6 Males Mentioned to Be Tied to Three Percenters Motion Are Charged in Capitol Riot

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6 Males Mentioned to Be Tied to Three Percenters Motion Are Charged in Capitol Riot

Federal prosecutors filed a wide-ranging conspiracy indictment on Thursday accusing six California males mentioned to be related to a radical gun r


Federal prosecutors filed a wide-ranging conspiracy indictment on Thursday accusing six California males mentioned to be related to a radical gun rights motion known as the Three Percenters with plotting to assault the Capitol on Jan. 6, within the first expenses lodged in opposition to anybody concerned with planning any of the political occasions held the week of the assault.

The 20-page indictment was additionally the primary to be introduced in opposition to a bunch of alleged Three Percenters, a loosely organized motion that takes its title from the supposed Three p.c of the U.S. colonial inhabitants that fought in opposition to the British. The brand new expenses, filed in Federal District Court docket in Washington, got here on the identical day that Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, testified in entrance of a Home committee that prosecutors have been pursuing extra conspiracy expenses in opposition to a few of the rioters who stormed the Capitol.

Investigators have mentioned for months that a number of extremist teams have been concerned within the assault, however whereas the Three Percenters have been often talked about in court docket filings, most accused extremists have come from two different teams: the Oath Keepers militia and the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys. The brand new expenses may recommend that prosecutors have began to concentrate not solely to those that immediately took half within the Capitol assault, but additionally to those that helped foment the assault.

The 2 high defendants within the indictment — Alan Hostetter, 56, a former police chief turned yoga teacher; and Russell Taylor, 40, a rich graphic designer with a style for purple Corvettes — have been already below scrutiny by the federal government after the F.B.I. raided their houses in January. Mr. Hostetter and Mr. Taylor have been leaders of a bunch known as the American Phoenix Mission, which was based to struggle the “fear-based tyranny” of coronavirus-related restrictions. The group later embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s lies a couple of stolen election, and helped set up a well-attended rally outdoors the Supreme Court docket on Jan. 5, the place the audio system included Roger J. Stone Jr., a former adviser to Mr. Trump.

Mr. Hostetter’s spouse, Kristine, a schoolteacher, additionally attracted nationwide consideration this yr after she attended “Cease the Steal” rallies in Washington, setting off a furor of their hometown, San Clemente, Calif., that prompted an investigation by the varsity board into whether or not she had attacked the Capitol. She was cleared by the district in March.

But regardless of the eye from regulation enforcement, the information media and neighbors in Orange County, neither Mr. Hostetter nor Mr. Taylor had been publicly linked to the Three Percenters earlier than they have been charged on Thursday.

Beginning shortly after the election, the indictment mentioned, Mr. Hostetter used the American Phoenix Mission “to advocate violence in opposition to sure teams and people that supported the 2020 election outcomes.” On the finish of November, for instance, he posted a video on the group’s YouTube channel through which he accused those that had not challenged the outcomes of committing treason. “Some folks on the highest degree,” he mentioned, “must be made an instance of with an execution or three.”

The next month, at a rally in Huntington Seashore, Calif., Mr. Hostetter gave a speech repeating his demise threats in opposition to those that doubted Mr. Trump had received. “Execution is the simply punishment of the ringleaders of this coup,” the indictment quotes him as saying.

To plan their function within the Capitol assault, prosecutors say that Mr. Hostetter, Mr. Taylor and a few of their co-defendants — amongst them, Derek Kinnison, 39, Felipe Antonio Martinez, 47, and Erik Warner, 45 — used textual content messages, Fb and the chatting app Telegram. Greater than 30 folks, the indictment notes, joined a Telegram group chat known as “California Patriots-DC Brigade,” a channel that Mr. Taylor described as being for “in a position bodied people which can be going to DC on Jan. 6” and are “prepared and keen to struggle.”

On Jan. 1, prosecutors say, Mr. Taylor despatched out a message on the group chat asking its members to disclose whether or not they had any navy or law-enforcement coaching. “I’m assuming,” he wrote, “that you’ve got some sort of weaponry that you’re bringing with you.”

