Ex-police chief and 5 others are charged in Capitol riot conspiracy
A former California police chief and five other men have been indicted on conspiracy charges in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to court documents made public Thursday.
The men — four of whom prosecutors say identify as members of the Three Percenters antigovernment extremist movement — are accused of plotting with one another to block the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Among those charged is a former La Habra police chief and founder of a far-right group called the American Phoenix Project, which was formed to protest pandemic-related restrictions and has helped pushed the lie that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
In court documents, authorities describe how the group’s founder, Alan Hostetter, in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6 called for violence against those who supported the results of the election. During a “Stop the Steal” rally held in Huntington Beach on Dec. 12, Hostetter warned that “Trump must be inaugurated on Jan. 20th.“
“And he must be allowed to finish this historic job of cleaning out the corruption in the cesspool known as Washington D.C. The enemies and traitors of America both foreign and domestics must be held accountable. And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup,“Hostetter said, according to the indictment.
Bilal Essayli, Hostetter’s lawyer, said he expected to have more information after an afternoon court appearance. He said Hostetter surrendered to authorities and he expected he would be released from custody.
“From what I can tell in the indictment, my client is not accused of committing any violence,” Essayli said. “He did not enter the actual Capitol building, so we’re very troubled with the nature and the extent of the charges that are brought.”
Authorities say communications show how the men coordinated their travel to Washington and efforts to block the peaceful transition of power. In late December, one of the men, Russell Taylor, posted in a Telegram chat in response to a question about when to be at the Capitol on Jan. 6: “I personally want to be on the front steps and be one of the first ones to breach the doors!”
The six men joined a Telegram chat called “The California Patriots-DC Brigade” along with more than 30 other people ahead of the riot, authorities said. Taylor wrote that the chat was being used to “organize a group of fighters to have each other’s backs“and asked them to identify if they had any pervious law enforcement or military experience or “special skills relevant to our endeavors.”
Days before the Capitol breach, Hostetter warned in a post on the American Phoenix Project’s Instagram account that “things are going to come a head in the U.S. in the next several days.”
Four of the men — Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele— drove across the country together from California to D.C.