Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

Capitol Protesters Were Armed With Variety of Weapons
By Joseph A. Gambardello

Posted on March 10, 2021 | Updated on May 24, 2021

Quick Take
Conservative social media posts misleadingly claim the attack on the U.S. Capitol on J*** 6 was not an “armed” i**********n, citing FBI testimony that no guns were seized from suspects that day. But 23 people have been charged with having deadly or dangerous weapons during the assault — including a loaded handgun found on a man arrested on Capitol grounds.

Full Story
On March 3, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a joint hearing on the J*** 6 attack on Capitol Hill. The assault left five people dead and scores injured, including at least 138 Capitol and Metropolitan Police Department officers.

During the hearing, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked Jill Sanborn, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, “How many firearms were confiscated in the Capitol or on Capitol grounds during that day?”

“To my knowledge, we have not recovered any on that day from any other arrests at the scene at this point,” Sanborn said. “But I don’t want to speak on behalf of Metro and C*****l P****e.”

Social media posts latched on to the answer to misleadingly purport that the protesters were not armed.

One meme, showing a photo of protesters inside the Capitol, falsely claimed: “Senate testimony this week confirms that no Capitol protesters were armed and not a single weapon was found. Clearly NOT i**********n, NOT an attempt to o*******w the government, just out of control protestors that saw inadequate security and ran thru the building.”

An article on the conservative website Gateway Pundit — which was cited on the website of conservative commentator David Harris Jr. — carried the headline: “Another Democrat-Media Narrative Goes Up in Flames: FBI Official Admits No Firearms Were Confiscated by Law Enforcement at Capitol R**t.”

But a wide array of lethal weapons — including a firearm — were found on protesters at the Capitol.

The Metropolitan Police Department reported its officers, while trying to clear the Capitol grounds about 7 p.m. on J*** 6, arrested and charged a 33-year-old Maryland man with the federal offense of carrying a fully loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun on Capitol grounds.

Clarification, June 25: In response to a reader’s inquiry, we updated this story to clarify that Christopher Michael Alberts was arrested by Metropolitan Police on J*** 6 for carrying a pistol without a license, possession of a firearm on Capital grounds and other charges. He was formally charged in U.S. District Court on Jan. 7.

Social media posts claiming that protesters were not armed also do not address the issue of other weapons used by assailants at the Capitol — or the seizure of guns from supporters before and after the r**t.

In legal terms, “armed” means being in possession of any weapon, not just a firearm. While there are laws that specifically address firearms, weapons can include virtually any object used to threaten or cause harm.

According to a database compiled by NPR, of the people charged with violent offenses, including assault on police officers, 15 were armed with deadly or dangerous weapons during the r**t at the Capitol.

Eight others facing civil disorder or property destruction charges also were charged with possessing weapons, according to the database.

Those weapons included baseball bats, chemical sprays, a captured police officer’s r**t shield, a crowbar, fire extinguishers and a metal f**gpole.

Thomas Webster, a retired New York Police Department officer, was charged with attacking a Metropolitan Police Department officer with a metal f**gpole. The federal complaint says he struck at the officer “with the f**gpole numerous times.”

Before and after the storming of the Capitol, NBC News reported, police seized a dozen firearms, including an assault rifle, and thousands of rounds of ammunition from seven people attending the rally for President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. Other weapons included a crossbow, a stun gun and 11 Molotov cocktails.

The FBI, in a statement to FactCheck.org on March 5, said Sanborn had testified “in her capacity as the FBI Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division. Her responses were restricted to FBI investigative matters and she appropriately deferred to other law enforcement partners for their information.”

Asha Rangappa, an attorney and former FBI agent, told us in an email that she did “not see the logic” in the claim that firearms had to be present for the Capitol r**t to have been deemed an armed i**********n.

She also said we will never know how many r****rs might have been armed with guns on J*** 6, because only some were arrested that day.

“Not only was law enforcement completely overwhelmed (and being assaulted), from what I saw people were basically allowed to leave unimpeded,” said Rangappa, a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. “So those arrested … are hardly representative of everyone who was there that day.”

Update, May 24: The C*****l P****e and the Justice Department initially reported that C*****l P****e Officer Brian Sicknick died as a result of injuries sustained during the r**t. In April, the Washington Post reported that District of Columbia Chief Medical Examiner Francisco J. Diaz found that Sicknick suffered two strokes nearly eight hours after being sprayed with a chemical irritant during the r**t. Diaz told the Post that Sicknick died of natural causes, but “all that t***spired played a role in his condition.”

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here.

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

You're last paragraph says it all. F**E NEWS!

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

Of course,
The people who were charged weren’t really charged .
4 firearms were confiscated.

Parky60 Loc: People's Republic of Illinois

Yeah, and Officer Slicknick (sp) was one of the five "victims" -- in fact only one and she was a victim of the C*****l p****e -- of the perpetrators of J** 6.

This whole article is QUITE suspect.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

The fact that no guns were present should tell all of the progressive dung munchers that it was in no way an i**********n.

Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

Jill Sanborn; assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division told a Senate committee that "no guns were present" on the J** 6th mostly peaceful protest.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

The J****** 6th committee is loaded up with Democrats and RINOs who led an impeachment against Donald Trump. Why didn’t the C*****l p****e officers who let the r****rs into the Capitol building testify? Nancy Pelosi is cherry-picking which officers testify or which do not. At no time did she hold a single hearing on the i**********n that happened occurred on federal courts in cities across the country. Instead, she called law enforcement officers “storm-troopers.”

