My recollection of the events of 5/6 Jan 2021.

IMHO, Trump saw the disruption at the Capitol coming. The originally advertised plan was to show up at the US Capitol at 1PM, Save America Protest.

The night of the 5th, Trump put out a NEW plan, show up at the White House Ellipse just north of the Washington Monument early in the morning. There will be huge BIG SCREENS, music, vendors, speakers, then Trump will speak.

The RULES to come and see Trump and be at the rally.. NO BACKPACKS, No Kits, No weapons, only show up with your CLOTHES and FLAGS (they didn't even want people to bring flags).

We were told show up early to get in close to Trump. There were hundreds of thousands of us there by 7AM. Again, we had to leave all our extra "supplies" a the hotels. Most people thought Trump will speak at 9AM or so, then we can go back to the hotel, KIT up and eat lunch and then show up at Capitol at 1PM as was originally planned.

Did not happen that way at all. We had hours of speakers, music, hanging out. Trump finally came out around Noon or just after and spoke till around 1:18PM. We were released and had about a 25-30 minute walk to the Capitol, it was ALREADY past 1PM. There was NO time to go back to the hotel or we were gonna miss the Capitol events.

Now, while Trump was speaking, the Capitol reported around 500-1000 aggressive rioters had showed up around 12:45 PM, they immediately started attacking outer perimeter police, tearing open holes in the outer fences and forced the external cordon to collapse. The police fell back to the steps on the west side of the Capitol (the scaffolding area for inauguration prep). These hostile aggressors were noted as mostly wearing kits, body armor, helmets, baseball bats, backpacks, gas masks, in black or camo, and noted hardly any TRUMP or AMERICAN flags and very little TRUMP gear aside from a hat or two.

Note the time of Chief Sund's report to Pelosi, 12:45PM these aggressive people that the chief stated he had "never in 30 years seen a group like this in his police career, they were coordinated, had communications, moved in groups, moved as if they had a plan, wasted no time and pushed into police and outmaneuvered police as if they knew our response plan".

The Trump rally at 12:45 was in the middle of Trumps speech. We were not released until after 1:15 or so. It took our people at least 20-30 minutes to get near the west side of the US Capitol... so around 1:45 till 2:00PM is when the RALLY GOERS arrived at the Capitol buildings west side. According to the US Capitol Police, the attacks started at 12:45PM. Anywhere from an hour to an hour and 15 minutes of attacks had already taken place before a SINGLE rally attendee (these are the people who Trump could have incited), ever arrived.

So that exonerates Trump right there.

The people who showed up at 12:45PM and began to immediately attack police, were NOT rally goers, they were groups of HOSTILE actors that were trying to cause trouble by showing up just prior to the "ADVERTISED 1PM Capitol Save America Event" and infiltrate the crowd and blow up the narrative. Their main issue, they arrived, many groups of them and found NO TRUMP SUPPORTERS or maybe a handful that were obeying the law and standing behind the outer fences.

So it was obvious to the police who was doing what. I think once Trumps defense team gets a chance we are going to see the reality of what happened on the 6th.

*** What I saw, on the ground *** While at the Ellipse and Trump speaking event, I was in the MID-WEST part of the mass of Patriots. Once we were released around 1:20 PM EST, it took me and a couple people I was with around 30 minutes at least to get to within a couple hundred meters of the US Capitols West side. We were walking up a sidewalk, that approached the southwest corner/intersection of the Capitol building.

The odd thing that I noticed was that BOOMS were happening when I was about halfway to the Capitol. Now I had watched the ANTIFA/BLM riots all summer and into the fall, I knew what I was hearing. It was flashbangs, concussion grenades, thunder sticks, tear gas or worse. I was praying it was not grenades or hand bombs, I couldn't see well so I had no idea.

I was exhausted by the time I got within 100 meters of the SW corner of the Capitol Lawn. I had been standing since 7AM in 40 degree cold, I was looking for somewhere to sit and rest before I moved in any further.

I saw a plastic type fence that was pushed over and pulled apart, and everyone was walking past it, so I did too. I found myself heading toward some porta-potties and there was a massive line of people lined up for TWO porta-potties. (I thought the DC Mayor was responsible for that, the bitch).

