Was it Antifa that stormed Capitol Building? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

Conspiracies online claim that those who stormed the Capitol Building during the 2020 election certification were actually connected to Antifa, and not Trump supporters.

FALSE

On January 6th 2021, after a large Trump rally in Washington D.C. a large group of the president’s supporters marched onto the Capitol Building as the certification process took place in Congress. Many protesting at the Capitol soon transitioned to rioters and stormed the building and briefly occupied it as politicians including the house speaker and vice president were evacuated to safety.

A common theme we see as various groups attempt deflect or deny responsibility for such actions is the attempt to claim that a particular incident was orchestrated by another group “in disguise”.

We oft see this amid the aftermath of mass shootings when conspiracies claim to obfuscate a shooter’s motivations, or assign fake motivations and political ideologies. This is something we saw, for example, with Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc who sent bombs to a number of media and Democrat targets. He was subsequently jailed for 20 years.

And we’re seeing it again in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol Building, where many commentators seeking to assign blame away from groups to which they are aligned have claimed the Capitol rioting was secretly orchestrated by Antifa, a common boogeyman that was also spuriously assigned blame for wildfires on the US west coast in 2020.

While we cannot address all the claims here (many are simply based on comparing Capitol Building rioters to other photos of similar looking people and deducing – falsely – that they must be the same person) we have addressed many of the popular claims here.

Was the Viking “horned man” with fur coat a “BLM/Antifa PAID actor”?

The below meme claims that the man photographed numerous times within the Capitol Building including on the Senate Floor wearing a viking hat is actually a man that was paid by the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movement.

While the meme correctly identifies the man as Jake Angeli, there is no evidence to support the claim he is affiliated with either BLM or Antifa. In fact the opposite is true since Angeli has been a frequent participant at pro-Trump rallies. Here is an interview with him (he identifies himself as Jake Angeli) back in May 2020 where he shows his support for Trump.

Another photo shows him shaking hands with Rudy Guiliani.

Incidentally the tattoo that features on his chest is not an “antifa symbol” but a Nordic design referred to as the Valknut. Hardly a surprise given his choice of outfit.

Additionally, while many photos claim to show him at BLM marches, this is also false since such photos are both misattributed and cropped. In one instance, Angeli was photographed as part of a counter protest at a BLM march and was seen with a sign promoting the QAnon conspiracies, popular with Trump supporters.


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Did two men photographed during Capitol riots inside the building feature on the Philadelphia Antifa website?

The meme below claims to show two men were are actually affiliated with the Philadelphia Antifa group as their photos appears on the website phillyantifa.org.

There are two issues here. Firstly, this claim relies on the assumption that because two men appear vaguely similar, they must be the same person. Of course that’s not true, and there is no evidence that the men in the first photo are the same as the men in the second photo.

Secondly, even if they were the same men, the two men from the phillyantifa.org website (right photo) are certainly not connected to Antifa. In fact one of the men is Jason Tankersley, a neo Nazi with a swastika adorned on his chest. His appearance on the Philadelphia Antifa website was not because he was connected to Antifa; by contrast it was because he was connected to white supremacy.

Did the bearded man in above image have Antifa tattoo?

Connected to the above claim, many assert that the tattoo on the hand of the above bearded man is a symbol related to Antifa.

That’s false. It’s actually a symbol related to the video game Dishonoured, as many Twitter users were quick to point out.

Here’s a better quality photo confirming this.

After analysing many other videos and photos posted on social media, we were able to identity several rioters who were regular attendees of Trump rallies and events. And finally, we are presently unable to confirm if any of those who stormed the Capitol were connected to the Antifa or BLM groups.

John Sullivan from Insurgence USA

One point of note is that not every single person inside the Capitol Building were pro-Trump supporters. In what appears at this stage to an an isolated example, John Sullivan – a protestor who is part of a self described civil rights movement called Insurgence USA – was photographed inside the Capitol Building. Sullivan has made several anti-Trump remarks in the public domain.

However, despite the narrative that accompanies the above claims, Sullivan wasn’t disguised or pretending to be related to the MAGA movement or wearing any MAGA related attire, nor was he keeping his involvement secret or covert. Sullivan reported on his own actions inside the Capitol and has told media outlets that he was “documenting events”. He has also given media interviews about witnessing the death of protestor Ashli Babbitt. And while Sullivan was certainly inside the Capitol, we cannot find any evidence or videos showing Sullivan “leading the charge” (so to speak) or initiating or encouraging others to break into the Capitol or causing damage.