs?” said an audibly annoyed insurrectionist.
“No,” said Brock. “We’re not putting up with that either. Look, it’s a PR war. Okay, you have to understand, it’s an IO [information operation] war. We can’t lose the IO war.”
He is charged with charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. As clear on the video and other pictures of the scene, he held zip tie restraints. Officials were sure to note that.
Before he was charged, he told The New Yorker that he just found the zip-tie handcuffs lying around and wanted to give them to an officer.
“I wish I had not picked those up,” he said. “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one. . . . I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them.”
Jacob Anthony Chansley is also seen in the new footage. Pictures of the horned “QAnon Shaman” have oft-shared been on social media. The new footage shows him chanting loudly. He sat down in Pence’s seat.
“I’m going to sit in this chair because Mike Pence is a fucking traitor,” he said, before asking another insurrectionist to take his picture.
Chansley left a note on Pence’s desk: “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming!”
Trump threw his VP under the bus by lying that the vice president could reject electoral college votes. Pence didn’t. Previously reported footage from the insurrection shows rioters chanting, “Hang, Mike Pence.”
Video of the mob chanting “hang Mike Pence.” pic.twitter.com/K4EcKK2rab
— American Times Film (@ExportedFromMI) January 9, 2021
Would you be shocked to learn that Chansley is also charged for his part in the insurrection? His defense is fishing for a pardon from Trump.
Five people died amid the chaos of January 6. One Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot and killed by law enforcement as she and others were breaking their way into the Speaker’s Lobby. Two other Trump supporters–Kevin Greeson, 55; and Benjamin Phillips, 50–passed away from what D.C. Metro cops described as “medical emergencies,” but a third, Rosanne Boyland, 34. reportedly died after being trampled. The passing of Capitol police officer Brian D. Sicknick is being investigated as a possible murder. A capitol police officer, Howard Liebengood, and an insurrection defendant Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, died by suicide in the days after.
[Screengrab via New Yorker]
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