Who are the leaders?

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“Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,” said a spokesman for Biggs.

Brooks, who spoke at the rally, said he did so in response to an invitation from the White House the day before. But the Alabama lawmaker “has no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is,” a statement from his office said.

The plot thickens on a GOP congressman’s pre-Jan. 6 tour

There remains no proof that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) led a ‘reconnaissance’ tour of the Capitol complex for insurrectionists. But Loudermilk clearly hadn’t shared the whole story.

Analysis by Aaron BlakeStaff writer

Updated June 15, 2022 at 1:02 p.m. EDT|Published June 15, 2022 at 12:45 p.m. EDT

We still don’t know whether any GOP members of Congress actually led tours of the Capitol complex that could be construed as “reconnaissance” tours for would-be Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

But for the first time, we have real detail about what evidence the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob is working with on that front. And while far from conclusive, it further calls into question the misleading denials and explanations offered by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.).

The Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday morning released new details about the group Loudermilk led around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5. The basics of its letter:

• According to surveillance footage, the letter says, Loudermilk led a tour of “approximately ten individuals” through a trio of House office buildings and near entrances to the tunnels to the Capitol.
• The committee indicates that participants acted in an unusual manner, taking photographs of areas “not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”
• It says one of those people (who at one point photographed what appeared to be a staircase) marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6. While near the Capitol, someone the committee identifies as the same man recorded a video with threatening words for Democratic members of Congress. “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler; we’re coming for you,” the man says in footage provided by the committee. We’re “coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, Schumer — even you, AOC. We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs. How about that, Pelosi? … When I get done with you, you gonna need a shine up on top of that bald head.”
• At another point, the man shows video of someone he describes as “our fearless leader,” and the other man shows the pointed tip of his flagpole. They suggest it’s intended for someone in particular, and the other man makes a spearing gesture.

The committee released some of the video:

Video shows GOP congressman giving tours ahead of Jan. 6 attack

To be clear — and as we’ve noted before — none of this proves that Loudermilk knowingly or even unknowingly helped those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Nor does the committee’s letter address whether the man in the video even entered the Capitol. But it lends at least some weight to some Democrats’ heretofore-unsubstantiated allegations that GOP members led “reconnaissance” tours before Jan. 6.

A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally

By Teo Armus

January 13, 2021 at 5:14 a.m. EST

Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he wasplanning something big for Jan. 6.

Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.

“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video on Periscope highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, an investigative nonprofit. The plan, he said, was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”

How a pro-Trump mob was able to breach security and storm the Capitol

After riots inside the Capitol left five people dead — and Alexander and his group were banned from Twitter this week — those three GOP lawmakers are now under increasing scrutiny over their role in aiding the right-wing activist.

In separate statements to The Washington Post, spokesmen for Biggs and Brooks denied that the congressmen had helped Alexander organize arally on Jan. 6. Gosar did not respond to requests for comment.

“Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,” said a spokesman for Biggs.

Brooks, who spoke at the rally, said he did so in response to an invitation from the White House the day before. But the Alabama lawmaker “has no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is,” a statement from his office said.

Videos and posts on social media suggest links between all three Republicans and the right-wing activist.

Alexander, a felon who has also been identified in media reports as Ali Akbar, gained a large following by live-streaming monologues in which he professed his conservative views and support for Trump. Speaking to Politico Magazine in 2018, he called himself an “interpreter of energy for this period.”

In June 2019, Donald Trump Jr. retweeted Alexander’s false claim that Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris is not an “American Black.” The following month, Alexander attended a “social media summit” at the White House, alongside a number of far-right figures who had accused companies of anti-conservative bias.

After Trump lost in November, the Daily Beast noted, Alexander positioned himself as a leading voice behind the movement to support the president’s challenge to the election results. He was labeled “a true patriot” by Gosar on Twitter, and on Dec. 19, the two both spoke ata “Stop the Steal” rally in Phoenix.

“We will not go quietly. We’ll shut down this country if we have to,” Alexander told the crowd, later leading them in a chant of “1776.”

Later on at the event, Alexander played a video message from Biggs, calling the lawmaker a “friend” and “hero.” In the recording, Biggs said he wished he could have attended the event and vowed to challenge the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.