‘Let’s Burn This Sh*t Down’: Activist Charged With Joining Pro-Trump Riot at Capitol

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

An activist who organized left-wing protests last summer has been charged over his participation in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

John Sullivan, an activist who organized protests against police brutality over the summer, was charged with obstructing law enforcement, knowingly entering a restricted building, and engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct.

According to the FBI, Sullivan organized protests through his group Insurgence USA, and at one event, video of which was posted to his YouTube channel, he could be heard telling a crowd, “we about to burn this shit down” and “we got to rip Trump out of office.”

An investigation into Sullivan by website The Grayzone described him as a “notorious instigator” who had been banished by the Black Lives Matter movement. In an interview with The Grayzone, Sullivan denied having a political ideology.

Sullivan told the FBI in an interview that he attended the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington D.C. in order to film the event as an activist and journalist.

A video posted to his YouTube account cited by the FBI shows Sullivan as more of an enthusiastic participant.

“There are so many people. Let’s go. This shit is ours! Fuck yeah,” Sullivan can be heard shouting in the video. “We accomplished this shit. We did this together. Fuck yeah! We are all a part of this history.”

“Let’s burn this shit down,” he says at one point.

Sullivan, who wore a ballistic vest and a gas mask during the attack, entered the Capitol building with the pro-Trump rioters. He eventually made it to a door inside the Capitol, just outside the Speaker’s Lobby, being blocked by police.

There, a crowd demanded the officers move away from the doors, which they did. After smashing through the windows, Ashli Babbitt attempted to climb through, but was shot by police. The shooting was caught on video by Sullivan.

According to the affidavit, Sullivan was previously arrested in July after participating in a Black Lives Matter protest in Utah. He was charged with rioting and criminal mischief.

Sullivan’s latest arrest has added fuel to the theory from Trump boosters that the deadly riot was a false flag operation carried out by antifa activists posing as Trump supporters.

“This was an antifa, militant Black Lives Matter activist,” Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo said on air Friday morning. “So we really don’t even know who was who in that mob scene. Already we’ve got two leftists that were arrested.”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he has evidence that “the key violence here was caused by antifa” but the FBI “let the chief antifa guy go.”

Despite the arrest of Sullivan, the rioters that stormed the Capitol — clad in MAGA hats, waving Trump flags and chanting “Stop the Steal!” — were quite clearly Trump supporters.

In fact, many of them are prominent pro-Trump activists known online before the riot.

This story has been updated with further information on Sullivan, based on an investigation and interview conducted by The Grayzone.

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