Right-wing radio host Alex Jones is facing online calls for his arrest after social media users resurfaced the conspiracy theorist’s nearly $500,000 donation to a January 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot.
In a video posted from Washington D.C. on January 6, Jones said his media company paid to organize the pro-Trump rally that took place prior to the insurrection.
He also claimed that the White House instructed him to lead the march to the Capitol.
“No one would book the Ellipse, no one would book the other areas. No one would pay for it. We went and paid for it,” he said. “It cost close to half a million dollars.”
Jones has previously faced calls for his arrest over his involvement in pushing Trump’s baseless claim that widespread voter fraud caused his election defeat to President Biden.
In December, critics demanded the radio host be arrested for insisting that Biden would be removed from office “one way or the other.”
On Saturday, the calls for Jones’ arrest grew louder after a Twitter user resurfaced his donation to the event that led to the riot.
“Alex Jones paid $500,000 to organize the insurrection on January 6th and he admits to getting his marching orders from Donald Trump. They literally sponsored a domestic terrorist attack on our nation’s capital. Arrest them,” tweeted user @davenewworld_2, alongside Jones’ January 6 video.
Alex Jones paid $500,000 to organize the insurrection on January 6th and he admits to getting his marching orders from Donald Trump. They literally sponsored a domestic terrorist attack on our nation’s capital. Arrest them. pic.twitter.com/BW3R40TP4s
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 12, 2021
Leading up to the attack, carried out while Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory, Jones had been at the forefront — along with several other Trump supporters — of amplifying false claims that the election had been rigged and that Trump had actually won.
On January 5, the night before the assault on the Capitol, a video posted on Jones’ website InfoWars.com showed him telling a crowd in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.: “We have only begun to resist the globalists. We have only begun our fight against their tyranny. They have tried to steal this election in front of everyone.”
“I don’t know how this is all going to end, but if they want to fight, they better believe they’ve got one,” Jones said that night, according to the same video.
The next day, InfoWars posted a video that shows Jones riling a crowd up again, saying: “We declare 1776 against the new world order.… We need to understand we’re under attack, and we need to understand this is 21st-century warfare and get on a war-footing….”
In the same video, before setting off toward the Capitol building, Jones told the crowd: “We’re here to take our rightful country back peacefully, because we’re not globalist, antifa criminals. So let’s start marching, and I salute you all.”
Once outside the Capitol, Jones was filmed, bullhorn in hand. “We’re not antifa; we’re not BLM. You’re amazing. I love you. Let’s march around the other side, and let’s not fight the police and give the system what they want. We are peaceful, and we won this election. And as much as I love seeing the Trump flags flying over this, we need to not have the confrontation with the police. They’re gonna make that the story. I’m going to march to the other side, where we have a stage, where we can speak and occupy peacefully.”
Jones continued: “Trump is going to speak over here. Trump is coming.”
Just before the siege, President Trump had incited the crowd, saying, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore,” and said he would be marching with them to the Capitol.
But he never showed up.
The relationship between Trump and Jones, brokered by Roger Stone — a political advisor of Trump’s and a frequent guest on InfoWars — goes back to 2015.
Jones for years rallied his audience behind Trump and believed himself to be instrumental in getting Trump elected.
Jones’ conspiracy theories have been behind other controversies in the past.
An avid follower of Jones and his site InfoWars was sent to prison for stalking the family of a child killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School after Jones claimed the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, had been staged.
And a man who believed the Pizzagate conspiracy promoted by Jones and others showed up at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., with an assault rifle and opened fire.