“BE THERE, WILL BE WILD!”
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- President Trump’s full tweet read: “Peter Navarro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud ‘more than sufficient’ to swing victory to Trump https://t.co/D8KrMHnFdK. A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” President Donald J. Trump: Tweets of December 19, 2020, The American Presidency Project, available at https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-19-2020.
- Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of J. Smith, (May 9, 2022), p. 79. Navaroli appeared for two deposition session with the Select Committee, the first of which was conducted anonymously to protect her identity. In this deposition session, she was called “J. Smith.” She later agreed to put her name in the record and sat for another round of questioning. Testimony from that second session is referred to as “Deposition of Anika Navaroli.”
- Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Anika Navaroli, (Sept. 1, 2022), pp. 66-67. She went on to characterize the tweet as an “RSVP card” that became a “rallying point” for the President’s supporters, one that prompted violent responses from users that were highly suggestive of the coming violence targeting DC on January 6th. Id., at p. 64. Another former Twitter employee, whose deposition was also conducted anonymously, testified that the tweet “in many ways kind of crystallized the plans” for violence and that, after that point, supporters of President Trump began tweeting about movements to D.C. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of J. Johnson, (Sept. 7, 2022), p. 55.
- The President’s call to action quickly reverberated beyond Twitter and spread across the internet. On one social networking site, Discord, a forum called “DonaldsArmy.US” erupted in the hours after the tweet, with users seeing it as a “call to action” and beginning to organize travel plans to D.C., including by discussing how and whether to evade DC gun restrictions and bring firearms into the city. See Summary Memorandum from Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Briefing with Discord, (July 29, 2022); see also Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Discord Production), JAN6C_DIS_000269 (Memo from Discord titled “DonaldsArmy.US and BASEDMedia.”).
- Second Superseding Indictment at ¶ 28, United States v. Nordean et al., No. 1:1:21-cr-175 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2022), ECF No. 305.
- See, e.g., Ian Ward, “How a D.C. Bar Became the ‘Haven’ for the Proud Boys,” Politico, (Dec. 14, 2020), available at https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/14/harrys-bar-proud-boys-washington-dc-445015.
- Second Superseding Indictment at ¶37, United States v. Nordean et al., No. 1:21-cr-175 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2022), ECF No. 305 (citing Tarrio's message to the Proud Boys on December 29, 2020, that they would "not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow" on January 6th; they would "be incognito.").
- Second Superseding Indictment at ¶ 50, United States v. Nordean et al., No. 1:1:21-cr-175 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2022), ECF No. 305.
- Second Superseding Indictment at ¶ 100, United States v. Nordean et al., No. 1:1:21-cr-175 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2022), ECF No. 305.
- Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Henry Tarrio, (Feb. 4, 2022), pp. 83-84.
- Second Superseding Indictment at ¶ 107, United States v. Nordean et al., No. 1:21-cr-175 (D.D.C. Mar. 7, 2022), ECF No. 305.
- See, e.g., Mike Levine, “How A Standoff in Nevada Years Ago Set The Militia Movement on A Crash Course with The US Capitol,” ABC News, (Jan. 5, 2022), available at https://abcnews.go.com/US/standoff-nevada-years-ago-set-militia-movement-crash/story?id=82051940.