GOP’s AM presser counters Pelosi’s ‘sham’ hearing with questions they want answered about J*** 6
July 27, 2021 | Jon Dougherty



A group of Republican lawmakers ripped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference in Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning after she made an unprecedented decision last week to block two GOP members from serving on a committee she formed to look into the J*** 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Vowing to get to the bottom of what led to the incursion including any neglect on the part of the Speaker herself, one Republican after another accused Pelosi of politicizing the investigation by blocking GOP members she is afraid will ask probing questions that could embarrass her or otherwise dispute the Democratic narrative that former President Donald Trump is solely to blame.

Scalise on Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, the two Republicans Pelosi refused to put on the J*** 6 select committee:

“They got canceled by this new cancel culture that we see moving throughout the country, led by Speaker Pelosi and a lot of her socialist allies here in Congress." pic.twitter.com/PYNHitRPJc

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 27, 2021

“December 14, the leadership knew there was a problem,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, adding that lawmakers were aware of structural and organizational problems within the C*****l P****e that Democrats refused to address.

“There’s questions into the leadership within the structure of the Speaker’s office where they denied the ability to bring the National Guard here” ahead of the January date when Congress met to certify the e*****rs for President Joe Biden.

McCarthy, ahead of the first J*** 6 select committee hearing, predicts it will be a “failed committee and a failed report. A sham that nobody can believe.” pic.twitter.com/2TRdqJZpXl

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 27, 2021

“For weeks now, [Reps.] Jim Jordan [Ohio] and Jim Banks [Indiana] have been raising some very tough questions — questions that need to be answered about why Speaker Pelosi didn’t make sure that C*****l P****e had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said.

“Now, maybe because they were raising those questions, they got canceled by this new cancel culture that we see moving throughout the country, led by Speaker Pelosi and a lot of her socialist allies here in Congress, where they shut out tough questions that they don’t want to be asked or answered,” he added.

House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York added that Pelosi “is the most disliked elected official in America.”

“She always puts her own partisan politics over what’s best for the American people,” Stefanik added. “She is an authoritarian who has broken the people’s House. She is a lame-duck Speaker and everyone knows it.

“The reason why Pelosi is refusing to seat accomplished and well-respected, hard-working Republicans like Jim Jordan and Jim Banks is because she doesn’t want the American people to know the t***h or learn the facts” about what happened before and during the Capitol protest, the New York Republican continued.

House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik on Pelosi: “She’s an authoritarian who has broken the peoples’ house. She’s a lame duck speaker and everyone knows it.” pic.twitter.com/A1y8t5KYi5

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 27, 2021

“When you spend a year talking about defunding the police and actually defund the police, it’s kinda hard to have more police here [at the Capitol] on J*** 6 like they should have done,” Jordan, one of the two who, along with Banks, was blocked from serving on the 1*6 c*******e by Pelosi.

He went on to say that C*****l P****e “deserved to have more help” on J*** 6, “but the Democrats couldn’t do it because of the political conditions they created all throughout last year.”

Banks acknowledged that the 1*6 C*******e, which also met for the first time Tuesday, would be hearing from several C*****l P****e officers who will testify to harrowing accounts with some Capitol protesters, but added they may not have had to face such dire circumstances were it not for Pelosi’s alleged negligence.

He also railed at the Speaker for barring him from serving on her committee.

“It’s clear at this point that Nancy Pelosi has cherry-picked the members to serve on this committee,” he said. “She’s pre-written a narrative. Only members who will stick to her talking points are allowed to serve on this committee.

“If this is truly a fact-finding mission to make sure that J*** 6 never happens again, this isn’t what that looks like,” the Indiana Republican added.

Monday evening, Democratic leaders rejected an 11th-hour attempt by McCarthy to seat his original five choices on the committee.

“For the first known time in the history of the House, the speaker of the House rejected two of the minority leader’s nominees to a select committee,” said McCarthy’s resolution. “Speaker Pelosi’s own press office acknowledged that this was an ‘unprecedented decision.’

“Speaker Pelosi’s refusal to seat all five Republican members directly harms the legitimacy, credibility, and integrity of the select committee,” it added.

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

Yea and Pelosi said that Ashley Babbitt had Gernade Launchers, and a
M2 Browning 50 cal.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

I dare say we needed decent people on this committee, not clown college graduates like Kennedy and Jordan. Who nay also be complicit and subpoena’d to testify.
This may really get ugly.
I**********ns
are serious business.

billy a Loc: South Florida

There are approximately 393,000,000 privately owned firearms in the United States. One of them was at this event. Before it was taken down by the feds, I watched film of civilians ambling between the velvet ropes provided to keep tourists from wandering around. They were taking snap-shots. Outside, the usual i***ts were raising hell, as well as upstairs where a demonstrator was shot dead through a locked door. By a federal agent. This was NOT a planned "i**********n". C*****l p****e were waving people in. This was on broadcast news the day of the event.

Wonttakeitanymore

Yea t***h justice and the American way! Just like Superman no longer able to say because of wokeness! That’s the weapons they held ! They stood behind our f**g!

Wonttakeitanymore

Those were ur guys and a murdering capital cop!

Wonttakeitanymore

If only they could think!

1ProudAmerican

Michael Rich wrote:
The fact that no guns were present should tell all of the progressive dung munchers that it was in no way an i**********n.

Attached file:
(Download)

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

I dare say you didn't get any decent people. Only partisan Democrat hacks and a couple of RINOs. Even pencil-neck Adam Schiff is on the committee. It's like a Star Chamber. The public sees this for the sham that it is.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/28/congress-has-refused-to-enforce-perjury-and-now-people-like-f***i-lie-to-them-constantly/?utm_campaign=ACTENGAGE