Investigators pursuing signs US Capitol riot was planned
Evidence uncovered so far, including weapons and tactics seen on surveillance video, suggests a level of planning that has led investigators to believe the attack on the US Capitol was not just a protest that spiraled out of control, a federal law enforcement official says.
(CNN)
One week after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, there are still more questions than answers on whether any lawmakers or police assisted the pro-Trump rioters.
At least one protest organizer said he coordinated with three House Republicans. There are unverified accusations of a "reconnaissance" mission one day before the attack. And more than a dozen US Capitol Police officers are under internal investigation for allegedly helping rioters.
Ali Alexander, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who led one of the "Stop The Steal" groups, claimed in a livestream video that he planned the rally that preceded the riot with three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.
"Those three members of Congress are going to need to lawyer up, very fast," [said] former GOP Rep. Charlie Dent.
Ali Alexander, a leader of the "Stop the Steal" group, said in several Periscope livestream videos last month that he planned the rally that preceded the riot in conjunction with Gosar and two other congressional Republicans, Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs of Arizona, as CNN first reported last week.
"We're the four guys who came up with a January 6 event," Alexander said in one video in December. (So, that authorship was made PROSPECTIVELY.)
"It was to build momentum and pressure and then on the day change hearts and minds of Congress peoples who weren't yet decided or saw everyone outside and said, 'I can't be on the other side of that mob.'"
(CNN)
