Resnick has attracted attention in recent years for infectious and big comments – Describing African religions as ‘primitive’ and proposal white supremacy is fictional – and has been a longtime vocal supporter of Donald Trump. A few days after Trump’s acquittal in his second indictment, Resnick launched an interview with former president’s chief advocate David Schoen. And he defended the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 in pressure without admitting he had not been present in the building the day before.
Resnick’s ultra-conservative policies are rare among the wider community of American Jews, who tend overwhelmingly toward Democrats. But even conservative Orthodox Jews, among others, make his remarks under the banner of the six-decade-old Jewish Press, whose website claims it was “politically incorrect long before the phrase was coined.” Groups that have condemned its rhetoric in the past include the Anti-Defamation League, a mainstream Jewish American institution.
It is unclear exactly what led Resnick to the Capitol on January 6, including whether he attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” march earlier in the day. Neither Resnick nor the Jewish Press has a hard pass for Congress, a requirement for journalists who regularly submit reports from the Capitol.
For the past two weeks, Resnick has turned down calls, emails and messages on social media to comment. POLITICO also repeatedly reached out to leaders of The Jewish Press and sent detailed lists of questions about Resnick’s presence that day and whether the newspaper approved it. These queries remained unanswered until Monday night, when publisher Naomi Mauer issued a one-sentence response.
“Since we understand the facts, we believe Mr. Resnick acted within the law,” Mauer said in an email. She declined to elaborate or respond to an additional follow-up for more information.
Resnick is not facing charges over his presence in the Capitol, and the video he captured on Jan. 6 does not show how he commits or encourages violence.
However, those who have called out Resnick for his comments in the past say that he is notable on January 6th.
‘It does not speak to the entire Jewish community, but I think it does speak to the fact that even in marginalized communities in the United States [some members] a policy with an authoritarian style will adopt and be aimed at, ‘says Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, a civil rights group that follows extremism.
‘The good news is that this is not the majority in any of the communities. But it is also not a deviation, “Ward added.
Investigators have arrested more than 300 people and charged them with participating in the assault, on charges ranging from unauthorized access to assaults by police officers to conspiracy to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election. And they have indicated that dozens, if not hundreds, are likely to be arrested if prosecutors are fined by a large amount of evidence in what they say is the most complicated case the justice department has ever tackled.
POLITICO was first warned about Resnick’s presence in the Capitol by a researcher who searched open source footage of the attack to identify participants. The researcher did not want to be identified for this story to proceed with the identification of people who were present in the building on January 6th.
Prosecutors relied on independent crowd soldiers to compile evidence against numerous Capitol defendants, citing some of the work in court reports. After receiving footage and footage of the Capitol violation that appears to have Resnick present, POLITICO confirmed his identity with several of his associates.
Notably, Resnick last month drafted a remark in the American thinker to defend the riot in the Capitol as a natural response to Trump’s widely refuted and unfounded allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“Democrats continue to declare that this country can never see its Capitol overtaken by a mob again,” Resnick wrote. “Well, there is an easy solution to that. Do not steal elections, and perhaps law-abiding citizens would not normally grasp.”
Resnick did not mention in his column that he was in the building that day. But the opinion joins a series of social media posts he made at the time and in the weeks that followed. In a tweet on 6 January 17:37 with time stamp, Resnick responded to the tweet from Trump ally Sara Carter who called for calm amid the riots in Capitol.
“Please explain how you intend to ensure Democrats do not cheat four years from now,” Resnick wrote.
He made similar comments on Parler in the ensuing days, raising questions about a police officer’s decision to fire the shot that killed riot Ashli Babbitt as she tried to enter the living room. On January 8, he suggested that a recording of a local TV interview with a witness of Babbitt’s shooting incident should go viral.
Several suspected rioters facing charges of entering the Capitol claimed they were there as journalists and captured the events of the day. But prosecutors have pointed to evidence in some of the cases that the accused caused or encouraged the chaos that unfolded in the Capitol, and they described careful checks for cell phone records to determine which people within the Capitol are not authorized to be there. .
Anthime Gionet, an all-right figure known as Baked Alaska, for example, argued that he entered the Capitol in a journalistic capacity. He is facing charges of trespassing on the building, when prosecutors say he regrets an officer trying to enforce his exit. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, disputed in a statement last week that Gionet claimed he was a journalist in the Capitol.
The most serious charges filed in the aftermath of January 6 were against members of groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, paramilitary organizations that, according to prosecutors, carried out plans to interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Among those not affiliated with the groups was an abuse of white supremacists, QAnon conspiracy theorists and many who simply said they believed Trump’s warnings that the election was stolen and that they should stop “stealing”.
One arrested, Robert Packer, was photographed wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt. Another, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, was ordered to be detained pending trial at his increasingly violent rhetoric advocating white supremacist views. Hale-Cusanelli, an Army reservist who worked at a naval base in New Jersey, is seen by a significant majority of colleagues as an open racist and anti-Semite, according to interviews by Navy researchers.
Ward said the Jewish Press should explain on January 6 whether Resnick was in the Capitol on behalf of the publication.
“Where he works as a journalist, he is not prepared to be clear whether he was there in the role of a journalist or in the role of a private citizen,” Ward said. ‘The reason that is disturbing is that we are in a time where journalists are confronted by increasing attacks from political movements … Maintaining the independence of journalists is critical. ‘
During Resnick’s lengthy interview in February with Trump’s chief prosecutor, David Schoen – held days after the Senate acquitted the former president of inciting the January 6 attack – the two also discussed the broader question of Jewish Trump supporters who fell back from their faith community.
Schoen told Resnick about his decision to join the defense team and described the background to his request to suspend the accusations for the Jewish Sabbath. The proposal received support from the first Jewish majority leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, but who Schoen later recalled, and agreed to hand over duties to his fellow council.
“What do you say to people who hate Trump and think that a Jew should not defend someone for whom they believe he is a horrible man?” Resnick asked for Shoe.
“I think it’s a terrible position to take,” Schoen replied. “I stood for the Constitution and the President, and I was honored to do so. And the idea that you have to be ashamed of being Jewish and doing it somehow – I do not understand. ”