According to federal allegations, Kelly and Connie Meggs are members of the Oath Keepers militia who used the chaos surrounding the US Chapter riot to enter the building in an organized “stack.” Dressed in camouflage, the Florida couple can be seen on security footage illegally entering the Capitol and walking around the building with fellow Oath Keepers.
Kelly Meggs, according to prosecutors, is a leader of Oath Keepers with the alias “OK Gator”. Both Megg face charges of conspiracy for their alleged role in the riot.
For the likeable readers of the right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit, however, the meggs are humble farmers unjustly abducted by the federal government and forced to deal with free donkeys. In a post on Tuesday on Gateway Pundit, blogger Jim Hoft claimed that Meggs is on the verge of losing her farm after an FBI raid in which, they claim, the FBI accidentally released her donkey.
“During the arrest, the FBI let all its donkeys get lost (sic) in the neighborhood,” Hoft writes.
The donkeys were later returned to the farm. The solution to this injustice for Hoft’s far-right audience, according to his blog: donating tens of thousands of dollars to Meggs.
The stories of the outrages earned big money on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding site, which has become a favorite option for right-wing figures who would probably be banned from several traditional sites such as GoFundMe. The Meggs family raised more than $ 80,000 on Tuesday, while the Kenneth Harrelson Oath Keeper family raised more than $ 160,000.
The members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers accused after the January 6 riot were in a public relations flash in the right-wing media, trying to recover themselves as victims of government excess and a robbery FBI. I also raise a lot of money along the way.
This PR action extended to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while trying to break into the speaker’s lobby during the riot. Terrell Roberts, a lawyer for Babbitt’s family, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News on March 12 and claimed that police should have arrested Babbitt.
“We should have a statement explaining why she has to shoot this lady,” Roberts said.
Roberts declined to comment.
Much of the brilliant coverage of riot suspects came from The Pundit Gateway, a far-right popular blog that frequently promotes pranks. Hoft, the founder of Gateway Pundit, which holds a prominent enough place in right-wing media to be invited to Trump’s White House in 2019, has published several articles promoting fundraising for riot suspects.
According to a federal indictment, Christopher Worrell, the proud boy, allegedly shot pepper spray at law enforcement officers at the beginning of the riot, after traveling to Washington from Florida in a van with a crew of other proud boys. Worrell wore a tactical vest and a riot helmet, according to prosecutors. When law enforcement officers raided a home in eastern Naples, Florida, they found it full of Proud Boys equipment, including provocative coins depicting various chapters of the far-right men’s group.
Instead, Gateway Pundit’s writing about Worrell’s arrest makes no mention of Proud Boys. The blog post claims that Worrell was “Arrested by federals heavily armed with TANKER trucks,” an unusual way to describe armored trucks.
While Kelly and Connie Meggs were hugged by right-wing blog readers, Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper who entered the Capitol with them, could have had the best reception.
Harrelson, who faces a number of conspiracies and three other charges, allegedly conspired before the riot with other Oath-Keepers in meetings with pseudonyms such as “Gator 6” or sometimes just using his own name. Harrelson was caught on video entering the Capitol illegally with Meggses, according to his indictment.
Like other supporters of the arrested riot suspects, Harrelson’s wife, Angel Harrelson, appeared at The Gateway Pundit to claim that her husband was being treated unfairly and that FBI agents had thrown her at home while serving a warrant. search.
“They continued to escort me out of my house,” she said. “I was upset that my things would be thrown away and that they would make a big mess. “
In a message posted on The Gateway Pundit, Angel Harrelson claimed that Oath Keepers are “made up of a diverse group of people.”
“One of the worst lies about them is that they are somehow ‘white supremacists,'” Harrelson’s wife wrote. “It’s insulting and ridiculous. I am Cajun and therefore my ancestors and family members are black as well as American Indians. ”