Category Archives: Antifa

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., describedAntifa as"boogeymen who aren't there" being used as political talking points during a local radio interview on Tuesday.

"What you will hear, both in private and in public, the FBIwill tell you right now there is not one open case of domesticterrorism, of violent extemism, against the group called Antifa," Slotkin told Detroit's WDET-FM.

"It's an ideology. It's not an organized group with leaders and money and organization. It's very very different, and there's no equivalence betweenAntifa and a group like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers who were instrumentalin coming into the Capitol on the sixth."

WHAT IS ANTIFA, THE FAR LEFT GROUP TIED TO VIOLENT PROTESTING?

"Ispend a lot of time trying to make sure my colleagues have full access to that data, and I've been clear with them that we're not going to have a circus in this committee and focus on boogeymen who aren't there. I understand it's a political talking point for people, but you cannot misstate facts," she continued.

Antifa protesters at a rally. (Mark Graves/The Oregonian/via AP)

Slotkin was named the chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, which is under theHouse Committee on Homeland Security,in February. She is a former CIA intelligence analyst who served in Iraq.

Slotkin cited former FBI Director Christopher Wray during her radio interview, although Wray said in September that the FBI does have Antifa-related investigations open.

"Antifa is a real thing. It's not a group or an organization. It's a movement,or an ideology may be one way of thinking of it," Wray said at a congressional hearing."And we have quite a number -- and I've said this quite consistently since my first time appearing before this committee -- we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa."

Slotkin took a stand against violent protests in the wake of Minneapolis man George Floyd's death.

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"I am worried about the violence taking place in some cities. Destruction of property is a crime and does not further the cause of justice. It will be increasingly important to differentiate between peaceful protests and violent looting in the coming days and weeks," she wrote in an op-ed in June.

Former President Donald Trump often blamed Antifa for violent riots in 2020.

Fox News' Brie Stimson, Brian Flood, Houston Keeneand Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

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Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin claims Antifa are 'boogeymen who aren't there' - Fox News

So Rep. Lauren Boebert, Q-Colorado, just tweeted that shes introduced a bill that would formally declare antifa as a domestic terroristic organization.

Theres several problems here. First, the idea that antifa is a coherent, hierarchical organization, like the KKK or Proud Boys. Search high and low, conservatives have never found indicators that antifa is an organization: a website, a mailbox address, a board of directors, a membership list, identities of leaders, bank accounts, even a newsletter or spokesperson. Like Zorro, they like to dress in black and are willing to mix it up with bullies, or in this case, fascist bullies.

The FBI terms the group as a loosely organized group of local affiliates, who operate under an anti-fascist ideology or set of anti-fascist ideas.

I think I actually know a member of antifa, an older gentleman I worked with 40 years ago. He was an Army soldier who landed at Normandy. He stepped off a landing craft into 12 feet of water, shrugged off his heavy pack and made his way to the beach through bloody water. There he borrowed a rifle from a soldier who didnt need it anymore and went to war, eventually hooking up with Pattons merry band of tankers.

I was raised to honor members of the World War II military, who were very much anti-fascist.

I am anti-fascist. Im too old to poke a Proud Boy or KKKer in the nose, but I agree with the sentiment.

So does that make me a member of antifa, gun lady?

Sincerely,

Brodie Farquhar

Hayden

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Letter: Boebert's antifa legislation is problematic | SteamboatToday.com - Steamboat Pilot and Today

Distant cousins Cody (left) and Andrew meet in Washington, D.C. Cody is a member of a Three Percenter-affiliated militia group, and Andrew is an organizer with Black Lives Matter activists. The two connected on Facebook and have gotten to know each other while researching their ancestry. Hannah Allam/NPR hide caption

Distant cousins Cody (left) and Andrew meet in Washington, D.C. Cody is a member of a Three Percenter-affiliated militia group, and Andrew is an organizer with Black Lives Matter activists. The two connected on Facebook and have gotten to know each other while researching their ancestry.

Two distant cousins connect online, only to learn that one is a militant leftist and the other is in a right-wing militia. Their story shows the complexities of a timely question: Who's an extremist?

NPR's Hannah Allam followed both men for weeks, charting the growth of their relationship and revealing the moment they met in-person for the first time. NPR is withholding their last name, which the two men share, for security reasons.

In participating regions, you'll also hear from local journalists about what's happening in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Brent Baughman, Walter Ray Watson, and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Sami Yenigun with help from Andrew Sussman and Wynne Davis. Our executive producer is Cara Tallo.

