Brandon Straka, a gay Trump supporter who encouraged the social media campaign #WalkAway to encourage voters to leave the Democratic Party, has been arrested in connection with the assault on the US Capitol this month.
Straka was arrested Monday in Nebraska, where he grew up, and charged with obstructing law enforcement officers during civil disorder, knowingly entering restricted areas and disorderly conduct with the intent to disrupt a congressional hearing. , reports NBC New York.
Straka, 44, who describes himself as a ‘former liberal’, was a speaker at the Jan. 5 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. The FBI received several tips about his presence during the deadly siege following a federal statement, with a tip from a woman claiming to be a family member of Straka.
Special Agent Jeremy Desor set out a series of tweets and videos that Straka made during and after the attack. They have since been deleted.
In one tweet, he called on “patriots at the Capitol” to “keep the line!” according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says a video posted by a witness on YouTube shows Straka saying at the Capitol doors: ‘We are entering. They say we’m going inside. We’re going in. ‘
At one point, the crowd was challenged by a Capitol police officer with a shield. Straka told them, “Take it from him,” according to the affidavit.
The track ends with Straka at the top of the stairs, reads the document.
“I was very close to entering myself when the police started tearing us from the door,” reads a screenshot of a tweet the FBI said it had received. ‘I inhaled tear gas and got it in my eyes. Patriots began to withdraw shortly after they said Congress had been cleared. ‘
Straka allegedly tweeted after the assault that he was “confused” by conservatives who denied the rioters.
“For 6-8 weeks everyone on the right says ‘1776!’ “that if the Congress moves forward, it will mean a revolution! The Congress will therefore move forward,” he wrote according to the complaint. ‘Patriots storm the Capitol – now everyone is expressing their embarrassment that this has happened.
“Perhaps I missed the part where it was agreed that it would be a revolution of ice cream cones and braids to take back our government from lies, and deceive worldwide interested swamp parasites,” he added. “My fault.”
Straka also denied conspiracy theories that the protesters were antifa, or anti-fascist, activists in disguise, according to the charge.
“Be embarrassed and hide if you need to – but I was there. It was not Antifa at the Capitol. It was patriots who loved freedom and who were desperate to fight for the final hope of our Republic, because literally give “No one else for them. Everyone else can expose them. I will not,” he wrote on Twitter, according to the complaint.
At least 150 people have been charged in connection with the attack.
Straka, who made his Twitter account private, did not respond to a request for comment.
Straka, a former hairdresser and aspiring actor, became a right-wing social media star in 2018 when he launched a YouTube video in which he explains why he decided to ‘walk away’ from the Democratic Party , with #WalkAway as the tagline for its startup movement. .
“I used to be a liberal,” Straka says in the six-minute track. “For years I have watched the left turn into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, deceived, uninformed, un-American, hypocritical, threatening, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded, and sometimes blatantly fascist. Behavior and rhetoric.”
The video, which has been viewed millions of times, earns Straka on Twitter from Sarah Palin and Donald Trump Jr., as well as a $ 10,000 donation from Alex Jones of Infowars and an invitation to appear on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle” appear. The Alliance for Securing Democracy, which follows Russian interference in US elections, claims that #WalkAway’s success was the result of Russian clashes.
Last year, Straka’s campaign events were held in Dallas, West Hollywood, California and Washington, DC. In June, American Airlines was banned after refusing to wear a mask on a flight from New York to Dallas.
On the day of the inauguration of President Joe Biden, Straka acknowledges his followers’ grief in a Facebook Live video, but says he is “excited about our future.”
“I just feel like there is so much to be excited about. It’s such an era of great reform that has just begun,” he told viewers, adding that there was now an opportunity for us to wake people up make. [and] contact with people. “
“I do not believe the rallies will stop,” he said in the clip. “I do not believe our families or communities will stop.”
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