According to the Justice Department, John Earle Sullivan, 26, has been charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and one count of interfering with law enforcement who are engaged in the lawful performance of their official duties incident to and during the commission of civil disorder.
Sullivan, who was arrested Thursday, Jan. 14 in his hometown of Provo, Utah, faces jail time if he is convicted.
Sullivan was one of the first people to illegally enter the Capitol
According to a court filing, Sullivan told agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he was at the Capitol during the unrest and was one of the first people to illegally enter the federal building. He said he entered it through a window that had been broken by someone in the crowd and once inside he pushed past several Capitol police officers.
The complaint also alleges that video footage from other people inside the Capitol proves that Sullivan was there and that he was wearing a ballistics vest and a gas mask. Furthermore, he admitted to being present at the scene when Trump supporter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot by a Capitol police officer.
Sullivan took several videos while he was inside the Capitol. He showed this footage to the federal agents. One of the videos showed him and other people breaking through a barricade. He was caught on the recording saying:
"There are so many people. Let's go. This [expletive] is ours. [Expletive] yeah. We accomplished this [expletive]. We did this together. [Expletive] yeah. We are all a part of this history. Let's burn this [expletive] down."
Other videos from the incident show Sullivan helping others climb over Capitol walls and enter the Capitol through the same broken window he entered through.
"In at least two encounters, Sullivan can be heard on the video arguing with the officers, telling them to stand down so that they do not get hurt," read the charges. "Among other things, Sullivan can be heard telling officers, 'You are putting yourself in harm's way,' 'The people have spoken' and 'There are too many people, you gotta stand down, the people out there that tried to do that [expletive], they got hurt. I saw it. I'm caring about you."
As the crowd was trying to enter a different part of the Capitol, Sullivan reportedly told people that he had a knife. He asked them to let him get to the front, supposedly to use the knife to break through. However, he was not able to squeeze his way through the crowd.
In one other video, he was seen attempting to threaten officers guarding the Speaker's Lobby to go home. "Bro, I've seen people out there get hurt," he said, insinuating that he or other members of the crowd will hurt the officers if they did not let them pass.
Sullivan identifies as member of Antifa and has extensive criminal record
Sullivan is one of the founders of a left-wing social justice group known as Insurgence USA. The group identifies itself as anti-fascist and is affiliated with both Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Their activities include supposedly protesting incidents of police brutality.
"The lack of care for the human life was unacceptable, so we set out to end police brutality," read the group's website. "We then set out to empower and uplifting Black and Indigenous voices."
Immediately after the events of Jan. 6 at the Capitol, Sullivan spoke to every media outlet that was willing to interview him. (Related: WATCH: CNN's Anderson Cooper interviews BLM/Antifa leader who was part of Capitol siege, recently arrested for RIOTING, caught on video threatening to beat a woman … Treats him like he was a reporter on the scene.)
He previously told alternative news outlet The Epoch Times that he took steps to blend in with the crowd of President Donald Trump's supporters so that he would not "get beat up."
Sullivan has also bragged about being well known in the left-wing activist community as being a member of the far-left, anarcho-communist organization Antifa, although he has denied being a member.
A day after speaking with the media, he was detained by Washington, D.C. police. He claimed at the time that he was only there to document the event. However, he admitted during questioning that he does not have any press credentials. Police investigations also noted that Sullivan has no connection with any journalistic organizations.
His claims of being a journalist were further torn down after federal investigators said that Sullivan's voice could be frequently heard encouraging the pro-Trump protesters to break the law while they were inside the Capitol.
In fact, FBI agent Matthew Foulger alleged in an affidavit he signed on Wednesday that Sullivan "knowingly and willfully joined a crowd of individuals who forcibly entered the U.S. Capitol and impeded, disrupted and disturbed the orderly conduct of business by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate."
Sullivan is facing charges in Utah County, Utah for organizing a demonstration in Provo last summer during the height of the engineered George Floyd riots. One person was shot and injured during that demonstration.
Sullivan has not responded to requests for comments from several alternative media outlets.
Learn more about the Antifa and Black Lives Matter-organized and led riots occurring all over the country by reading the latest articles at Rioting.news.
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