Video taken by a Black Lives Matter supporter who entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been used extensively by the FBI to identify and arrest protesters the bureau alleges were involved in the breach of the Capitol building.
John Earle Sullivan, a leftist known on social media as JaydenX, filmed protesters who smashed a glass-panel door to the Speaker’s Lobby close to the floor of the House of Representatives, where Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a police officer moments later. The FBI has also used video stills, attributed to “JaydenX,” to identify others it considers suspects, one of whom was arrested last week, Rowan Scarborough reported for The Washington Times on May 3.
An FBI affidavit relied heavily on Sullivan’s video to describe the scene near the Speaker's Lobby, including accounts of one person who repeatedly punched the door’s glass as lawmakers and staff were evacuating. The affidavit describes how another man “wearing a red hooded jacket and a gray skullcap starts striking the door’s glass panels with what appears to be a long, wood flagpole.” The affidavit contains still shots with the name “JaydenX” imprinted on each.
The FBI says the man punching the door glass is Chad Jones, a resident of Kentucky. A “family member” pointed him out to the FBI, a court document says, and he was arrested on a series of rioting charges.
Thomas Baranyi of New Jersey faces trespassing and rioting counts after the FBI tracked him down after identifying him via Sullivan's video.
Last week, Florida resident Jeffrey Register turned himself in after the JaydenX video provided the critical video evidence, according to clips attached to his FBI affidavit. Law enforcement used the video to track Register as he allegedly entered through a broken window, ignored police warnings and moved around the Capitol.
Sullivan become a hero to leftist media, appearing as an eyewitness on Jan. 6 on CNN, which bought rights to his video for $35,000 as did NBC News. Sullivan passed himself off to the leftist media as a videographer/journalist and they bought it hook, line and sinker.
Sullivan is the only known leftist to be arrested in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol, but observers say he has been treated much better than what Democrats and corporate media depict as the Trump-supporting "domestic terrorists" who entered the building.
Sullivan, who has been indicted on seven counts in the Jan. 6 breach, has been released with restrictions on his social media activities. His case is scheduled for review on May 26 in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Related: Reports: Jan. 6 detainee ‘beaten to bloody pulp’ by D.C. jail guards, April 8, 2021
Meanwhile, several of those arrested for allegedly participating in the breach of the Capitol remain in jail and have been subjected to what they describe as horrendous treatment.
“For weeks, Capitol riot defendants being held in Washington have complained that they are locked in their cells with virtually no human contact for 23 hours a day,” Politico reported.
Additionally, at least one defendant has complained about being subject to “violence, threats, and verbal harassment” while in custody.
“Myself and others involved in the Jan. 6 incident are scared for their lives, not from each other but from correctional officers,” one defendant, Ronald Sandlin, who is accused of smoking marijuana on Capitol grounds and of “tussling with multiple U.S. Capitol Police officers guarding the Senate chamber and trying to rip the helmet off of one of them,” told a judge during his bail hearing. “I don’t understand how this is remotely acceptable.” Sandlin called his treatment at the hands of D.C. prison guards, “mental torture.”
Last month, a man who was charged with assaulting a Capitol police officer during the Jan. 6 breach reported being beaten to a “bloody pulp” by guards at the Washington, D.C. jail where he is being held.
INFORMATION WORLD WAR: How We Win . . . . Executive Intelligence Brief
