Three hours of Capitol riot tunnel footage shows aggressive police beating, alleged provocateur inciting crowd

Three hours of CCTV footage obtained by a criminal defense attorney representing a man charged with 13 crimes related to the January 2021 Capitol riot reveals a chaotic situation at the building’s lower west terrace tunnel during the event, with demonstrators and rioters opposed by a team of Capitol police.

(Article by Richard Moorhead republished from BigLeaguePolitics.com)

Several of the demonstrators present at the scene act in a belligerent and violent manner towards the police, forcing ladders into the tunnel and brandishing club-like weapons. Other violent agitators struggle for control of the Capitol Police officers’ riot shields.

Joseph McBride, the attorney of J6 defendant Ryan Nichols, is alleging that one man at the scene of the violent scrum was acting as a provocateur in conjunction with the Capitol Police. McBride is alleging that a man he’s calling “Red Face 45” engaged in a series of coordinated acts with the Capitol Police, including obtaining items from a Capitol Police bag, communicating with officers using hand signals, possessing equipment used by the Capitol Police, and working with the officers to clear out rioters from the tunnel after initially acting in concert with them. The acts McBride identifies as suspicious occur between the 2:00:00 mark of the footage and 2:30:00, with McBride timestamping them in the description of the upload of the footage on his Rumble channel.

The CCTV footage also reveals a seemingly defenseless woman, who McBride has identified as Victoria White, being beaten by Capitol Police (2:06:16) after entering the besieged tunnel. A Capitol Police officer wearing a white shirt repeatedly strikes White with a nightstick, as other officers continually pepper-spray her. Red Face 45 appears to enter the tunnel in similar fashion as White in the footage, although he’s not subjected to a similar use of force.

Nichols, a native of Texas, has been charged with a list of violent and riot offenses that could land him a serious prison sentence if convicted. He maintains his innocence.

Read more at: BigLeaguePolitics.com