That very same day, in his introductory publish to the group chat, Mr. Kinnison wrote that he, Mr. Martinez and Mr. Warner have been a part of “so cal 3%,” in line with the indictment. Prosecutors say Mr. Kinnison hooked up a photograph to the Telegram message of the three males flashing a Three Percenter hand sign.

The connection of Mr. Hostetter and Mr. Taylor to the Three Percenters appeared considerably extra tenuous. On Jan. 3, the indictment says, Mr. Hostetter posted a message on the American Phoenix Mission’s Instagram account utilizing language related to the motion. “Solely 3% of Individuals truly fought in our Struggle of Revolution,” he wrote. “There’ll doubtless be 3% of us once more that may totally decide to this battle.”

Mr. Taylor’s lawyer, Dyke Huish, mentioned he had no data of any involvement by his consumer with the Three Percenters. “That’s one thing I’ve by no means heard of,” he added, “even remotely.”

Mr. Hostetter and Mr. Taylor emerged final yr as rising star’s in Southern California’s resurgent far struggle. Each seem to have been radicalized on the onset of the pandemic, and have helped lead a brand new technology of right-wing extremists to come back out of the seaside cities of Orange County, the place Richard M. Nixon turned an oceanside villa into his presidential getaway, and John Wayne saved his yacht, Wild Goose.

The realm was a cradle of the fashionable American conservative motion and a few of its most virulently racist, anti-Semitic and paranoid offshoots, such because the John Birch Society within the 1960s and neo-Nazi and skinhead teams who flocked to its surf spots 20 years later.

Till final yr, Mr. Hostetter appeared very distant from that historical past. A former soldier and police chief, he landed in San Clemente almost a decade in the past and launched into a 3rd profession as a yoga guru who specialised in “sound therapeutic” with gongs, Tibetan bowls and Aboriginal didgeridoos. He was conservative, in line with individuals who know him, however no extra so than many others in and round San Clemente.

Then got here the pandemic. He give up yoga, declared himself a “patriotic warrior” and based the American Phoenix Mission. The group started organizing protests, and shortly attracted Mr. Taylor. Their listing of enemies rapidly grew to incorporate Black Lives Matter protesters, and Mr. Hostetter at instances appeared to embrace QAnon, the conspiratorial motion that falsely claims Mr. Trump was secretly battling devil-worshiping Democrats and worldwide financiers who abuse youngsters.

Prosecutors say Mr. Kinnison and his Three Percenter companions have been open about their affiliation with the motion and apparently made plans to deliver firearms to Washington on Jan. 6. On Jan. 2, Mr. Kinnison despatched a textual content message to Mr. Warner, Mr. Martinez and one other co-defendant, Ronald Mele, 51, containing a photograph that confirmed him sporting a bandoleer of shotgun ammunition, in line with the indictment.

After Mr. Taylor spoke on the Supreme Court docket rally on Jan. 5 — “I’m Russell Taylor and I’m a free American” — prosecutors say he posted a video on an encrypted chatting app that confirmed an array of substances on a mattress: a bulletproof vest, two hatchets, a walkie-talkie, a stun baton and a knife. The caption learn, “Now preparing for tomorrow.”

Decked out on this gear, the indictment says, Mr. Taylor marched from Mr. Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 to the Capitol with Mr. Hostetter and somebody recognized solely as Particular person One. Mr. Kinnison and his group of Three Percenters, prosecutors say, approached the constructing individually and, no less than one among them — Mr. Warner — entered via a damaged window.

Prosecutors don’t accuse Mr. Hostetter or Mr. Taylor of breaking into the Capitol, although they do allege that each males joined a mob of rioters on the constructing’s decrease west terrace who pushed via a line of regulation enforcement officers.

“I used to be pushing via traitors all day as we speak,” Mr. Taylor wrote on a Telegram chat at 6:18 that night, prosecutors say. “WE STORMED THE CAPITOL! Freedom was totally demonstrated as we speak!”



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