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One's Antifa. One's In A Militia. How An Ancestry Match Led To An Unlikely Bond : Consider This from NPR - NPR

Antifa has seen a steady increase in media attention ever since former President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. Republicans often portray antifa as a highly organized group of terrorists worthy of national watch lists. Some conspiracy theoristsfalsely blamedantifa for the January 6Capitol riots that led tofive deaths.

Right-wing media blames antifa members for rioting and looting. Democrats have also condemned such violence, but many on the left say the rhetoric about antifa is greatly exaggerated, and that its less of an organized movement than just something of an idea.

But much of what politicians say about antifa isnt quite true. Heres what antifa is, what it isnt, and what you need to know.

Antifa is not a highly organized movement, nor is it merely an idea. Antifa is a loose affiliation of local activists scattered across the United States and a few other countries.

The term antifa is short for anti-fascist; its used both by its adherents and its foes.

In general, people who identify as antifa are known not for what they support, but what they oppose: Fascism, nationalism, far-right ideologies, white supremacy, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. Some antifa activists also denounce capitalism and the government overall.

Mostly, people aligned with antifa are on the left of the political spectrum. Antifa is not, however, affiliated with President Joe Biden, the Democratic Party or its leaders. Mr. Biden has condemned antifa and called violence unacceptable.

Antifa actions have included everything from tracking and publicly identifying members of alt-right groups to physically attackingadversaries.

Amy Osborne / AFP/Getty Images

In Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, author Mark Bray, an organizer for the Occupy Wall Street movement, lays out antifas methods this way:

Despite the media portrayal of a deranged, bloodthirsty antifa the vast majority of anti-fascist tactics involve no physical violence whatsoever. Anti-fascists conduct research on the far right online, in person, and sometimes through infiltrations; they dox them, push central milieux to disown them, pressure bosses to fire them

But its also true that some of them punch Nazis in the face and dont apologize for it.

During public demonstrations, antifa activists often wear top-to-toe black; even before the coronavirus pandemic, they were also known for wearing face coverings at public gatherings.

Antifa has no official national leadership, though followers have organized themselves into small, local cells that sometimes coordinate with other movements, such as Black Lives Matter. Some self-described antifa adherents have organized to confront Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and other far-right groups during public demonstrations. Some of those rallies have devolved into violence.

Some antifa adherents keep a very low profile, while other local groups venture to give themselves a more public profile with a name and a website. One of the oldest such groups appears to be Rose City Antifa, which says it was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007. According to its website, its main focus is any work that prevents fascist organizing, and when that is not possible, provides consequences to fascist organizers. This is supported by researching and tracking fascist organizations.

Over Mr. Trumps years in office, coverage of antifa skyrocketed in the mainstream press. That coverage started on the day of his inauguration, when dozens of people took to the streets of the nations capital in a protest that would soon grow violent. Authorities would later arrest several dozen of them, many of whom later identified themselves as antifa, and accuse them of starting fires and riots. Charges were eventually dropped for the bulk of the defendants, while others were acquitted by juries.

Mr. Trump pointed a finger at what he called the alt-left following the infamous Unite the Rightrally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. After a white supremacist deliberatelyplowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman namedHeather Heyer, Mr. Trump sparked more outrage when he suggested an equivalency between the white supremacists and the protesters on the other side, who despite his claims were mostly peaceful.

What about the alt-left that came charging at, what you say, the alt-right? Mr. Trump wondered aloud. Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact theyre charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do.

In the years since then, media coverage has identified antifa as participants, and sometimes agitators, in clashes at numerous rallies and protests around the country. That includes a 2017 anti-hate rally in Berkeley, California, and a Patriot Prayer freedom rally in Portland, Oregon, in 2018.

In at least one instance, a person self-identifying as an antifa supporter has been linked to a deadly attack at a protest. Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was considered a prime suspect in the August 2020 killing of 39-year-old Aaron Jay Danielson, a right-wing activist who was shot during heated demonstrations in Portland. Reinoehl was later shot to death by federal authorities as they moved to arrest him.

Portland protest shooting suspect killed

08:04

Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as 100% ANTIFA.

In the summer of 2019, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Bill Cassidy introduced a resolution calling for antifa to be labeled as a domestic terror organization. President Trump voiced his support on Twitter.

But at the time, the Trump administrations own Department of Homeland Security and FBI didnt appear to view antifa as aleading threat. A DHS draft document from September 2020 reportedly namedwhite supremacist groups as the biggest terror threat to America. That same document doesnt mention antifa at all.

