Whatever Happened to Alleged Capitol Rioter John Sullivan? – Opinion

I wrote yesterday about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s claim that there is “one rule” of law that should apply to everyone. That’s what should be the case, under our Constitution.

Except that hasn’t been the case, as I noted, using as an example the glaring difference between the way that the DOJ has handled Jan. 6 versus the way it has approached the BLM/Antifa riots. Yesterday, I noticed several differences.

The treatment of John Sullivan is still under investigation.

John Sullivan, you may remember was among those who entered the Capitol to encourage others. He also recorded the Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd’s killing of Ashlibabbitt. That footage was sold for $90,000. Babbitt was not the only one to be killed in the riot.

Sullivan had also been involved in organizing BLM protests. He ran Insurgence USA, which sold Antifa black block gear. He’d been previously arrested for his involvement in a violent BLM protest in Utah where a driver was shot after his car was surrounded. Sullivan was allegedly the organizer of the protest, encouraging people to block roads, threatened to beat a woman and firing her gun at her car.

Here Sullivan was in August 2020 in Washington, D.C. at a BLM rally, saying how they needed to “rip Trump right out of that office.” “It’s time for a revolution,” Sullivan asks the group to chant, and they do.

Caution for graphic language

BLM inc. threatening to “rip the president out of the White House”

They say they won’t wait until the next election.

They’re openly calling for a revolution.

It is domestic terror on display. They don’t even try to hide it. pic.twitter.com/OyhNSzBEwu

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 29, 2020

What happened to Sullivan about those Capitol charges? Eight counts are against him, including obstruction of an officially proceeding, civil disorder and aiding or abetting.

But while 80 others are being held in conditions which some have questioned, for up to 300 days in what prisoners refer to as the “D.C Gulag,” Sullivan was allowed to go home after one day, while awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, in addition to Sullivan’s prior actions, he reportedly can be seen on his own footage breaking through multiple police lines, entering through a broken window, encouraging people forward, and even volunteering his knife to help break through a door into the House Chamber.

At the Capitol riot, Sullivan was accused of multiple confrontations with officers and making “consistently gleeful exhortations about burning and breaking things throughout the building and its grounds,” according to a court brief filed Feb. 4, 2021.

The criminal complaint contains expletive-laden quotations from his 50-minute-long video, which he later sold to media outlets at $90,000.

Among his comments: “There are so many people. Let’s go. This s*** is ours! F*** yeah,” and “That’s what I’m sayin’, break that s***” when someone banged on a door. At least twice, he threatened to burn down the building, stating, “We gotta get this s*** burned,” and “Let’s burn this s*** down!”

The prosecutors asked to have Sullivan held saying he was a “danger to society.” But he wasn’t held. He was placed in home confinement with an ankle monitor. Additionally, he was prohibited from using social media and not allowed to be involved with Insurgence USA. According to the Washington Examiner, he’s violated that order multiple times, yet he’s still out.

Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) asked why wasn’t Sullivan being called before the Jan. 6 Committee and why wasn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking about him?

I have a question for the court in this case: How is this guy still out, if he’s violating court orders? And why does it appear he’s being treated with far more latitude than most of the other people involved that day at the Capitol? Not surprising considering his history.