Insurrection a stunning display of power for conspiracy groups, extremists and fringe movements

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The uprising at the heart of American democracy, fueled by Trump’s rhetoric, represented an astonishing display of power for the fringe movements and their supporters.

One of the most recognizable figures in the videos and photos of the chaos on Capitol Hill was a man in his thirties with a painted face, a fur hat, and a helmet with horns.

The protester, Jake Angeli – known to followers as the QAnon shaman – quickly became a symbol of the bizarre and terrifying spectacle when photos circulated of him wandering the halls of the Capitol with an American flag on a spear in one hand. and a megaphone in the other, and even shirtless on the Senate podium.

Angeli, who lives in Arizona, could not be reached for comment, but his cousin, Adam Angeli, confirmed that the man in the horns was his relative in a brief phone call to CNN Wednesday. Adam Angeli said he thought his cousin might be in between jobs and that “he’s a patriot, he’s a very big type of person in the United States of America.”

Jake Angeli’s Facebook page is full of posts evoking the conspiracy theories of QAnon, whose supporters, in a ludicrous theory, believe there is a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who have infiltrated the highest echelons of the US government and are being thwarted by President Trump.

Some of Angeli’s Facebook posts have a violent edge, such as a meme stating “we will have no real hope of surviving the enemies that are rampaged against us until we hang the traitors lurking beneath us.” A photo on Angeli’s Facebook page shows him adorned with the fur and horns, aiming at the camera with a rifle.

In recent months, Angeli has regularly attended pro-Trump protests in Arizona, including demonstrations outside the Maricopa County vote counting center.

Other rioters photographed in the Capitol wore clothing with QAnon icons and had signs with slogans related to the bizarre movement.

CNN has spotlighted Nick Ochs in a crowd of protesters who stormed the Capitol at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
Rioters who filled the Capitol included Nick Ochs, founder of Proud Boys Hawaii, a branch of the far-right group. “Hello from the capital lol,” Oh tweeted Wednesday with a selfie of herself smoking a cigarette in the building.

“We didn’t have to break in, I just walked in and filmed,” Ochs told CNN in an interview Wednesday night. “There were thousands of people there – they had no control over the situation. I was not stopped or questioned.”

Ochs ran a failed campaign for the state legislature last year, winning an endorsement from Trump confidant Roger Stone, who recorded a video with him. He claimed in the interview with CNN that he was working as a professional journalist when he entered the Capitol, and that he did not go to convention offices or the chambers.
One far-right activist who was at the Capitol on Wednesday was Tim Gionet, who, according to multiple screenshots of the recording, livestreamed a video of himself in the building for more than 25 minutes. shared on Twitter.

Gionet, a prominent extremist voice going online under the pseudonym “Baked Alaska,” attended the 2017 “Unite the Right” meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia, said Hannah Gais, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center. Gais said she watched the live stream as it aired.

Gionet has been suspended or banned from various online platforms. He was not available for comment.

Richard "Frustrated" Barnett will be in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6.
One of the most shared photos from the chaos showed Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the leader of a pro-gun rights group in Gravette, Arkansas, lounging with his feet on a desk in house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
Barnett, 60, later showed reporters outside the Capitol an envelope he said he had taken from Pelosi’s desk. “ I didn’t steal it, ” he said of the envelope, which was addressed to another congressman, in a video posted on Twitter by a reporter for the New York Times. “I put a quarter on her desk, even though she’s not worth it.” He said he also left a note on her desk that read “Nancy, Bigo was here b * tch” claiming he was Macedonian.

Facebook videos that appear to have been posted by Barnett on Wednesday show him walking near the Capitol. In a photo posted that morning, of him wearing an American flag, the caption was “it’s time” and he rather asked for prayers “as we do our best to protect our patriots in DC.”

Barnett could not be reached for comment.

CNN’s Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Curt Devine, Scott Glover and Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.

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