John Sullivan, also known as JaydenX, a 29-year-old Utah resident and a January 6 riot instigator and agent provocateur, will be sentenced on Friday afternoon by Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee. In November, he was found guilty on charges including felony obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder. Sullivan has been in custody since his conviction last year. The government is seeking a seven-year sentence, among the longer prison terms imposed on January 6 defendants.
Sullivan posed as a supporter of then-President Donald Trump to conceal his Black Lives Matter/Antifa activism as the leader of Insurgence USA while inciting the riot at the Capitol and bragging about being "on the front lines." He entered the Capitol through a broken window. In video footage played for jurors, Sullivan says, "I brought my megaphone to instigate s***" and to "make those Trump supporters f*** s*** up."
During closing arguments, a federal prosecutor told the jury that Sullivan went to the Capitol with the "goal of inciting the crowd." and to "foment anarchy." Sullivan was indeed an anarchist, who prosecutors described as an “antiestablishment” activist who wanted to “burn it all down.”
Sullivan told documentary filmmaker Jade Sacker, who entered the Capitol alongside him, that he was:
siding with anyone willing to rip this down and put something new in place, put something better in place.
Prosecutors said that Sullivan carried a knife at "two of the most serious inflection points." He offered his retractable knife with a nearly 4-inch blade to rioters gathered at the House Main door as it was guarded by officers, saying:
Hey guys, I have a knife. I have a knife. Let me up.
In his interview with the FBI, he admitted to wearing a gas mask and ballistic vest inside the Capitol.
In the aftermath of the riot, Sullivan sold his video footage, including the killing of Ashli Babbitt, to media outlets. At the same time, he rebranded himself as a journalist in hopes that claiming freedom of the press would exempt him from prosecution.
The government said that Sullivan edited his website from "activist" to "journalist" and alleged that he said that posing as a journalist was a "good ploy so I don’t get arrested." Sullivan admitted several times that he has no press credentials and investigators found no connections between Sullivan and any journalistic organizations.
Sullivan made over $90,000 licensing his video footage, so prosecutors are asking the judge to impose a fine of $90,875, saying that he:
should not be able to capitalize on his participation in the Capitol breach and should be fined the entire amount of his proceeds.
According to the Department of Justice, there are at least two on-video encounters where Sullivan can be heard with the officers, telling them to stand down so that they do not get hurt. He is heard saying, “You are putting yourself in harm’s way,” “The people have spoken,” and:
There are too many people, you gotta stand down, the people out there that tried to do that shit, they got hurt, I saw it, I’m caring about you.
Among the instances where Sullivan told officers to stand down or to move was outside of the Speaker's Lobby in the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of Babbitt. He told a law enforcement officer:
We want you to go home. I’m recording and there’s so many people and they’re going to push their way up here. Bro, I’ve seen people out there get hurt. I don’t want to see you get hurt.
It is unclear why the officers moved, but they did retreat from their position in front of the doors as Sullivan yelled at them, "I want you to go home!" Sullivan continues yelling and instructing the crowd, saying, “Go! Go! Get this s***!” He films as others in the crowd try to break out the glass in the entryway door windows before Babbit is fatally shot in the left shoulder as she tries to enter through the window opening.
Sullivan's lawyer says that since he has been incarcerated, there has been a "dramatic decrease in his mental stability and his overall physical presence." Sullivan is in segregation at the D.C. jail, as authorities believe having him in populations with Trump-supporting defendants is a risk to his well-being.
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