No substantive evidence backs up claims antifa spurred the Capitol riot

WASHINGTON » One sure sign that the violence that wracked the Capitol on Wednesday was broadly unacceptable to President Donald Trump’s usual allies was how quickly some blamed people other than the president and his base of supporters.

From the House floor, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a Trump ally, cited “pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company” that he claimed showed that “some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters.” Instead, they were “masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.”

Antifa is a frequent target of Trump’s.

Gaetz wasn’t alone. On Fox News Channel’s prime-time shows, hosts and guests similarly claimed that perhaps the mob was spurred on by antifa.

The fringier networks that have blossomed in the wake of the election made similar claims.

The genesis for the assertion appears to be an article published by the right-wing Washington Times claiming that a “retired military officer” had provided information from a firm called XRVision that used facial recognition software to identify several people who invaded the Capitol - and that two of them were linked to antifa. A third was “someone who shows up at climate and Black Lives Matter protests in the West.”

In a statement to The Washington Post, XRVision executive Yaacov Apelbaum denied that his firm had provided any such analysis.