John Sullivan, the Antifa and BLM activist who stormed the Capitol on January 6 while disguised in Trump 2020 gear and captured video of the Capitol Police shooting of Ashli Babbitt has had $90,000 – ostensibly the funds he was paid by mainstream media outlets for his viral footage from the day – seized by the federal government.
Sullivan, who posted videos watermarked with Jayden X on social media, claims he stormed the U.S. Capitol – disguised as a supporter of President Donald Trump – in an effort to “document” the civil unrest. “I wanted to be able to tell a part of history,” Sullivan claimed in January. Speaking to the media, he seemingly acknowledged that Black Lives Matter and Antifa were present during the civil unrest, but claimed that “It’s just recording, solely, and not being active in it.” It was later reported that Sullivan sold his footage of the civil unrest to both CNN and NBC for $35,000 apiece.
Yesterday night, Reuters reported that “U.S. authorities have confiscated roughly $90,000” from Sullivan. “Prosecutors have filed additional criminal charges against the man, John Earle Sullivan, a self-described political activist who is accused of entering the Capitol building and participating in the riot,” Reuters reported. Reuters notes that Sullivan boasted, “my footage is worth like a million of dollars, millions of dollars” and “Sullivan sold that footage to several news outlets for a total of $90,000, according to the seizure warrant. The news outlets were redacted from the warrant.”
At the time of Sullivan’s arrest, National File reported, “Despite claiming he only entered the building in a journalistic capacity, the indictment against Sullivan declares otherwise. The 18-page affidavit claims Sullivan allegedly incited violence by exclaiming ‘we gotta get this shit burned’ and ‘it’s our house motherfuckers.'”
Sullivan was previously recorded during an anti-Trump riot in Washington, D.C. In the video, Sullivan pointed at the White House, and said,“We… about to burn this s— down… We gotta rip Trump right out of that office right there.” Sullivan added, “We ain’t about…waiting until the next election. It’s time for revolution.”
Messages from a Discord server run by Sullivan have since been leaked, and, as reported by National File, they reveal that Sullivan sought to disguise himself as a Trump supporter, apparently to record footage and stoke the flames of civil unrest. “In the days immediately following the January 6 protest, one user in Sullivan’s Discord server wrote, ‘I had to wear a Trump hat and shirtm [sic]’ to be able to infiltrate the crowd unnoticed.” Another activist disagreed, and suggested, “Putting on a Trump hat does not make him blend in. It makes him look like a well known activist who was attempting to instigate ‘antifa violence’ narrative.”
