Was QAnon Congress A Part of the Insurrection? (Part 2)
Welcome to Part 2 of my series: delving into the events of last week's attack on the US Capitol, while placing the facts and evidence coming at us quickly, into some kind of context that makes sense.
Since the domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol, the FBI has been inundated with over 100,000 tips, and charged more than 70 people, with hundreds more expected to face arrest and prosecution in the coming days. US Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin, has also confirmed that 160 case files have been opened to further investigate criminal involvement and get a much bigger picture as to just how many people were involved with enacting a hostile takeover of the US Capitol Building, and possibly taking members of Congress and others hostage, or worse.
The recent arrests of suspects have taken place all over the United States, and among them have been a firefighter from Florida, two police officers from Virginia, a former mayoral candidate from Texas and the son of a prominent judge in New York. But now, information continues to surface that only bolsters the theory that there were actual members of Congress who were a part of the coup, and who aided and abetted insurrectionists in their criminal scheme to take over the federal government.
Ali Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, which is actively contesting the outcome of the general election, and claiming the vote counts were rigged, is now alleging that he was significantly helped in his initiative by sitting Representatives Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Mo Brooks (R-AL). Alexander claims that the three Congressmen were directly involved in concocting a plan to put “maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” and to stop Congress from formally certifying the election result count which declared Joe Biden the winner of the race.
Alexander also claims that the four of them “schemed up” to create the the Jan. 6 rally that led to the attempted coup at the US Capitol Building. It is clear, from Alexander’s statements on social media, that he intended for things to get violent, and he tweeted that he was “willing to give [his] life for this fight” on December 8, just weeks before the insurrection. The next day, the Arizona Republican Party tweeted out the following statement above Ali Alexander’s tweet exclaiming that he was ready to die for Donald Trump with the following statement: “He is. Are you?”
The Twitter account also sent out an image from the movie Rambo IV, shortly after their first tweet about dying, with a caption from the movie that reads: “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.” Two weeks later, on Dec. 19, Rep. Gosar was the headline speaker for Alexander’s Stop the Steal rally at the Arizona Capitol, in addition to helping to promote the event with Rep. Biggs.
On Dec. 21, Alexander posted a video to social media, where he said “We are working closely with Congressman Mo Brooks, closely with Congressman Andy Biggs and Congressman, obviously, Paul Gosar, my great friend.” Alexander continued, “We're working with members of Congress while other people are trying to showboat.” He went on to brag that he had originated “the Jan. 6 idea,” along with three other members of Congress and promised to help find hotel rooms for attendees, alluding to Gosar assisting financially.
Then, on Dec. 30, Alexander tweeted that if Democrats tried to get in the way of Republicans and their objections to certifying the election, “Everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building. 1776 is *always* an option.” On the evening of Jan. 5, the night before the attack on the Capitol, Ali Alexander led a crowd in a chant of: “Victory or death!”
On Jan. 6, the next morning and day of the riot, Rep. Gosar, who was a regular supporter and promoter on social media for the Trump rally being held that day, tagged Alexander by name in several of his tweets calling on Biden to concede. Some of these tweets have still not been deleted.
Ali Alexander is a felon who has also been identified in media reports as Ali Akbar, and has become influential in his circles of Trump supporters by amassing a large following on social media, partly through the use of live-streaming Conservative monologue rants.
Both Rep. Biggs and Rep. Brooks have denied any and all involvement with Alexander directly, even though Biggs taped a message to play for the crowd at the Arizona Capitol Stop the Steal Rally that Gosar headlined. It is clear that there is some connection between Biggs, Brooks and Alexander, given their proximate connection to Alexander’s “good friend” Gosar, and their involvement with the current Republican Party, both at the state and national level.
Another possible security issue moving forward lies with newly elected Congresswoman, Lauren Boebert (R-CO). She is referred to as the "QAnon Congresswoman," sent out tweets during the insurrection that many believe were intended to give out information to insurgents and help direct them in their quest to find and possibly take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hostage during the riot. Boebert first announced on Twitter that the lawmakers had been moved to the House chambers. She then tweeted out that the "Speaker has been removed from the chambers."
