A radical civil rights activist from Utah is facing federal charges for his involvement in the storming of the U.S. Capitol last week.
John Earle Sullivan has been booked into custody in Tooele County, Utah under a U.S. Marshall’s warrant.
According to the complaint affidavit, Sullivan, 26, was charged with:
• Knowingly obstructing, impeding, or interfering with law enforcement officers lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of their official duties during the commission of a civil disorder.
• Violently entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.
• Willfully and knowingly engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct on Capitol grounds.
According to Fox-13, Sullivan’s brother James, a Trump supporter, sent tips to the Salt Lake City FBI about his brother before his arrest. Moreover, James Sullivan told the news outlet that he believes his brother John was not only involved with the deadly riot on Jan. 6, he was “somehow in charge.”
Last week, Sullivan claimed in a video posted to social media that he was only in the Capitol building with the protesters as a reporter to document what was happening.
“I was there to record,” the agitator insisted in a video posted to Periscope Friday. “I was there to let people see that situation in the best possible way.” Sullivan also said that his videos proved that the riots were comprised of only Trump supporters and not left-wing agitators.
However, according to video he took himself and provided to law enforcement, the activist seemed to be egging the Trump supporters on.
“There are so many people. Let’s go. This sh-t is ours! F-ck yeah!” Sullivan can be heard saying in the video footage. “We accomplished this sh-t. We did this together. F-ck yeah! We are all a part of this history,” and “Let’s burn this sh-t down!”
Later, according to the complaint, “Sullivan’s video shows individuals climbing a wall to reach a plaza just outside the Capitol Building entrance. As individuals are scaling the wall, Sullivan be heard exclaiming, ‘You guys are f-cking savage. Let’s go!’”
Sullivan entered the U.S. Capitol through a broken window, and pushed past U.S. Capitol Police with the others once inside.
According to the complaint, once inside the Capitol Building, Sullivan “roamed the building with other individuals who unlawfully entered.”
During one of his interactions with others, SULLIVAN can be heard in the video saying, “We gotta get this sh-t burned.”
At other times as he is walking through the Capitol, SULLIVAN can be heard saying, among other things, “it’s our house motherf-ckers” and “we are getting this
sh-t.”…
At one point in the video, SULLIVAN enters an office within the U.S. Capitol, as seen in the screenshot below. Once inside the office, SULLIVAN approaches a window, also seen in the screenshot below, and states, “We did this shit. We took this shit.”
While at the window, a knocking noise is heard off-screen. The camera then pans to show more of the window and a broken pane can be seen that was not broken on SULLIVAN’s approach to the window.
SULLIVAN can then be heard saying, “I broke it. My bad, my apologies. Well they already broke a window, so, you know, I didn’t know I hit it that hard. No one got that on camera.” SULLIVAN then exits the office.
At another point in the video, SULLIVAN joins a crowd trying to open doors to another part of the U.S. Capitol which are guarded by law enforcement officers, as seen in the screenshot below. SULLIVAN can be heard on the video telling other individuals in the crowd, “there’s officers at the door.” Less than two minutes later, while officers are still at the doors and as others yell to break the glass windows in them with various objects, SULLIVAN can be heard saying, “Hey guys, I have a knife. I have a knife. Let me up.” SULLIVAN does not, however, ever make it to
the doors.
Sullivan’s video footage confirms that he was present outside of the Speaker’s Lobby within the U.S. Capitol when unarmed Air Force vet Ashli Babbitt was shot dead by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
He can be heard urging police to move aside so the protesters bash their way through the door. When the officers begin to retreat, Sullivan eggs the rioters to “go get this sh-t!”
In the video, once SULLIVAN reaches the Speaker’s Lobby, where Victim was eventually shot, SULLIVAN can be heard telling one of the law enforcement officers guarding the doors, as seen in the screenshot below, “We want you to go home. I’m recording and there’s so many people and they’re going to push their way up here. Bro, I’ve seen people out there get hurt. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Eventually, the law enforcement officers begin to exit and individuals within the crowd move toward the doors. As this is happening, SULLIVAN can be heard yelling after the officers, “I want you to go home,” and then yelling, “Go! Go! Get this sh-t!” SULLIVAN then films as others in the crowd try to break out the glass in the entryway door windows. Shortly thereafter, the video includes footage of Victim 1 getting shot as she tries to enter through the window opening.
According to left-wing journalist Max Blumenthal, Sullivan has been banished by Black Lives Matter and is viewed with deep suspicion and distrust among BLM activists.
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1349577153789243392?s=20
As DC BLM journalist @blackhousenew explained to me, Sullivan has been banished by activist communities across the country.
He's considered a dangerous provocateur & is the subject of deep suspicion.
This thread details some of his history. https://t.co/rRFrfahwlq
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 14, 2021
Sullivan and photojournalist Jade Sacker appeared on CNN following the riot to discuss what they saw.
Seated w/Sullivan on CNN is Jade Sacker, a photojournalist who followed him into the Capitol to film his exploits as part of a documentary project. Here she's heard congratulating him – "We did it!" – and he says, "Is this not gonna be the best film you've ever made in yr life?" pic.twitter.com/KWLVfgKPA7
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 14, 2021
Using his Twitter moniker “Jayden X,” Sullivan tweeted a “chud alert” in late December, urging fellow agitators to “intercept” [infiltrate?] the Trump supporters at the Stop the Steal Rally
on Jan. 6.
https://twitter.com/realjaydenx/status/1344133644131184640?s=20
Sullivan wore a ballistics vest and gas mask during the Capitol building siege, suggesting that he fully expected the conservative protest to devolve into anarchy.
Indeed, this wasn’t his first rodeo.
The criminal complaint lists Sullivan as the “leader of an organization called Insurgence USA through which he organizes protests.” The agitator founded the left-wing activist group in the summer of 2020 after career criminal George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody. He was arrested in Provo, Utah in late June after agitators harassed and shot at drivers during a BLM/antifa riot.
One of the men who was part of the siege of the Capitol building is John Earle Sullivan, an extreme BLM activist from Utah. He was arrested & charged in July 2020 over a BLM-antifa riot where drivers in Provo were threatened & one was shot. https://t.co/C0WQsEfcIG pic.twitter.com/Kxm5du2Ozs
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) January 7, 2021
He was arrested in June in connection to the Provo riots and charged with 3rd-degree felony riot and criminal mischief in July.
During a protest in August 2020 in Washington D.C., Sullivan called for a violent left-wing revolution. In video footage, the agitator can be seen in BLM Plaza wielding a microphone and hollering: “we about to burn this sh– down,” “we got to rip Trump out of office… f— pull him out of that shit… we ain’t waiting until the next election… we about to go get that motherf—–.”
This man John Sullivan was arrested for being on restricted property, civil disorder, and violent entry at the Capitol riot. He was part of the angry scene that ended in Ashli Babbitt’s killing. He led an Antifa/social justice org. This is video of him speaking. Not a Republican. pic.twitter.com/RqsKLPO2pF
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 15, 2021
Multiple eye-witnesses who were present at the protest on Jan. 6 claim to have observed agent provocateurs and other operatives leading the mayhem at the Capitol.
Sullivan voluntarily interviewed with the FBI in Washington, DC on Jan. 7, according to reports.