"Those weren't Trump supporters," said a man named Phil from Kentucky, claiming the only people breaking in were dressed all in black.
"So they were black helmets, black clothes, black backpacks who started busting the windows first," said Janie, a nurse from South Carolina, who said she saw members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter committing the violence. She also claimed the Trump supporters were actually trying to fight them off. But when we mentioned we were on site that day, she admitted that she never actually came close enough to the Capitol to see any violence.
We let her know that the Proud Boys were dressed in all black that day, having planned to forego their usual colors of black and yellow
in order to be "incognito."
"I didn't know that," she said.
But the thread attempting to blame Antifa and Black Lives Matter was repeated by former President Trump himself as recently as two weeks ago. In an interview with Candace Owens on Dec. 21, he also said it was FBI informants instigating the crowd.
But we know who was there.
So far, more than 700 people have been charged. The defendants are largely white, and 13% of them have ties to the military or law enforcement. More than 100 of them have alleged ties to known extremist or fringe organizations, like the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and the Three Percenters, a part of the anti-government militia movement. But the bulk had no ties to extremist groups.
Tampa Bay attorney Bjorn Brunvand represents several people who were at the Capitol that day, including Robert Scott Palmer, who was
recently sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting law enforcement officers with a fire extinguisher, a wood plank and a flagpole. His is the longest such term yet.
"He believed in the lies that were being professed by former President Trump and his accomplices," Brunvand said.
He said Palmer took President Trump's words that day as a directive. That he did it for him. And now he feels abandoned.
"Not only did he not show up, he's not there for anyone who were there and supposedly were there to save democracy and save the country. When in fact, they were doing quite the opposite," Brunvand said.
It's been a year since that pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. I was there when it happened, and I was also there months later when they tried to shift the blame.
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