If you thought the siege at the Capitol was a one-time event, you need to rethink that. The Trump seditious insurrection is not over yet.
Encouraged and spurred on by their “success” on January 6, White supremacists and armed militias are planning further violent attacks against the Capitol – and state capitols around the country. They have plans for January 17th, the 19th, and January 20th – the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
These plans have been seen on the platforms that the extremists use.
Just today, Monday, an internal FBI bulletin reported they are warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington in the days leading up to Biden’s inauguration. The FBI bulletin warned that, as of Sunday, the nationwide protests may start later this week and extend through Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the U.S. Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,” the bulletin said, according to one official.
The Washington Post reported the FBI had received information recently about a group calling for “storming” state, local and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event Trump is removed from office prior to Inauguration Day. “The group is also planning to ‘storm’ government offices in every state the day President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated, regardless of whether the states certified electoral votes for Biden or Trump,” the Post reported.
“The FBI received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January,” the bulletin read. “They have warned that if Congress attempts to remove POTUS via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur.”
Federal law enforcement officials have advised police agencies to increase their security posture at statehouses around the country following the riot at the U.S. Capitol, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Plans for future armed protests, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, began proliferating on and off Twitter last week, the social media company said. Twitter said it had been tracking the latest plans for armed protests when it announced the permanent suspension of Trump’s account on Friday, January 8.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks and counters hate, believes White supremacists and far-right extremists feel emboldened in this moment. “We are seeing … chatter from these white supremacists, from these far-right extremists. We fully expect that this violence could actually get worse before it gets better,” he told CNN.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab — a group at the University of Toronto that monitors cybersecurity — said he is “terribly concerned” about the inauguration.
“While the broader public was aghast at what happened at the Capitol, in certain corners of the sort of right wing conversation, what happened … is viewed as a success.”
A former DHS official also told CNN that for extremists, the purpose of the attack on the Capitol wasn’t necessarily to destroy the building, but “to show that a relatively small number of people can actually take over the system. It’s supposed to be a rallying cry for — ‘join us, or you are now the enemy.'”
Governors in other states are rethinking their security as the threats mount against government buildings in all 50 states. On the same day as the siege in Washington, DC, pro-Trump protesters took to the Texas State Capitol grounds after an “Operation Occupy The Capitol Texas” event was posted on facebook.
Washington State Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is mobilizing up to 750 members of the National Guard to provide security for the beginning of the state’s legislative session, which starts this week. Protesters occupied the steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday, and dozens of people broke through the outer grounds of the governor’s mansion before being peacefully turned back by state troopers.
In New Jersey, state homeland security officials, are tracking planned events for both January 17 and January 20, reported CNN. A New Jersey official said, “Some of the online rhetoric has called for protests at all 50 capitols plus DC. FBI in particular has been continuing to put our threat assessments and we are at the state level as well.”
According to the Washington Post, Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said the Guard is also looking at any issues across the country. “We’re keeping a look across the entire country to make sure that we’re monitoring, and that our Guards in every state are in close coordination with their local law enforcement agencies to provide any support requested.”
Extremism experts are vigorously waving their red flags out of fear of what will happen on and around January 20 when Biden is sworn into office. “Trump WILL be sworn in for a second term on January 20th!!,” said a commenter on thedonald.win, a pro-Trump online forum, on Thursday, the day after the siege. “We must not let the communists win. Even if we have to burn DC to the ground.”
Also from CNN:
Advance Democracy, Inc., a nonpartisan governance watchdog, highlighted red flags on social media. In the six days leading up to the event, for instance, there were 1,480 posts from QAnon-related accounts that referenced the event and contained terms of violence. On Parler, the report said, multiple posts referenced war, including statements like “the war begins today.”
Ali Alexander, a political activist who has organized pro-Trump rallies, including one of the demonstrations that converged on the Capitol lawn Wednesday, accused the left of “trying to push us to war.” In late December, Alexander told followers on Periscope that he and three GOP congressman — Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama — were planning something big.
Despite all of this, DHS’ second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, said that Wednesday’s violence would be a “one time event,” and assured Americans that Inauguration Day would be safe.
News Sources:
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From Daily Beast:
The Secret Service has issued an intelligence bulletin warning of additional armed protests in Washington before and after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden—particularly from the Boogaloo Boys—that in some cases it expects to become violent.
The Secret Service bulletin, dated Jan. 11, is unclassified but marked not for distribution outside law-enforcement channels, and was obtained by The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast is declining to give specifics for these rallies to prevent insurrectionists from organizing through the media.
Although the primary responsibility of the Secret Service is to protect the president, the intelligence bulletin warns of demonstrations slated for state capitols as well. That bolsters a recent warning from the FBI about armed protests across all 50 states. A previous report by Yahoo News said a Dec. 24 document from the FBI’s Minnesota field office also warned state and local authorities of threats from right-wing extremist groups at protests in Washington and other state capitols planned for later this month.
One demonstration cited in the document is scheduled to take place before the inaugural by the Boogaloos, a loose collective meme-turned-movement of enthusiasts for a second civil war, several adherents of which have been arrested and charged for violence during summer and fall 2020 counterprotests against Black Lives Matter. “Although no civil disobedience has been confirmed,” the bulletin states, “organizers have encouraged attendees to bring weapons to the event.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-service-warns-that-the-boogaloo-are-coming-to-dc-states