The FBI also considers far-right groups the top of the priority list. FBI director Christopher Wray said in February 2020 that the FBI places the risk of violence from racially-motivated extremist groups on the same footing as the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and its sympathizers.

Thats not to say the FBI hasnt also taken aim at antifa. After arson and looting broke out amid the protests in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, Wray said: Were seeing people who are exploiting this situation to pursue violent, extremist agendas anarchists like ANTIFA, and other agitators. These individuals have set out to sow discord and upheaval, rather than join in the righteous pursuit of equality and justice.

But the idea of designating antifa a terror group worries some civil rights advocates.

The designation would grant federal law enforcement broad powers, under the federal terrorism code, to surveil and investigate anyone labeled as antifa, the Southern Poverty Law Centersaid in a statement. It could also allow federal law enforcement to broadly target anyone involved in protests viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration, even retroactively.

The center added, President Trumps announcement is rooted in politics, not the present realities of the terror threat in the U.S.

Antifa has earned its reputation for sporadic violence. But many other rumors about antifa have been spun from whole cloth, sometimes by people later identified as right-wing extremists. In June 2020, Twitter shut down multiple fake antifa accounts that were inciting violence against white suburbs; subsequent investigations tracked the accounts to Identity Evropa, a white supremacist organization.

Right-wing figures and other commentators on social media also have falsely accused unspecified antifa members of starting wildfires on the West Coast, prompting police and fire officials to appeal to the public to stop spreadingwhat one agency called an UNTRUE rumor.

Another common conspiracy theory has alleged, without evidence, that billionaire philanthropist George Soros is funding antifa.

After the January 6 Capitol riots that left five dead, including a Capitol police officer, false rumors claimed antifa was behind the attacks. In fact, among the hundreds of criminal complaints filed so far, dozens involve suspects affiliated with right-wing organizations including Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and pro-Trump followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to federal prosecutors.

One alleged rioter reportedly told friends that he planned to pose as antifa to fool law enforcement.

When we looked at the data around the insurrection, we saw literally millions of pro-Trump [internet] posts that repeated the phrase antifa,' said CBSN tech reporter Dan Patterson. [But] when we look at the data, this boogeyman is nonexistent.

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What is antifa? And what do its supporters want? - WSGW

Federal prosecutors include Facebook posts, Signal chats and a GoToMeeting schedule in a recent court filing.

The leader of the Oath Keepers in Florida imagined former President Trump would hold onto power on January 6th and they would battle Antifa that night on the streets of D.C.

And after the deadly Capitol riot, Kelly Meggs of Dunnellon described himself as an enemy of the state who was not quitting but reloading.

Fifty-two-year-old Meggs is awaiting trial with eight co-defendants, including his wife, on conspiracy and other federal charges after entering the U.S. Capitol with his team in tactical gear.

The clues to his thinking come from Facebook posts and group chats in a court filing aimed at keeping him behind bars.

Meggs described coordination with other extremist groups and a battle plan with the Proud Boys.

He thought Trump would use the emergency broadcast system and the Insurrection Act to stay in power and wondered if the former president would have what he called testicular fortitude.

Right before the riot, another Oath Keepers leader texted that Trumps speech was just more complaining and the patriots would take it into their own hands.

Meggs lawyer argues he is not a danger to the community, did not commit acts of violence at the Capitol and actually protected a police officer during the riot.

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US court filing: Florida Oath Keepers leader coordinated with Proud Boys, imagined battling Antifa on streets of D.C. - WMFE

I had the unusual experience of reading Unmasked: Inside Antifas Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy over the past couple of weeks, unusual insofar as my mere act of reading it drew hysteria from some of my Wikipedia-reading comrades on the left, and insofar as the book, while ostensibly an alarm bell about antifa in the United States, ate its own argument before my eyes then left me feeling tranquil and complacent.

Let it be said that Ngo can string together a sentence, despite a high amount of typos (I must have spotted 12 or 15) for a major-press hardback. And despite a couple of editorial lapses wherein he repeats the same information at length for no good reason, Ngo has the salty, high blood-pressurized stylings of an addictive writer. But like salt, Unmasked is of questionable nutritional value, and should probably exit your system in a hurry

The premise: antifa (anti-fascism) is a threat to U.S. democracy. The angle: antifa is not a merely an anti-fascist sentiment or set thereof, but an organized group of radicals intent upon using violence to overthrow our government. The method: a perpetually forked and unintegrated mishmash of news reporting and opinion-editorial, one of which should have been favored over the other, as the reporting reads like unsorted lists of facts and the opinions are simplistic, repetitive, and dry.

