Prosecutors face conspiracy theories in the January 6 trial

Almost from the moment a pro-Trump mob stormed into the Capitol on January 6, 2021, conspiracy theories have bounced from the fringes of the internet into the corridors of Congress. Republican officials and others on the right have dismissed the attack as the work of mere tourists, or tried to paint it as a false flag operation by shadowy leftist groups — or even the federal government.

These baseless claims have trickled down into dozens of criminal cases stemming from the riot, and for more than two years the government has had to hit them back.

On Thursday, prosecutors on that front may face their toughest challenge yet, when Alan Hostetter, a former police chief turned yoga instructor from Southern California, goes on trial in Washington Federal District Court. Few people involved in the January 6 attack have embraced conspiracy theories about the attack as fully as Mr. Hostetter, who intends to make them central to his defense.

Hostetter, acting as his own attorney, has said he plans to fight charges of conspiracy and obstruction based on what he calls “three fundamental pillars”: that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald J. Trump; that he and other rioters had no desire to interfere with the challenges of the voting results that took place at the Capitol on January 6; and that therefore the attack on the building must have been organized by “federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies”.

To prove all this, Mr Hostetter had initially told the judge who will hear his trial that he wanted to call as many as 30 witnesses as part of his defence.

Among those on his list were former chairman Nancy Pelosi and her daughter; Jacob Chansley, a fellow rioter better known as the QAnon Shaman; a New York Times reporter who wrote an article about his wife; and the general manager of the Kimpton George Hotel near the Capitol, where Mr. Hostetter stayed on January 6 and which, as one of his motions said, was probably where the “feds” used to watch him.

Although Mr. Hostetter eventually reneged on his request, the trial is likely to bring together many of the disparate conspiracy theories that have stubbornly taken root on the right in the two and a half years since the attack on the Capitol.

Prosecutors have been warning for weeks that the proceedings could degenerate into chaos.

“The defendant’s goal with this trial — rather than a genuine engagement with the elements or the evidence — is to create a circus-like atmosphere and promote its own brand,” they wrote to Royce C. Lamberth last month, the presiding judge.

The vast majority of the more than 60 Capitol riot cases that have gone to trial in Washington to date have ended up in one of two buckets. They are either short and simple assaults or misdemeanors, or longer and more serious conspiracy cases involving complex charges such as incitement against members of extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia.

Occasionally, the trials have deviated from this normal course of action as defendants have taken the stand to make unusual — and generally unsuccessful — arguments, such as accusing Mr. Trump of their decision to storm the Capitol. But while some of the trials were dramatic at times, most were relatively uneventful and largely trouble-free.

As the leader of a group called the American Phoenix Project, which was formed to fight the “fear-based tyranny” of coronavirus-related restrictions, Mr. Hostetter charged with conspiring with several members of the Three Percenter militia movement to storm the Capitol and stop confirmation of Trump’s defeat.

Shortly after the election, prosecutors said, Mr Hostetter and another US Phoenix Project leader, Russell Taylor, began using the group “to advocate violence” against people who “supported the 2020 election result”. For example, in late November, Mr Hostetter posted a video on the group’s YouTube channel accusing those who had not challenged the results of committing treason.

“Some people at the highest level,” he said, “should be set an example with an execution or three.”

Prosecutors say Mr. Hostetter and Mr. Taylor communicated with their Three Percenter co-defendants primarily through a group chat on Telegram called “California Patriots-DC Brigade”. Mr. Taylor once described the channel as being for “able-bodied individuals heading to DC on January 6” and “ready and willing to fight.”

Mr. Hostetter went to Washington on Jan. 3, 2021, prosecutors said, checking into a room at the Kimpton George. Three days later, carrying an ax in a backpack, he accompanied Mr. Taylor—who also had an axe, knife, and stun stick—to a restricted area on Capitol grounds.

In April, in a nod to the unusual nature of Mr Hostetter’s proposed defence, Judge Lamberth separated his case from the four co-defendants accused of being Three Percenters and conspiring to overturn the certification of the January 6 election. to disturb. By that time, Mr. Taylor had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and under an agreement with the government had agreed to testify against Mr. Hostetter to testify at trial.

Prosecutors have said they plan to bolster their case with testimony from FBI agents who led the investigation and police officers who witnessed the violence at the Capitol. But this standard presentation can be overturned if Mr. Hostetter tries to continue the more scandalous parts of his defense.

Last month, for example, at a routine pre-trial hearing, he launched into a diatribe, accusing the government of prosecuting Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, for sedition to cover up Mr Rhodes’s work. with authorities on January 6.

Judge Lamberth interrupted and rejected his baseless claims.

“You have no facts to back up your claims,” ​​he said.