Federal authorities have arrested and charged 5 members of a militia alleged to be run by a former candidate for Congress in reference to the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol. Former Florida Congressional candidate Jeremy Liggett was among the many group.
A legal complaint names solely one of many 5 folks, Brian Preller, who, in accordance with courtroom information, was arrested in Vermont in reference to the case. 4 of the folks face a felony depend of civil dysfunction apiece, whereas one faces two misdemeanor counts.
The opposite males are John Edward Crowley, Jonathan Alan Rockholt, Tyler Quintin Bensch and Benjamin Cole, a federal official instructed NBC Information. Crowley, Rockholt and Bensch had been set to seem in federal courtroom within the Center District of Florida on Wednesday, whereas Cole was scheduled to seem within the Western District of Kentucky.
The folks all check with themselves as members of the “B Squad” and had been related to the Three % motion, authorities mentioned within the legal grievance. They wore “Guardians of Freedom” logos on Jan. 6, 2021.
The identify “B Squad” and references to “plan B,” the FBI affidavit suggests, referred to “an alternate plan to be in place if they don’t get the specified electoral end result (i.e., the previous president remaining in energy).”
The chief of the group, known as “B Chief” in courtroom filings, just isn’t charged.
Though the Justice Division didn’t identify “B Chief,” it included a number of screenshots from a video of him within the grievance. NBC Information was in a position to determine “B Chief” as Jeremy Liggett, a Florida man who ran in a Republican major for the U.S. Home this yr, primarily based on social media posts, together with a replica of the video the Justice Division used, which Liggett posted on social media.