Ngo makes his case against antifa on two main levels. The first is by citing cases, instances, and events wherein antifa used violence against property or other human beings to impose its agenda. The second is by citing instances in which antifa bears an organizational structure, complete with meetings, handbooks, trainings, hierarchies, and agendas. This second one is important because, according to Ngo, the mainstream media downplays and even erases the notion that antifa is anything other than a noble idea (again: anti-fascism). Note: This mainstream media angle is a commonplace trope among the right, which complains about its side getting no attention despite its news organizations always being aggressively popular.

In any case, Ngos citations of antifa violence and organization backfire due to their basic rarity; in other words, such cases seem by Ngos own admission to be the exception rather than the rule. Likewise, Ngo keeps stating how antifa is growing and spreading while only producing atomized examples of it existing in organized form. In the meantime, he cannot hide from the plain fact (supported by innumerable U.S. scholars and law enforcement personnel) that antifa are (is?) far less violent than white supremacists, and tend by and large to focus their violence toward property rather than people to the point where theyve scarcely killed anyone. So this leaves Ngo bending over backwards trying to depict a growing threat while hinging his entire argument on a few scattered, random-seeming examples. If antifas numbers are growing yet its mark remains vague, then forgive me, but what in Gods name are we supposed to worry about?

Worse yet is Ngos failure to contextualize antifa within recent U.S. politics. In Ngos vision, President Donald Trumps presidency was unexceptional, merely business as usual, scarcely worthy of a nod or a mention. Indeed, the Trump in Ngos book is not unlike the Trump of QAnon just a grounded professional going about his job; a well-intentioned bureaucrat tending to a stable, ordinary populace.

Never mind the fact that Trumps America was in a near-constant state of hysteria, owed in no small part to the presidents proud and open fanning of white supremacy.

But white supremacys a footnote within Ngos landscape, which leaves him hopping on one foot, telling half a story a story of a bunch of anti-fascists who are simply fightingas opposed to fighting, you know, fascists!

In fact, reading Unmasked is not unlike reading a half-cocked biography of Batman, one wherein the author breathlessly tries to warn the reader that Batman is crazy, Batman is dangerous, Batmans governed by questionable intentions, Batman operates outside the system, and Batman is really a person underneath that mask without any analysis whatsoever as to who or what Batman is battling, let alone the prevailing conditions in Gotham City.

This sin of omission is made all the more inane when Ngo traces antifa to its European origins, ones wherein it aroseto battle Nazis! Hey, Andy! Why do you think antifa has become so popular here?

Nope, the question never crosses Ngos mind, at least not enough to gain any meaningful traction. When he reports on the origins of Black Lives Matter, he coldly highlights the criminal histories of unarmed Black people who were killed by police, overlooking the waters in which they swam i.e., overlooking the documented fact that U.S. law enforcement is disproportionately more violent and threatening toward Black and brown people than it is toward white people. The revolting implication is that these murdered Black people were common criminals who got what they had coming to them. By the same standard, in Unmasked, Ngos antifa operates in a vacuum, showing up and making trouble for no good goddamn reason, expressing grievances that can only be wholly unwarranted given how great America is.

About that: Since Ngo cant argue against antifa on their (its?) own merits or on the axis of their/its own values, hes left with making base presumptions about his readers default sympathy settings. In other words, Ngo reports on violence against police officers, stores, and government buildings and presumes the reader will be horrified due to an ingrained soft spot for law enforcement, capitalism, and the state.

But those ships have sailed, Andy. The left isnt having it. Not after Trump, not after COVID. Violence or no violence, a lot of us simply believe that things are broken. (Note: The author of this review does not condone violence.)

Ngos failure of persuasion hits an absolute low near the books end, when he tries to put a chill in the readers blood by reporting that antifa not only uses violence to meet its ends, but also gasp! the levers of the state. In other words, they participate in fair and legal elections! They align with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez! They use propaganda and strategic messaging to manipulate people into voting for their candidates!

Forgive me butisnt that calledpolitics? For a book thats subtitle evokes a Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, its certainly a little quaint to see the author so concerned about the enemy utilizing the legal machinations of democracy.

