Trump Impeachment Lawyers Push Wild Conspiracy Theory That Antifa Was Behind Capitol Attack

Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyer Michael T. van der Veen pushed the wild conspiracy theory that Antifa was responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, claiming that “a small group who came to engage in violent and menacing behavior hijacked the event for their own purposes.”

“According to publicly available reporting, it’s apparent that extremists of various different stripes and political persuasion, preplanned and premeditated an attack on the Capitol,” he said. “One of the first people arrested was the leader of Antifa. Sadly, he was also among the first to be released.”

Van der Veen is presumably referencing activist John Sullivan, who was charged with obstructing law enforcement at the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Although Sullivan did organize protests against police brutality this summer, an investigation by The Grayzone labeled Sulllivan as a “notorious instigator,” adding that he was “banished” by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Van der Veen also seemed to be taking some advice from fellow attorney Rudy Giuliani, who claimed to have “a good deal of material that shows that outside people organized that riot, and they were organizing for days and days and days, and many of them are enemies of his.”

Giuliani also claimed to have evidence of “text messages from Antifa people to come there and get rid of him, get him out of office” on his website. Mediaite’s Sarah Rumpf was unable to find any evidence on the website.

Van der Veen could also be citing a now removed Washington Times article, which reported that an unnamed retired military officer claimed, “that the firm XRVision used its software to do facial recognition of protesters and matched two Philadelphia Antifa members to two men inside the Senate.”

The facial recognition technology firm later publicly denied the report, but not before Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and other Republicans tweeted about the baseless claims.

Watch above, via MSNBC.