The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued requests for documents relating to a whole host of individuals, and one such individual is Robert Patrick Lewis, who’s the founder of an organization called 1st Amendment Praetorian, which — among other things — provides security for right-wing events. Now, the riot investigation committee has asked the National Archives to provide it with “all documents and communications concerning the 2020 election and relating to” Lewis, among others. Besides his fervent support for Trump and his public mingling with other top pro-Trump activists, Lewis is specifically an ally of former top Trump official Michael Flynn.
The 1st Amendment Praetorian group has provided security for Flynn, including on December 12 in conjunction with an event called the Jericho March, which included remarks from Flynn to the crowd. The event was designed to rally support against the then-impending finalization of Joe Biden’s election victory the previous month. Notably, on the day of the rally, Lewis spoke on Twitter in support of what he called the “2nd American Revolution,” thereby using clearly violence-tinged language that mirrors exactly what led to the Capitol riot on January 6. Showing his close ties, Lewis also said on December 12 that he was on the “personal security detail” for Flynn — who later on backed the idea of imposing martial law amid then-President Trump’s desperate attempts to cling to power despite the will of the people.
Lewis also has direct ties to other prominent pro-Trump events. At a November gathering billed as the “Million MAGA March,” his group apparently provided security, and later on, Lewis and his group were also present at the so-called “Rally for Revival” that took place in Washington, D.C., on January 5 — the day before the Capitol riot. Lewis spoke at that January 5 event, apparently telling the crowd that he was “willing to get up here and walk into danger if we need it, if we need to be there, to make sure that we don’t cede this country.” He also admonished the crowd “to fight as hard as you can” against the supposed threats to the country — and Lewis’s language obviously constitutes incitement, connecting right to the violence of the following day.
True to form, Lewis is also a noted promoter of outright nonsense that doesn’t directly involve the election results. During an interview with Fox, for instance, he claimed that his group’s “intelligence shows that no matter who wins the election, they are planning a massive ‘Antifa Tet Offensive,’ bent on destroying the global order” — which is simply nonsensical. There is no such thing as some kind of expansively organized “antifa” organization. The term simply refers to a loosely connected movement of left-wing activists and is more like an ideological umbrella.