Ngo does better in his afterword, where he ties his right-leaning bias to his Vietnamese parents origins in a country suffering under the rule of violent socialism. There he also contextualizes his own love for America and its freedoms. And he even makes room to express his own doubts about the American government while tranquilly admitting to an understanding of how others might arrive at antifa sentiments.

Thats a book I would have liked to have read: measured, grounded, calm, humanizing, open. Maybe that book would have better sensitized me to antifas potential flaws and dangers. In any case, at least it would have allowed me to make up my own mind. The irony of Unmasked, as written, is that by forcing its position down readers throats, it is guilty of the same authoritarianism that it claims to fear.

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Book review: Andy Ngo's UNMASKED is a failure of journalism & persuasion - The Milpitas Beat

In late September 2019, Charles Donohoe took to the encrypted messaging app Telegram with a call to arms.

We need to stop fighting antifa in the streets where the cops are and start fighting them in bars and alleys, Donohoe, a member of the far-right streetfighting group the Proud Boys, wrote. We need to stomp them. We need to ruin their lives physically like they have ruined ours financially with doxxing. We need to rack up their hospital bills. We need to use special operations tactics and lightning strike them.

At the time of the post, Donohoes Telegram profile picture was a photo of him in the Proud Boys uniform, shaking hands with a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer.

Donohoe, the 33-year-old leader of a Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina, was arrested Wednesday morning on a conspiracy charge for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as The New York Times reported. He is accused of conspiring to interfere with law enforcement at the Capitol, where members of the Proud Boys broke in after overrunning police.

As new charges are unveiled in the Capitol attack, prosecutors appear to be focusing on the Proud Boys as some of the riots main instigators, along with the far-right group the Oath Keepers. But like other Proud Boys, including the chapter led by a man charged in the same conspiracy, Donohoe previously flaunted his apparently warm relationship with policeeven as he promoted extralegal violence on the side.

Donohoes lawyer did not return a request for comment for this story.

During a July 2019 Proud Boys demonstration in Washington, D.C., Donohoe ran into Collin Cole, a Metropolitan Police Officer with whom he had previously served in the Marines. The pair shook hands and the image soon circulated in Proud Boys circles as evidence that the group was not racist. (Cole is Black.)

Later, Donohoe tagged Cole on Facebook and the pair chatted about the upcoming rally, and the counterprotest expected from the left. Ill be working downtown today for the protests, Cole commented on a picture Donohoe had taken from his hotel window of a car with a Trump: Build The Wall trailer.

Youll see me me [sic] Im with the proud boys, Donohoe wrote back. Dont publicly announce this please antifa is trying to ruin our weekend.

Of course not! Cole wrote back. Ill keep an eye out. He later commented to note that he was now standing by the Trump sign, and to ask whether Donohoe was still in his hotel room. (Earlier in the comment thread, someone had urged Donohoe to stay safe brother. Hit a commie for Mommy!!!!)

Reached by phone, Cole said he was unaware of Donohoes recent arrest.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I do not want to be associated with that, Cole told The Daily Beast after learning that Donohoe had been charged in relation to the Capitol riot. Cole said that hed known Donohoe to be a great guy when they served in the Marines, and that while he knew Donohoe was now affiliated with the Proud Boys, was not in close contact with him.

Cole said that when he commented on Donohoes pictures, he wasnt very familiar with the groups Donohoe referenced.

I guess he was just warning me like, Be careful, antifas attacking, but it wasnt anything past that.

D.C. Metropolitan Police did not immediately return a request for comment.

But Donohoes picture with Cole was far from the Proud Boys only photo-op with police, even when it came to the chapters tied to those arrested on Wednesday.

Arrested on the same day as Donohoe was Zach Rehl, leader of the Proud Boys Philadelphia chapter. The Philadelphia Proud Boys have frequently rubbed shoulders with their citys police force. Rehl is the son and grandson of Philadelphia Police officers, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. (Philadelphia Police did not return The Daily Beasts request for comment, and an attorney for Rehl could not be reached.)

Last summer, the Proud Boys attended a party at the Philadelphia Police unions headquarters, carrying a large Proud Boys flag. The union later disavowed the group, but other connections also came to light. In June, the Philadelphia Proud Boys tweeted pictures of themselves in uniform posing with a police officer inside a police station, where the group said it was delivering snacks. (Its unclear whether Rehl was in the pictures.) As The Daily Beast first reported, after a rally in September, the Philadelphia Proud Boys were accompanied back to their cars by a police caravan. A Philadelphia Police officer was filmed talking to and shaking hands with the group in what the citys district attorney described to The Daily Beast as an extra-friendly interaction.

