Prosecutors described John Sullivan as a “one-man show” who found common cause with anyone seeking to “tear it all down.”



https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/26/judge-sentences-jan-6-chaos-agent-to-6-years-in-jail-00154710

John Sullivan traveled to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to foment conflict with supporters of then-President Donald Trump. On Friday, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for leading them into the Capitol, filming the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt and then selling his footage to news organizations while claiming to be a journalist.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth called Sullivan a “chaos agent” unique among Jan. 6 defendants for exploiting the pro-Trump mob despite disclaiming the belief that the 2020 election was stolen.

Lamberth said, for Sullivan, “violence was an end unto itself.” And he chastised Sullivan for falsely claiming he was documenting the riot as a journalist, selling his footage to news outlets for more than $90,000.

The sentence closes one of the oddest Jan. 6 cases. Sullivan was arrested shortly after the riot, and prosecutors initially described him as a supporter of causes like “Black Lives Matter” and the anti-facism movement. His presence in the mob helped foment baseless claims of some Trump allies that the riot was sparked by anti-Trump agitators.

Prosecutors said Friday that Sullivan traveled to Washington intending to confront “fascist” Trump supporters. But they said when he realized the mob was preparing to storm the Capitol, he decided to exploit it to carry out his own anti-government agenda. Armed with a megaphone, Sullivan rallied the crowd to push past police.

(more at link)

Interesting. IIRC, everybody was saying that nothing would happen to this guy when they finally got around to charging him.

From 2021
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2021/1/7/22219733/utah-activist-inside-u-s-capitol-says-woman-killed-was-first-to-try-and-enter-house-chamber-sullivan/

Can someone explain to the writer of the article what "baseless" means?

His presence in the mob did the opposite of foment baseless claims

I read it as the difference between starting a fire, and handing out gas to people trying to start fires. He fanned the flames. Turns out BLM doesn't care for him either. He may have a rough time of it in prison.

This article may be better. It also mentions he twice offered a knife to people during the riots.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/jan-6-rioter-sought-incite-violence-trump-supporters-set-sentenced-rcna148841

During closing arguments, a federal prosecutor told jurors that Sullivan went to the Capitol with the "goal of inciting the crowd," and prosecutors presented evidence of him bragging about being "on the front line" during the attack.

"I brought my megaphone to instigate s---," Sullivan said in footage played for jurors, in which he bragged that he'd sought to "make those Trump supporters f--- s--- up."

...

Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has spoken out about the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack and ordered Sullivan locked up following his conviction last year, noted that this case was "unusual." While most Jan. 6 defendants "wrongly but sincerely believed the election was stolen," Sullivan had different political beliefs, the judge said, describing him as perhaps the only Jan. 6 defendant "who showed up to the Capitol despite not subscribing to the goals of the protest."

Sullivan, also known as "Jayden X," had been a cause célèbre for conservatives seeking to shift attention away from what drove the actions of the overwhelmingly pro-Donald Trump mob that stormed the Capitol and brutally attacked officers on Jan. 6, 2021. Sullivan is a political outlier among Jan. 6 defendants, many of whom still believe in the lies about the 2020 election that drove the attack. Sullivan is not a Trump supporter; prosecutors described him as an “antiestablishment” activist who wanted to “burn it all down.”

He also held himself out as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, but BLM activists had distanced themselves from Sullivan in 2020. His brother James Sullivan is a right-wing activist with ties to the Proud Boys.

...

Sullivan argued after the riot that he was there filming as a journalist, but prosecutors showed evidence during the trial that he believed that filming was simply a "good ploy so I don’t get arrested" and argued in a sentencing memo that "the real purpose of his presence at the Capitol" was "to foment anarchy."

I expected the prosecution to be asking for something on the order of 120 months.

IIRC, sullivan is the antifa guy who was one of the two or three that filmed in the stairwell?

@eesmith

Did we ever find out if this guy was antifa associated or not?

I did a quick net search and got the usual round of suspects trying to say he wasn't ...?

He sounds like an anarchist who acted independently, but I get that no one would want to be associated with him at this point.

Claims of being an anti-Trump agitator were not baseless based on those two conflicting statements.  At the very least there were a lot of people there who were "rebels without a cause".  They were there for the action following trouble where ever they could find it. Anyone can be a "Trump supporter". You do not need a membership card and secret decoder ring.

Should Trump pardon this character if he becomes President again?

This is the problem with blanket pardons some condemned Trump for not doing at the end of his 1st term.