WASHINGTON, D.C. – Florida leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were spotlighted during the first televised hearing of the January 6 Select Committee on Thursday.
The hearing was designed to discover and present evidence in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot.
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On Thursday, never-before-seen video was presented that included footage of the national leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers meeting in a parking garage in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5.
See our previous coverage in the media player below:
The next day, the footage showed a large contingent of Proud Boys members arriving on the grounds of the Capitol Building.
That contingent included Joseph Biggs, the Florida leader of the group from Ormond Beach.
“We love Trump. We love Trump,” he was heard chanting in the video.
See our previous coverage in the media player below:
The video was taken by documentary filmmaker Nick Quested who testified at Thursday’s hearing.
“The atmosphere—it seemed to be much darker,” he told committee members. “I make efforts to create familiarity between myself and my subjects to, you know, make them feel comfortable. The atmosphere was much darker... at this day than it had been in these other days.”
The committee showed video that they said showed Biggs inciting the crowd to violence, pushing through the barricades and arriving inside the Capitol.
The footage brought some of the Capitol Hill police officers at the hearing to tears.
Committee members then briefly turned their attention to the Oath Keepers.
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“The committee learned that the Oath Keepers went into the capital building in ‘stack formations,’” said a man in one of the video presentations. “The DOJ alleges that one of the stacks went into the Capitol looking for Speaker Pelosi, though they never found her.”
Prosecutors said among the people in those stacks was the Florida leader of the Oath Keepers— Kelly Meggs of Dunnellon— and Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville.
In fact, committee members claimed Meggs helped rally his fellow members to the nation’s capital on social media by writing, “The President called us to the Capitol, and he wants us to make it wild.”
They claimed Meggs and others stored weapons at a nearby hotel as part of their conspiracy.
Meggs, Harrelson and Biggs are all charged with conspiracy to commit sedition.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
The next hearing for the January 6 Select Committee will take place on Monday morning.