Philadelphia Police detective Jennifer Gugger is reportedly under investigation by her department for allegedly attending a rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, where a Capitol Police officer would be killed in the melee. When then-Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his condolences about the Capitol Police officers death, Gugger reportedly replied with a reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Youre a traitor and cabal operative and pedophile! she tweeted at Pence, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. You preach of god and that god will judge you!

Seven members of the police force for the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority also attended the rally, with two members receiving three-day suspensions this week.

The sometimes-alliances between police and Proud Boys have led to cops actually joining the far-right group, with a Fresno police officer suspended this week after allegedly appearing alongside Proud Boys at an anti-LGBTQ event in that city. Meanwhile, another cop, Brian Sicknick, died after a scuffle with rioters at the Capitol.

A new indictment unsealed Friday accuses Donohoe, Rehl, and two other Proud Boys leaders of coordinating to overrun police at the Capitol. According to the document, all four participated in Proud Boys planning chats ahead of the event, with Rehl fundraising for equipment and Donohoe creating a designated communications channel for the Jan. 6 siege. Everything is compromised and we can be looking at Gang charges, Donohoe allegedly wrote on Jan. 4, urging Proud Boys to abandon an old channel, which he said was no longer secure. On the morning of the attack, another Proud Boy allegedly used the channel to give orders, noting that cops are the primary threat, dont get caught by them or BLM.

Later, the Proud Boys allegedly stormed the Capitol, pushing over police barricades while some of them entered the building through a door that had been opened by a Proud Boy who broke through using a stolen police riot shield.

The Proud Boys sometimes navigate their complicated relationship with the law by describing themselves and the police as mutual enemies of anti-fascists. At a Proud Boy rally in Portland last summer, where journalists detailed apparent coordination between the group and police, one Proud Boy reportedly asked two officers when are yall taking the patches off and just gonna fuck these motherfuckers [anti-fascists] up together? The officers reportedly laughed.

Donohoe pulled a similar move with his appeal for Cole to be on the lookout for antifa, and a picture of them together was soon recycled into an anti-antifa meme in Proud Boys circles on Facebook. This is what antifa attacks, one caption read. This is what antifa calls racism.

But even as he warned police of potential leftist violence, leftists in Donohoes home state accused him of seeking out fights. Days before the D.C. photo-op, Donohoe attended a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Proud Boys allegedly hurled homophobic slurs against counter-protesters.

Lindsay Ayling, a demonstrator on the left, said some Proud Boys recognized her and that Donohoe later entered a bar and attempted to start a fight with her.

A few friends and I were sitting at a table at the other side of the bar from Donohoe, Ayling told The Daily Beast. He walked aggressively toward me, then stood right next to me and stared me down. I said, We dont want to hang out with you, and he replied, I know you dont.

I suggested that in that case, he should leave, she added. I could tell he expected me to either throw a punch or get scared and walk away. Since I didnt do either, he got a kind of awkward look on his face until a bartender came over and said he should go back to his own table.

She tweeted about the encounter at the time, including pictures of Donohoe. Three months later, using the picture of him and Cole as his profile picture, Donohoe took to Telegram to advise Proud Boys to skirt police scrutiny by beating up leftists in bars.

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New Proud Boys Busted for Capitol Riot Have Wild Police Ties - The Daily Beast

It was the team's first public demonstration since a teammate was unlawfully held at gunpoint by a white man last week. Fort Collins Coloradoan

A Loveland man pleaded guilty to holding two salesmenat gunpoint last summerbut saw other charges dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Scott Gudmundsen, 66,was arrested in Juneafter police say heheld two roofing inspection salesmen at gunpointand knelt on the neck of one of the men who was later identified by CSU athleticsas a Black football player because he thought they were members of antifa, a far-left militant group.

Gudmundsen pleaded guilty to menacing with a weapon, a Class 5 felony, during a court hearing Thursday. Six other charges were dismissed by the8th JudicialDistrict Attorney's Office as part of a plea agreement.

The CSU football player, Barry Wesley, publicly identified himself and shared his story with Sports Illustrated in August.

Gudmundsen told the court he pleaded guilty because "I menaced two salesmen" with a weapon. Gudmundsen's attorney, Ryan Markus, further elaborated that Gudmundsen menaced the two men "while undergoing a mental health crisis."