Boebert did not provide specifics on the exact location of Pelosi during the lock down, but it is difficult to imagine any good explanation as to why she would tell the world these details other than she was attempting to aid the rioters who were searching for the Speaker. Rep. Eric Schatz (D-HI) accused Boebert of nefarious intent when he tweeted out that members had all been explicitly instructed by Capitol security not to disclose their locations publicly to anyone, not even family.
Representative Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and more than 30 lawmakers have also called for an investigation into visitors’ access to the Capitol on the day before the riot. This was based on the “extremely high number of outside groups” let into the Capitol on Jan. 5, and the fact that most tours were being restricted at that time, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sherrill has also issued a video statement via Facebook concerning the disturbing display she witnessed that involved her colleagues escorting groups on suspicious tours of the building leading up to the attack. Rep. Sherrill did not specifically name anyone she suspected in that video, but the former Navy helicopter pilot described seeing “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 for reconnaissance for the next day.”
In her video post, Rep. Sherrill went on to vow: “And so not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn’t have access to classified material, I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him; those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 — a reconnaissance for the next day; those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd; those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy; I'm going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress."
While Rep. Sherrill has not specified that she suspects Lauren Boebert was one of Congresspeople she is alleging to have taken insurrectionists around the capitol to scope out the mission of overtaking the Capitol, Twitter has done that for her. An image of Boebert with several people posing after a tour, is making the rounds on social media. Some of the people pictured with Boebert on the tour are thought to be suspects and/or were present and involved in the takeover of the US Capitol Building.
Boebert has also been previously arrested and summoned by law enforcement at least four times over the past decade for petty crimes that were later all dismissed. But, this incriminating image has not been fully corroborated and verified as to the identities or the time. An investigation of the newcomer, with deep ties to the QAnon conspiracy crowd, and who insists on packing her gun inside the Capitol Building to the chagrin of Capitol security overseeing the new metal detectors, appears to be extremely warranted.
Every person in Congress who has not come out publicly to condemn the actions of Trump and the rioters must be investigated as co-conspirator. If the coup on the US Capitol was orchestrated by the President of the United States, and I fully believe it was, then it stands to reason that people throughout the federal government, at every level down the chain of command, would also be involved and engaged in actions that were planned and carried through. This would make them co-conspirators.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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Lauren Boebert scares the crap out of me, not only because of what she's already done and said, which is bad enough (and to be clear, I absolutely believe that at a very minimum, she wanted the insurrectionists to find and kill Nancy Pelosi), but because of what I fear she might do in the future. After all, she's the one who wants to carry a gun onto the floor of the House. Is it so far-fetched that someone might say something that ticks her off, and then out comes her gun? Boebert, Brooks, Gosar, Biggs, Hawley, Cruz and Greene all need to be arrested and charged with sedition.
The picture of Boebert outside the Capitol with a dozen or so people shows three of those people in the upper right flashing either 3%er signs or the Okay hand symbol. Even if it's not clear yet that she led them on a tour, it is clear, once again, that she is an anti-government fanatic who has nonetheless been elected to that very government, making her, if nothing else, an internal agitator. I also believe there was coordination and perhaps some secretive funding from the Trump WH for the most well-organized of the insurrectionists and there were plenty of those, people who had equipment, maps, plans to take hostages or perhaps assassinate members of Congress and perhaps VP Pence. They knew they could use as cover the thousands of Trump dupes who didn't care that breaking into the US Capitol was a federal crime and thus selfied their entrance and activities inside. (That, by the way, is unlikely to happen again, the self-owning by the insurrectionists.) The ease of entering a supposedly secure building, perhaps one of the most secure in DC, is only going to energize these folks to do it again, but more likely at state capitols. We're in for an extended period of violence and threats of violence; if it ensues as I think it will, commerce in the US will shrivel up as people will be anxious about leaving their houses and even online merchants and platforms like Amazon will have trouble convincing employees to work. JMHO, of course, but that seems a logical conclusion of anarchy.