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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mike Lee over the weekend shared a social media post promoting the conspiracy theory that federal agents, not Trump supporters, were behind the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Lee reposted a screenshot of a video on his personal account on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday night, depicting a man in a red Make America Great hat inside the Capitol. The man is holding something in his right hand, which led Derrick Evans — a Republican congressional candidate from West Virginia who pleaded guilty to a felony related to the Jan. 6 riots — to ask if the person was "flashing a badge."
"If so, this would prove there were undercover federal agents disguised as MAGA," Evans said.
Lee, a Republican, shared Evans' post, adding that he "can't wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing. I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free."
While the post promotes a conspiracy theory popular among some on the right that the events of Jan. 6 were part of a "false flag" operation designed to hurt former President Donald Trump and his supporters, the person depicted in the five-minute video is actually Kevin James Lyons, a Chicago man who was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for his role on Jan. 6, according to the Associated Press.
Court documents show Lyons wearing the same hat and camouflage scarf inside then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and holding a framed photo of Pelosi with the late Rep. John Lewis which he took from her office.
It's unclear what Lyons is holding in his right hand in the video. The conservative website Gateway Pundit wrote "it now appears the 'badge' is a 'vape' and the Trump supporter is flashing it to security."
I can't wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing.
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 19, 2023
I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free. https://t.co/m3rRE4Byfu
Lee isn't the only member of Congress who promoted the video, which was part of 90 hours of footage from Jan. 6 released last Friday by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, posted a screenshot from the same video, saying, "That's a law enforcement badge in his hand while disguised as a Trump supporter in a MAGA hat. I've said it all along, MAGA did not do this."
Greene later edited her post to remove the reference to the "law enforcement badge."
Unlike Greene, Lee never clarified his post, which has received more than 5 million views. A spokesman for Lee did not respond to a request for comment.
The senator also spent the weekend sparring with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney over the events on Jan. 6 and downplaying the violence that occurred.
Cheney — vice chairwoman and one of two Republicans who served on the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol — on Friday shared a compilation of videos taken during the riots showing protesters clashing with police, one officer being crushed between two doors and others being beaten with flag poles.
"Liz, we've seen footage like that a million times," Lee responded just before midnight Friday. "You made sure we saw that — and nothing else. It's the other stuff — which you deliberately hid from us — that we find so upsetting. Nice try. P.S. How many of these guys are feds? (As if you'd ever tell us)."
"Hey @BasedMikeLee — heads up. A nutball conspiracy theorist appears to be posting from your account," Cheney shot back Saturday morning.
Lee told White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows days before Jan. 6 that he had "been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for (Trump)," according to texts obtained by CNN, but the senator ultimately grew wary of the former president's alleged scheme to have Congress consider votes from alternate electors on Jan. 6.
"Although Sen. Lee had spent a month encouraging the idea of having state legislatures endorse competing electors for Trump, he grew alarmed as it became clear that the Trump team wanted the fake electors' votes considered on Jan. 6 even without authorization from any state government body," the Jan. 6 committee wrote in its 845-page report.
Lee reportedly texted Trump adviser Cleta Mitchell on Dec. 30, 2020, saying Jan. 6 was "a dangerous idea," including "for the republic itself."
He has recently criticized the series of charges brought against the former president for his alleged role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, calling them "political weaponization of criminal law."