Previously: Judge denies request to force hate crime charge for Loveland man who held 2 at gunpoint

As part of the plea agreement, the defense and prosecution agreed to a wellness court sentence for Gudmundsenif he is accepted to the program.Wellness court is an alternative to incarceration for those with a severe and persistent mental illness. Those in the program attend court once per week, attend individual and group therapy, and are supervised by probation.

If Gudmundsen is not accepted into the wellness court program, the agreement stipulates he be sentenced to 30 months in Community Corrections, Markus explained in Thursday's court hearing. If he isn't accepted to that program, the next sentencing option would be supervised probation with mental health treatment or probation through the AIIM program Alternatives to Incarceration for Individuals with Mental Health Needs which is very similar to the wellness court program.

To determine if any of these programs would be an appropriate sentence, Gudmundsen will undergo several pre-sentence evaluations. If he is denied alternative sentencing and not recommended for probation, his sentence would be open to 8th Judicial District JudgeMichelle Brinegar's discretion, which could include 1 to 3 years in prison,Brinegar said.

Gudmundsen remains in the Larimer County Jail on a $50,000 bond. His sentencing hearing is scheduled May 4, but that could change if he is accepted into wellness court.

Sady Swanson covers public safety, criminal justice, Larimer County governmentand more throughout Northern Colorado. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

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Loveland man who held salesmen at gunpoint, saying they belonged to antifa, pleads guilty - Coloradoan

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson faced condemnation for sharing his thoughts on the Capitol riot.

WASHINGTON D.C., DC In the last few months, weve seen a growing number of elected officials struck by a strange, new condition called, Saying-the-quiet-part-out-loud-itis

The latest person to suffer from this is Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who, in a recent interview, said that he never felt threatened on January 6th, because the people who stormed the Capitol love this country and respect law enforcement. Then he said this:

Now, had the tables been turned -- Joe this could get me in trouble -- had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protestors, I might have been a little concerned.

Really? You didnt find the hangmans scaffolding out front a little off-putting? Ive yet to see one of those at a Black Lives Matter rally.

We all heard the dog whistle, and the condemnation was swift, coming at Johnson from every direction, including from some conservatives.

Johnson defended his comments by saying they were *innocuous. There was nothing racial there. Nothing offensive.

Really? If they were inoffensive, why would they get you in trouble for them, as you said you might?

People have been saying the quiet parts out loud because they now feel emboldened. Its scary stuff, and it makes one mad. But maybe its actually a good thing because now it makes it easier to see exactly who the ignorant bigots are

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Elected officials keep saying the quiet part out loud | Hear Me Out - WUSA9.com

A "Stop the Steal" rally on January 5, where Joe Oltmann spoke. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer went into hiding following threats against his life.

Conspiracy theorists alleged he took part in an "Antifa conference call" to rig the 2020 election.

Coomer quietly updated a defamation lawsuit with new claims about Newsmax and Joe Oltmann.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

The Dominion executive who went into hiding in December quietly filed an updated defamation lawsuit against right-wing media figures who spread conspiracy theories about him, making new claims against the far-right media outlet Newsmax.

The lawsuit from Eric Coomer, the director of product strategy and security at Dominion Voting Systems, was first filed in December.

The amended lawsuit was filed in February but received scant attention. It adds more detail about the lengths the conservative operative Joe Oltmann went to push a baseless conspiracy theory about Coomer, as well as the degree to which Newsmax - owned by Trump's friend Christopher Ruddy - played a role in spreading it.

The lawsuit accuses Donald Trump's presidential campaign, conspiracy theorist attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and right-wing media outlets like Newsmax, One America News, and The Gateway Pundit of boosting false claims about him. The defendants in the lawsuit, Coomer says, all pushed a false conspiracy theory from Oltmann, also a defendant in the lawsuit, that Coomer participated in an "Antifa conference call" for how to rig the 2020 presidential election.

While Oltmann initially said he has a recording of Coomer participating in the call, he's never produced it and there's no evidence it exists. Coomer says he has no involvement with Antifa - a loosely linked group of left-leaning activists who oppose fascist movements - and did not participate in any such call. There is also no evidence the results of the 2020 election were rigged, or that Dominion Voting Systems or members of Antifa made any effort to rig them.

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But Oltmann's claims spread like wildfire among far-right media circles, and Coomer went into hiding in December amid the threats against him and his family. Coomer filed his lawsuit shortly afterward "in an effort to unwind as much of the damage as possible done to me, my family, my life, and my livelihood as a result of the numerous false public statements that I was somehow responsible for 'rigging' the 2020 presidential election," he said in a statement at the time.

