A Texas man who was convicted for taking part in the U.S. Capitol protests on January 6, 2021, referred to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s conjecture that January 6 was an ‘inside job.’
Alan Hostetter, who once was the police chief in California, was sentenced on Thursday to more than 11 years in prison after having been found guilty of a conspiracy charge, per the Associated Press. Only eight other January 6 defendants have been handed longer sentences.
Hostetter told the judge at his sentencing hearing that he believed the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and that the January 6 upheaval was, in fact, a “false flag” operation, as Ramaswamy suggested, which The Dallas Express also reported.
The notion that the breaching of the Capitol building was guided by elements tied to the FBI has been widespread among the political right aligned with Trump. The belief is held by many Republican lawmakers as well, like Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. During a hearing held by the House Homeland Security Committee in November, Higgins confronted FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether his agency orchestrated the events around January 6, which Wray appeared to vehemently but artfully deny, according to C-Span.
In his testimony, Wray asserted, “If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and or agents, the answer is emphatically not, no.”
Higgins said during Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo Show in November that he believed that the “FBI was was not only involved in the actions on January 6 from within. They had, I suspect, over 200 agents embedded within the crowd, including agents or, as they would call, human assets inside the Capitol dressed as Trump supporters before the doors were opened.”
“Beyond that, the FBI had embedded themselves and infiltrated online chat groups and websites and social media accounts across the country with any group that was discussing objections to COVID oppression. The FBI, you know, effectively infiltrated those groups,” Higgins alleged.
The Dallas Express spoke to Mark and Jalise Middleton of Forestburg, Texas, who were at the Capitol on January 6; both were arrested and charged with assaulting officers and obstruction. Though they said they could not discuss their case until after trial, both challenge Director Wray’s claim that FBI agents had no role in the turmoil at the Capitol that day.
“Evidence will come out to the contrary,” Jalise Middleton told The Dallas Express.
Mark Middleton pointed to the trial of members of the Oath Keepers, where he said it was shown that “unindicted co-conspirators were doing the things the Oath Keepers were accused of doing. It appears they were confidential human sources at the very least.”
