October 11, 2024

Whatever Happened to Alleged Capitol Rioter John Sullivan?

ohn Sullivan mugshot. Credit: Provo Utah County Sheriff’s Office ohn Sullivan mugshot. Credit: Provo Utah County Sheriff’s Office John Sullivan mugshot (Credit: Provo Utah County Sheriff’s Office)

I wrote yesterday about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s claim that there is “one rule” of law that should apply to everyone. That’s what should be the case, under our Constitution.

Except that hasn’t been the case, as I noted, using as an example the glaring difference between the way that the DOJ has handled Jan. 6 versus the way it has approached the BLM/Antifa riots. I noted several aspects of the differences yesterday.

There are continuing questions regarding the treatment of John Sullivan.

You may recall that John Sullivan was one of the people who went into the Capitol and encouraged others to do so. He also filmed the killing of Ashli Babbitt by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd. He sold that footage for at least $90,000. Babbitt was the only person who was killed that day as a direct result of actions taken during the riot.

But Sullivan also had been an organizer of BLM protests and run a website called Insurgence USA that sold Antifa black bloc gear. He’d been previously arrested for his involvement in a violent BLM protest in Utah where a driver was shot after his car was surrounded. Someone else was accused of that shooting but according to a police affidavit, Sullivan allegedly organized the action, encouraged people to block the roadways, threatened to beat a woman, and kicked her car.

Here Sullivan was in August 2020 in Washington, D.C. at a BLM rally, saying how they needed to “rip Trump right out of that office.” “It’s time for a revolution,” Sullivan asks the group to chant, and they do.

Warning for graphic language:

BLM inc. threatening to “rip the president out of the White House”

They say they won’t wait until the next election.

They’re openly calling for a revolution.

This is domestic terrorism on full display, out in the open. They don’t even try to hide it. pic.twitter.com/OyhNSzBEwu

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 29, 2020
So what happened to Sullivan regarding those charges at the Capitol? He faces eight counts including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, and aiding and abetting.

But while 80 others are being held for up to 300 days in what prisoners refer to as the “D.C Gulag,” Sullivan was allowed to go home after one day while awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, in addition to Sullivan’s prior actions, he reportedly can be seen on his own footage breaking through multiple police lines, entering through a broken window, encouraging people forward, and even volunteering his knife to help break through a door into the House Chamber.
At the Capitol riot, Sullivan was accused of multiple confrontations with officers and making “consistently gleeful exhortations about burning and breaking things throughout the building and its grounds,” according to a court brief filed Feb. 4, 2021.

His criminal complaint is filled with expletive-laden quotes from the 50-minute video he shot and later sold to media outlets for $90,000.

Among his comments: “There are so many people. Let’s go. This s*** is ours! F*** yeah,” and “That’s what I’m sayin’, break that s***” when someone banged on a door. At least twice, he threatened to burn down the building, stating, “We gotta get this s*** burned,” and “Let’s burn this s*** down!”
The prosecutors asked to have Sullivan held saying he was a “danger to society.” But he wasn’t held. He was released with an ankle monitor to home confinement. He was also ordered not to access social media sites and or be involved in running his organization Insurgence USA. According to the Washington Examiner, he’s violated that order multiple times, yet he’s still out.

Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) asked why wasn’t Sullivan being called before the Jan. 6 Committee and why wasn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking about him?

I have a question for the court in this case: How is this guy still out, if he’s violating court orders? And why does it appear he’s being treated with far more latitude than most of the other people involved that day at the Capitol? Especially given his prior history?

Content retrieved from: https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/01/06/whatever-happened-to-alleged-capitol-rioter-john-sullivan-n502773.

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