Newsmax hosted Oltmann on Michelle Malkin's show "Sovereign Nation" in November where she did not contradict his claims about Coomer and appeared to support them, according to the lawsuit.

A few days later, Newsmax hosted Powell on Howie Carr's show where she parroted Oltmann's claims. The right-wing network hosted numerous guests throughout the month of December who made the same false claims about Coomer, the lawsuit alleges.

"Newsmax repeatedly promoted these false allegations of voter fraud. Newsmax took no efforts to verify or corroborate the false allegations against Dr. Coomer and Dominion before publishing them and disregarded reliable sources establishing the contrary," the lawsuit reads. "It had no credible evidence of any 'Antifa conference call;' that Dr. Coomer was part of this purported call; or that Dr. Coomer committed election fraud or subverted the results of the election."

Michelle Malkin hosted Joe Oltmann on her Newsmax show. Charley Gallay/Getty Images for International Innovators of Justice/American Justice Alliance

Dominion removed information about specific employees from the web in response to threats. Newsmax made that appear nefarious, the lawsuit says.

"Newsmax suggested nefarious intent when noting that Dominion had 'scrubbed [Dr. Coomer] from their website.'" the lawsuit alleges. "In reality, Dr. Coomer had not been on Dominion's website for years and Dominion employees' identities were removed from third party marketing sites as an essential safety precaution given the numerous death threats already targeting them."

In a statement to Insider, Newsmax described Coomer's lawsuit as politically motivated.

"Newsmax exercised its First Amendment rights when it covered and reported on the electoral challenge claims made by President Trump, his attorneys and others, often relating to court documents," a representative for Newsmax said. "Newsmax has consistently reported that Dominion was challenging claims made by the President and his lawyers, and we never embraced any claims about them as true or about Mr. Coomer."

While Newsmax was slow to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election, it stepped back in response to legal claims. After Smartmatic, another election-technology company targeted in conspiracy theories, threatened to sue Newsmax, the media organization released a video "clarifying" its reporting and affirming that the 2020 election was sound.

But Oltmann doubled down. On January 5, he spoke at a "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, DC ahead of the insurrection at the Capitol. In his remarks, he continued to push false conspiracy theories about Dominion and the election, and said it was "really fun" that Coomer was suing him, according to the lawsuit.

On January 26, Oltmann published a post on his Facebook page that appeared to threaten both Coomer and his attorneys, writing "Oh, and hi Eric Coomer. I'm never going to stop. You have no idea what information I have or how your loose lips and arrogance is your ultimate weakness." He also said in a February 4 Facebook post that he would post a motion to dismiss Coomer's lawsuit, but never did. Other posts on his Facebook page often reference elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Coomer's lawsuit says that the January 6 insurrection demonstrates the real-life threat stemming from election conspiracy theories. Carolyn Kaster/AP

Oltmann told Insider he stands by his claims about Oltmann and Dominion and said he doesn't care about the lawsuit, calling it "window dressing to distract the public from the truth."

Coomer's lawsuit cites Oltmann's fringe beliefs, and the January 6 insurrection, as evidence that the claims should be taken seriously by the court.

"Defendants' conduct has resulted in direct harm to Dr. Coomer through their encouragement of violence and threats. This harm is not hypothetical. A direct manifestation of the harm caused by Defendants' conduct is the armed insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021," the lawsuit says. "Lies about election fraud, including lies about Dr. Coomer, incited the insurrection. The open use of force by the militants further confirms the seriousness of the threats being made against Dr. Coomer."

Coomer's lawsuit is distinct from the ones filed by Dominion. As a company, Dominion has filed separate defamation lawsuits against Powell, Giuliani, and pillow mogul Mike Lindell. Smartmatic has filed its own defamation lawsuit as well.

"Dr. Coomer's claims are personal, as his reputation has been damaged and his safety has been threatened," a spokesperson for Coomer told Insider. "It was important to assert those claims in court now, to let those responsible know they will be held accountable."

Coomer is raising money on Fundly to pay for his defamation lawsuit. Both Dominion and Smartmatic have indicated they plan to pursue additional legal action, and Dominion has sent Oltmann document retention letters threatening "imminent" litigation.

This article has been updated.

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A Dominion exec forced into hiding due to death threats from Trump fans is beefing up his defamation lawsuit over election conspiracy theories - Yahoo...