Even by conspiracy theorist standards, Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins’ outlandish claims stand out.
The far-right lawmaker, currently in his fourth term in the House, said a “ghost bus” brought provocateurs to the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to incite a riot. He argues that the federal government: Waging a “civil war” against Texas. And he called the criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for mishandling classified documents “unjust charges.”Ambient probe from oppressor”
But instead of relegating Higgins to the fringes of an increasingly difficult chamber, House Republicans elevated him. He appointed him chairman of the subcommittee that oversees border security, and Chairman Mike Johnson will name him one of 11 impeachment managers tasked with removing the secretary of Homeland Security during a Senate trial next week. He was nominated.
None of this diminishes Mr. Higgins’ penchant for promoting unsubstantiated theories, many of which paint law enforcement and government in a sinister and conspiratorial light.
In a lengthy podcast interview this week, he said based on his extensive investigation and evidence only he could see that federal law enforcement officers entrapd Trump supporters and committed acts of violence. , explained his beliefs in detail. He repeated conspiracy theories that have been proven false time and time again.
During a two-hour interview on the podcast “Implicit Bias,” Higgins, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the logo of the right-wing anti-government militia Three Percenters, repeated the lie that the 2020 election was fraudulent. . He told an outlandish story linking the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic to a government conspiracy to infiltrate pro-Trump online forums and encourage members to engage in “insurrectionous” behavior.
Finally, he said, also unsubstantiated, that federal agents posing as Trump supporters traveled to Washington on January 6 to trick Trump supporters into carrying out mob violence.
The incident continues as right-wing Republicans at all levels continue to spread falsehoods about what happened on January 6, more than three years after the attack, and are now using their lies to blame the government. It was a reminder that the United States was trying to use this as a rallying cry. Promote Trump’s candidacy and infuriate his supporters.
Higgins claimed to have conducted an independent investigation into what happened that day. He predicted that the charges against the defendants on Jan. 6 would be invalidated once House Republicans finish posting surveillance footage of the attack online.
“The whole thing was a nefarious plan to trap MAGA Americans,” Higgins said.
Before coming to Congress, Higgins had been accused of using unnecessary force while a police officer, but he later rose to fame through a series of popular videos, earning him the nickname “Cajun John Wayne.”
He currently chairs the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security. Neither Higgins nor Johnson responded to requests for comment about their podcast appearances.
The outspoken Louisianan has long promoted conspiracy theories, but this week’s podcast interview aired an unusually wide range of conspiracy theories he promoted on social media.
For example, Higgins said it was “highly doubtful” that Joseph R. Biden Jr. had overtaken Trump in certain key states during the presidential election vote counting process.
Explaining the frustration of Trump supporters ahead of January 6, he said, “We are witnessing the death of the republic.”
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. That was a lie that Trump told after his defeat.
Higgins then laid out a long and complicated theory that federal law enforcement infiltrated various Trump supporter groups across the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the very origins of which he said were questionable. ) reportedly infuriated and then encouraged them. They are scheduled to go to the Capitol on January 6th.
Higgins argued that “the original seeds of violence, lawlessness, and occupation among these groups were planted by FBI agents embedded in those groups.”
In fact, it was Mr. Trump who called on his supporters to gather in Washington on January 6, telling them to “get out there and make a fuss!”
None of the January 6 defendants successfully argued for confinement in their defense in court. Even a lawyer for the Proud Boys, an extremist group whose members were charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack, went to court last year and called the theory “slander.”
The fact that some FBI informants were among the crowd of tens of thousands has long been known, but there is no suggestion that the federal government was behind the attack. Rather, it shows the opposite. The FBI failed to leverage the assets of extremist groups to know in advance that an attack might be coming.
Stephen M. D’Antuono, former leader of the FBI’s Washington field office, told the House Judiciary Committee that there may have been “a handful” of people in the crowd who worked as informants for the field office. He testified that he believed it. That day. However, they were not asked to attend by the department, he said.
Most known informants for far-right groups like the Proud Boys were, by their own accounts, not recruited by the FBI to reveal their organization’s secrets. Instead, they said they were approached by the agency to share what they knew about left-wing movements like Antifa.
One of the FBI informants in the Jan. 6 crowd was James Ehren Knowles, a member of the Kansas City chapter of the Proud Boys. Right-wing politicians and pundits had tried to spin Knowles’ presence at the Capitol into a narrative suggesting the department used undercover agents to incite the riot, but he was not the -Told a very different story under oath at the Boys’ seditious conspiracy trial.
Knowles said he was not acting “at the direction of the FBI” that day, but instead joined the crowd as part of a far-right group or, as prosecutors say, made his own decisions as an “independent person.” He testified that he had done so. .
Higgins said his “ghost bus” claim came from a whistleblower who said he saw two white tour buses at Union Station in the early morning hours of January 6, but then disappeared. Ta. Tour buses carrying visitors to Washington can be seen almost everywhere in the region, especially on days when large events are planned, such as Trump’s Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse.
“We don’t know what happened to them,” Higgins said ominously on the podcast. “I don’t run the FBI.”
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray has clarified that his agency had no role in provoking the riot at the Capitol. “If you ask me whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of an operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents, the answer is a resounding no,” Wray said.
As the podcast hosts sampled expensive whiskey, Higgins claimed that unreleased Capitol surveillance footage could eliminate the January 6 rioters, citing inside information from their trial. He said he could access it.
“Once things unravel, the J6 prosecution will start to fall apart,” Higgins said. “And we’re going to see a reversal of prosecutions.”
But defendants and their lawyers would have access to the same information, including surveillance footage of the Capitol held by House Republicans.
The Justice Department has charged more than 1,350 people in connection with the attack on the Capitol. The charges indicate the extent of responsibility. Some, including leaders of the Oath Keepers paramilitary group, have been convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to long prison terms. Some people were simply charged with trespassing and received no jail time.
The video also shows different approaches of police officers in different situations. Some fought bloody battles to prevent the mob from entering the building. Some used persuasion to try to get people to leave the Capitol. Severely outnumbered, the others are shown simply monitoring the crowd.
Six members of the 2,000-strong Capitol Police force were disciplined for their actions during the riot, including unscrupulous behavior and failure to follow instructions. However, many more fought hard to stop the mob. Approximately 150 police officers were injured in the attack.
