Some users on pro-Trump Internet forums told users to “lock and load,” agitated about the civil war, and urged protesters to go to Mar-a-Lago in the hours after news broke that the FBI raided the former president’s compound. Donald Trump in Florida on Monday. .
One user who posted about “civil war” shortly after the search was Tyler Welsh Slaeker, a Washington state man who is awaiting sentencing for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to previous research and statements posted online. A report in December by Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative group, found that Slaeker posted on the pro-Trump Internet forum TheDonald under the username “bananaguard62.”
Monday night, username “bananaguard62” posted the main reply to the “lock and load” post.
“Aren’t we in a cold civil war at this point?” asked the count. Another user replied, “a few points ago.” Another major response to Slaeker cited a notorious anti-Semitic Nazi rallying cry.
In the months leading up to January 6, Slaeker had posted selfies on his bananaguard62 account, and he would appear later photos from the Capitol riots and arrest records. On January 6, he uploaded a photo of himself watching Trump’s speech from a tree on the Ellipse. Metadata from that photo confirms it was taken by Slaeker, according to the Advanced Democracy Report. NBC News has also seen the photo and its metadata.
In the minutes after news of the search broke, users on pro-Trump forums like TheDonald, a Reddit-like website used to provide logistics ahead of the Capitol riots, called for immediate violence, asking questions like “When does the shooting start? ” and calling on Trump to call in the militias.
The most popular comment responding to the news, upvoted over 1,200 times, was simply the words “lock and load.”
Later in the night, Slaeker clarified in a response that he couldn’t be more specific about his Civil War post.
“I am awaiting sentencing for the violation of the Capitol,” he wrote. “I’m just careful with my words.”
Slaeker’s recent posts illustrate that some of the same people on extremist forums who talk about “civil war” or call for more violence have taken real-life actions in the past.
“Prior to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, we saw unprecedented online plans to commit violence in the real world,” Advance Democracy President Daniel J. Jones, a former staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. . “Online outrage was based on false allegations of voter fraud and outlandish theories of coordinated government corruption. The FBI raid has provoked similarly violent rhetoric online — including at least one individual charged in connection with the insurgency of January 6.
“The promotion of broad government conspiracy theories by political leaders, elected officials and political entertainers continues to undermine our democracy — and is likely to lead to additional political violence,” Jones’ statement said.
Users of extremist pro-Trump forums called on his supporters to hold an impromptu “rally” outside Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s compound in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday evening, according to posts first seen by NBC News. According to Cristian Benavides, a reporter for NBC Miami, some supporters of the former president began arriving in trucks before midnight. One vehicle had a “Trump-Pence” flag running the length of the truck bed, with former Vice President Mike Pence’s name crossed out.
In other extremist Telegram chats, including one between “Groypers,” or members of the white nationalist “America First” movement, users shared a post from the Proud Boys Telegram account, adding that the FBI is “Biden’s Gestapo.” and that “Civil war is imminent.”
More pro-Trump influencers, including podcasters with millions of followers on YouTube or Twitter, have also stepped up their rhetoric.
“Tomorrow is war,” Steven Crowder, who has over 5 million YouTube subscribers and 1.9 million Twitter followers, said in a tweet. “Sleep well.”
Slaeker is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16 before Judge Paul L. Friedman of the US District Court for Washington, DC, where all of the January 6 cases are being prosecuted. His attorney, Kimberly Hodde, requested last month that the sentencing be held in person rather than by video conference. Hodde did not respond to a request for comment. Neither the government nor Slaeker have filed their sentencing memoranda, which are due a week before the sentencing date.
As part of his plea deal in June, Slaeker admitted that he was wearing a helmet and recording video on his phone when he entered the Capitol “through an outside door that was opened from the inside by other rioters” and that he was “with a crowd of rioters” in the rotunda. He then left the building, briefly re-entered the same door, and then left again.
“The defendant knew at the time he entered the US Capitol building that he had no authority to do so and that the building was off limits,” Slaeker admitted as part of his plea deal.
Slaeker pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building, and as part of his plea agreement, he received credit for accepting responsibility on the condition that he “clearly indicates acceptance of responsibility, for the satisfaction of the government, through [his] allocation, compliance with any provision of [the plea agreement], and conduct between the entry of the guilty plea and the imposition of the sentence.” Other charges will be dropped at sentencing as part of a plea deal.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, but Slaeker’s estimated sentencing guidelines were zero to six months, according to court documents.
Slaeker has repeatedly posted about his experience at the Capitol on Jan. 6, insisting to users on TheDonald that the event was not a “false flag,” as some users have continued to argue. Posts are usually quickly deleted, but they have been archived by Advance Democracy.
