Did Antifa Members Disguise Themselves as Trump Supporters to Incite US Capitol Siege?

Hundreds of Trump supporters infiltrated the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday after the president urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes that will confirm President-elect Joe Biden's win.

Now, a video of the events leading up to the breach is being widely circulated on social media with the right-wing claiming Antifa members acted as agent provocateurs and disguised themselves as Trump supporters to incite the break-in.

Antifa Member Wearing MAGA Hat Provoked Rioters?

It all started after a screenshot started circulating on social media claiming Antifa operatives were planning to blend in as Trump supporters in D.C. by wearing Trump paraphernalia, including MAGA hats that will be worn backward for "identification."

Elijah Schaffer, a reporter for The Blaze tweeted video footage of the exact moment protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol building. The clip shows an aggressor wearing a MAGA hat turning his pro-Trump headgear backwards before tussling with officers in riot gear.

The man then encourages others to follow his lead and the mob eventually overpowers law enforcement before storming the Capitol.

The right-wing is now using the clip to push the baseless conspiracy theory of Antifa's involvement in Wednesday's violent insurrection – a common refrain from the far-right.

Bus Full of Antifa Members Infiltrated Pro-Trump Supporters

Paul Sperry, a conservative writer who has in the past been the source of misleading claims, tweeted that a bus full of "Antifa thugs" had infiltrated pro-Trump protesters. He cited an unnamed "former FBI agent" and no other evidence.

A video clip in which a man claiming to have seen law enforcement escorting "four Antifa shuttle buses" into D.C. also started doing the rounds on social media.

However, Reuters confirmed that the video footage was from a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota on Dec. 8 and fact-checked the claim as false.

Antifa Members Photographed Inside Capitol Building

Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney started circulating photos of alleged Antifa members inside the Capitol building. The images show a horned, shirtless man who was spotted at a BLM protest in Tempe, Arizona in June and another bearded man who has previously appeared in pictures shared on a Philadelphia-based anti-fascist organisation.

However, we can confirm that these images were cropped to make it seem like they were Antifa members. The horned, shirtless man with red, white and blue face paint was identified as Jake Angeli and is a purported QAnon conspiracy theorist sometimes referred to as the "QAnon Shaman." Although he was photographed at the BLM march in Tempe, he was holding a QAnon sign at the demonstration and is a familiar face at pro-Trump rallies.

The other bearded man also featured on phillyantifa.org but was identified on the website as a neo-Nazi and white supremacist from Indiana.