Jan. 6 influencer credited with turning insurrection into story of victimhood: report

Republican support for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists is growing, three years after the U.S. Capitol riots — and one online influencer who took part in the attack is a big reason why.

Brandon Straka, who led the "Walk Away" campaign in 2020 that encouraged liberals to abandon the Democratic Party, served house arrest after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct for being part of the mob outside the Capitol, but now he's among many participants who were convicted for their roles who claim to be political prisoners, reported Mother Jones.

“I did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, I did not commit any violence, vandalism, theft or destruction,” Straka told former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who had promised during his campaign to pardon the rioters.

“My life was torn apart by the United States Department of Justice and the FBI. The majority of my case was a complete and total lie. I was put in a position where I had to take a plea deal as opposed to going to trial, and potentially facing years in prison for things I did not do.”

Since then, he's been spinning the story in voluminous posts to social media and in public appearances, working hard to change the thinking behind what happened on Jan. 6. And, Mother Jones reported, it's been working.

“The left coordinated a massive effort to take me out that included the FBI, the DOJ, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Soros-funded lawfare, the entire Democrat Marxist state media, antifa, and more,” he tweeted in December 2023.

A report published a year and a half after the insurrection by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) found that very few of those prosecuted had rejected the reasons they took part in the attack, and a poll conducted in May by Monmouth University found that Republicans were increasingly rejecting that there had been a riot or an insurrection compared to the months after Jan. 6.

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“Two years ago, most [Republicans] felt the violence of Jan. 6 was taking things too far, even if it did not rise to the level of an insurrection in their minds,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “Now, that view has changed, which raises the question of what actions are acceptable when you are unhappy with a political outcome.”

The 47-year-old Straka, who helped promote the "Stop the Steal" movement after Trump's election loss, denies being a "superspreader of misinformation" before or after Jan. 6, but researchers say the movement he helped inspire has captured the support of Republican lawmakers and voters alike.

“This is not just a problem of a handful of hate groups,” said CPOST director Robert Pape. “That’s why Trump is promising to pardon people on Jan. 6 and gaining votes. This is a movement that is coalescing.”