I walked past those porta-potties and saw my savior, a portable light all unit it was sitting there with the hitch down, and I saw a SEAT! I walked over sat down in pain and was relieved it had been nearly 8 hours standing and my legs were locked up.

No more than 30 seconds passed with me seated and my left eye started having severe pain. I thought I got a piece of sand in it or something. Then this group of around 30 men came running past me in front of me and then it hit me, TEAR GAS CLOUD, they drug it right into me.... dammit no more resting my legs, I was choked out and followed them to the south away from the Western Entrance of the Capitol building. I was right in the middle of their group. They were almost all in black, tactical gear, ear pieces, clipboards and some of them were directing the others with comments shouted "my guys with me, heading south to rally up". They had bee lined to a temporary construction site on the south side of the capitol lawn. Manager trailers, construction sheds etc.

There were 2 police guarding this area, when this large group showed up the police did nothing to stop them. This group went straight to a shed, opened it up and started pulling out 3 foot long metal pipes. At least 20 of these guys now were armed with metal pipes. I was wearing all kinds of Trump gear, red and had a flag, I stood out like a sore thumb, so I dipped ASAP, I didn't know if these guys were terrorists, ANTIFA, BLM, traitors or a false flag group, but I knew the first 2 police I saw stepped aside and these guys went directly to a plastic shed, beige in color and opened it up and get their metal poles.

I continued east around the Capitol, past some dead rose bushes and under a huge green pipe, I was right up against the south side of the capitol trying to slip away. I turned to keep an eye on these guys, they had all went north back to the Capitols SE side and were climbing up some scaffolding, they got onto the 2nd or 3rd floor, I am not sure and I then headed out...east.

I ended up on the SE corner of the capitol, now exhausted, tired, feeling like I was about to puke and recovering from tear gas attack. I hopped over 2 rows of silver aluminum interlocking fence lines, there were not many people on the east side at all. I noticed the SE steps of the Capitol were still fenced off, the people that were there were all on the North and NE side of the Capitol, about 100 meters away from the building behind those fences I had to jump out of. I guess I somehow ended up behind the police line when I transitioned from SW to SE side, getting away from the tear gas the that bad intention group with metal pipes.

I found a bench on a sidewalk on the SE of the Capitol, there was an area behind me with a few news crews setup filming the events with Capitol as a backdrop for the reporters. I was done, too cold, chaos happening, starving... I went back to my hotel. I spent about 90 minutes at the hotel, warmed up, ate, put on more clothes and then headed back to the SE side of the Capitol around 4PM. I saw a lot of people leaving and walking past me, many said I was too late that a breach happened and I missed it, that a girl was shot, that all kinds of nuts stuff went down.

I got back to the SE corner of the Capitol around 4:30PM or so, I don't know. The outer fencing was all moved and opened up, you could walk right up to the double doors on the SE and East Steps and there were thousands of people on both sets of steps. The doors on the east side were all secured. There was a trail of blood on the ground heading south.

I was in my full military uniform (retiree) at this point, easy to see I was a veteran. Talked to a lot of people as I sat on a concrete barrier east of the Capitol building. Heard all kinds of stories, people were pissed off that things went the way they did. I talked to a lot of police, so many stories and points of view. I saw FBI roll in in full long barrel kits and body armor, talked to them a bit. Not sure who else showed up, maybe NG. I was told curfew was at 6PM. I stayed till 6:30 because I am a rebel like that... talked to Capitol Police the entire time, told them unless Mayor comes to get my herself I am leaving lol... they laughed hahah.

I did leave and went back to the hotel around 6:45PM, the hotel lobby was packed with rally goers, each had stories we spent around 3 hours in the lobby sharing them. Then I needed to get a shower and some sleep, that is what I did... that was my story.

President Trump had nothing to do with the "insurrection" and it was not an insurrection, if anything, by him deciding to have a "morning event" and tell everyone to NOT bring anything but yourselves and clothes, he SAVED LIVES by delaying his speaking part and making it run PAST the initial show/start time of the Capitol event that was slated to start at 1PM.

The real culprits were the people who showed up at 12:45, didn't even go or know about the White House ellipse rally event, and just rushed in hell bent on ruining the event and causing chaos, which is what they did.

• Military Retiree out.