Former Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has now confirmed that he was in the crowd outside the Capitol building on January 6 as the deadly violence of that day unfolded. Before his confirmation, which he provided in an interview with a Maine newspaper called the Portland Press Herald, photographic evidence of Rohrabacher’s presence on the scene had already been discovered. Notably, the Press Herald reports that “videos of the Jan. 6 riot show the former congressman was nearly 500 feet inside the restricted zone surrounding the Capitol,” as The Washington Post summarizes — although there’s no indication that he entered the building. Still, he was in the crowd.
#SeditionHunters – Thursday’s arrest of Alan Hostetter highlighted extremism in Orange County, CA, but even he is junior-league. We knew OC would send their finest, and here he is, the highest-profile #SeditionVIP yet: former U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA 42). 1/ pic.twitter.com/yJDdR5aR4T
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) June 12, 2021
Rohrabacher told the Press Herald that he “thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated,” adding that he “wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand.” No evidence of the election having been “fraudulent” has, of course, ever been discovered, no matter claims from Trump and his allies to the contrary. Although serious violence including physical assaults against police officers unfolded outside of the Capitol building — where Rohrabacher was — the former Congressman told the Press Herald that he “was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”
Rohrabacher is probably one of the highest profile individuals who have so far been discovered to have participated in the January Capitol riot in some capacity. At one point, he himself worked in the building that was under attack and with a slew of the government leaders who were threatened! When he was in office, Rohrabacher was known as an ardent supporter of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which mirrors the former Congressman’s eventual acceptance of the propaganda-like lies about the integrity of last year’s presidential election.
Rohrabacher appears to have accepted yet another helping of propaganda beyond that lie — he falsely told the Press Herald that “leftist provocateurs” led the storming of the Capitol building, an assertion for which no meaningful evidence has ever emerged. In reality, hundreds of Trump supporters have been dealt federal criminal charges stemming from the deadly violence. There’s no indication that Rohrabacher will face federal prosecution, although he did (as mentioned) appear to enter a restricted area, which is a federal crime with which other riot participants have been charged. Prosecutors have apparently focused on the hundreds of Trump supporters who entered the Capitol building.
