According to federal charges, Kelly and Connie Meggs are members of the Oath Keepers militia who used the chaos around the U.S. Capitol Revolt to enter the building in an organized “pile.” Dressed in camouflage, the husband and wife of Florida can be seen in security images entering the Capitol illegally and strolling around the building with fellow oaths.
Kelly Meggs, according to prosecutors, is the leader of Oath Keepers with the nickname “OK Gator.” Both Megg face conspiracy charges for their alleged role in the riot.
For sympathetic readers of the right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit, however, the Meggs are humble peasants unjustly kidnapped by the federal government and forced to deal with some donkeys. In a Tuesday post on Gateway Pundit, blogger Jim Hoft claimed that the Meggs are about to lose their farm after an FBI raid in which they claim the FBI accidentally released their donkeys. .
“During the arrest, the FBI dropped (sic) all its donkeys in the neighborhood,” Hoft writes.
The donkeys were later returned to the farm. The solution to this injustice for Hoft’s far-right audience, according to his blog: give tens of thousands of dollars to Meggs.
The riot stories have made a lot of money on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding site that has become a preferred option for right-wing figures who would probably be banned from more common sites like GoFundMe. The Meggs family has raised more than $ 80,000 as of Tuesday, while Jury Kenneth Harrelson’s family has raised more than $ 160,000.
Members of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers accused after the January 6 riot have been in a public relations bombardment of the right-wing media, trying to reform themselves as victims of over-government and mischief FBI. They also raise a lot of money along the way.
This public relations drive has been extended to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by a Capitol police officer while attempting to break into the Speaker’s lobby during the riot. Terrell Roberts, a lawyer for Babbitt’s family, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program on March 12 and claimed that police should have finished arresting Babbitt.
“We should have some statement explaining why they had to shoot this lady,” Roberts said.
Roberts declined to comment.
Much of the brilliant coverage of riot suspects comes from The Gateway Pundit, a popular far-right blog that often promotes scams. Gateway Pundit founder Hoft, who ranks prominent enough in the right-wing media to be invited to Trump’s White House in 2019, has published several stories promoting fundraisers for riot suspects.
According to a federal indictment, the proud boy Christopher Worrell fired pepper spray at police officers at the start of the riot, after going to Washington from Florida in a van with a crew of other proud boys. Worrell was wearing a tactical vest and a headset for the riot, according to prosecutors. When police officers stormed her home in east Naples, Florida, they found her full of Proud Boys material, including challenge coins depicting different chapters of the far-right male group.
By contrast, Gateway Pundit’s writing about Worrell’s arrest makes no mention of Proud Boys. The blog post states that Worrell was “Arrested by heavily armed feds with tank trucks,” an unusual way to describe armored trucks.
While Kelly and Connie Meggs have been embraced by right-wing blog readers, Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper who allegedly entered the Capitol, could have had the best reception.
Harrelson, who faces a conspiracy count and three other charges, allegedly plotted before the riot with other sworn guardians in meetings with aliases such as “Gator 6” or sometimes just by his own name. Harrelson was caught in a video illegally entering the Capitol alongside the Meggses, according to his indictment.
Like other supporters of the arrested riot suspects, Harrelson’s wife, Angel Harrelson, appeared in The Gateway Pundit to claim that her husband was being treated unfairly and that FBI agents had destroyed her home while carrying out an order. research.
“They proceeded to escort me out of my house,” he said. “It bothered me that my things were thrown everywhere and that they made a big mess. “
In a message posted on The Pundit Gateway, Angel Harrelson stated that the Oath Keepers are “made up of a diverse group of people.”
“One of the worst lies spread about them is that they are somehow ‘white supremacists,'” Harrelson’s wife wrote. “This is insulting and ridiculous. I am Cajun and therefore my ancestors and members. of the family are black and American Indians ”.