Reports shared tens of thousands of times on the evening of January 6, 2021, claim that one of the individuals taken down during the DC protests where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to reverse his election defeat, a supporter of Black Lives Matter (BLM) was. or part of the left-wing anti-fascist movement Antifa. Previous photos of the man (easily recognizable as wearing a hat with fur and horns and a painted face) show that he attended pro-Trump rallies, spoke in support of Trump’s policies and is a proponent of the conspiracy theory QAnon.
Messages making this claim are visible here , here, here, here and here.
Comments include: “The same man at a BLM rally in AZ was in the capital building today …. staged AF” and “Dumbass! At least change your costume ..” Other posts claim to be part of Antifa (here ).
Media outlets like AZ Central and Mashable have identified the man as Jake Angeli (here, here). According to AZ Central, he was a “contest with political judges in Arizona over the past year.” Visible in an interview with the news office in May 2020. here , Angeli spoke in favor of President Donald Trump and his policies. Visible in another video here , Can be seen praising Angeli Trump and Q (referring to QAnon).
On January 6, Angeli was photographed in the U.S. Capitol (Reuters photos can be seen here and here) after protesters violated security defenses and entered the building.
Angeli was caught by a Reuters photo visible here in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 7, 2020 during a “Stop the Steal” rally after the US presidential election for Democratic candidate Joe Biden (here) was called for.
Images from a November 6 article posted here by local media Cronkite News show Angeli demonstrating among Trump supporters with a sign that reads “Hold the Line Patriots God Wins” and “Q Sent Me.”
Some posts misleadingly contain a cropped photo of Angeli (www.twitter.com/KelemenCari/status/1346932668232069121/photo/1, here), where his sign with the caption “Q sent me” was cut out (the uncut version is visible. here ).
After inspection by Reuters, Angeli’s private Facebook page contained various posts and photos he shared that showed his support for QAnon and Donald Trump. In his own reports it was reported that he attended the “MAGA Million March” in December 2020 and “Q Con” in October 2020 (described on his website qcon.live/ as a series of events for ‘followers and influencers’ of the QAnon -movement).
VERDICT
Untrue. Evidence shows that Jake Angeli, a man with a hat with horns and fur and a painted face, who was photographed in the US Capitol on January 6, is a supporter of QAnon who attended Trump rallies and in favor of the president spoke.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.