Former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) acknowledged Monday that he was part of the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, after a Twitter account devoted to tracking down participants in the attack placed him at the scene.
“I marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand,” Rohrabacher told the Portland, Maine Press Herald. “But I was not there to make a scene and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”
The Twitter account @capitolhunters, a group effort to identify participants in the Jan. 6 attack, spotted Rohrabacher in several videos that it flagged on Saturday.
#SeditionHunters – Thursday’s arrest of Alan Hostetter highlighted extremism in Orange County, CA, but even he is junior-league. We knew OC would send their finest, and here he is, the highest-profile #SeditionVIP yet: former U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA 42). 1/ pic.twitter.com/yJDdR5aR4T
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) June 12, 2021
The Press Herald noted that Rohrabacher was nearly 500 feet beyond the police barriers, inside a restricted zone on the Capitol grounds.
Rohrabacher told the paper he believed “leftist provocateurs” had encouraged people to enter the building, echoing a common, baseless theory that many Capitol rioters themselves rejected following the attack because it took credit away from their actions.
“By going into the building, they gave the Left the ability to direct the discussion of what was going on in a way that was harmful to the things we believe in,” Rohrabacher said.
1:58 PM (Parler). At this point the mob has just broken through the police lines under the NW Scaffold. https://t.co/WVDNQxrZfb sighting 0:25
Clip by @StevieG54099097. 16/ pic.twitter.com/65qFKj22ie— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) June 14, 2021
3:20 PM (Parler). At this time Officer Fanone has been dragged into the crowd and is being tased.https://t.co/UZa96hEcPg sighting 0:26
Clip by @StevieG54099097. 18/ pic.twitter.com/HQELEEvZrt— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) June 14, 2021
The @capitolhunters account noted that Rohrabacher spoke at a December rally organized by Alan Hostetter, the ex-police chief turned yogi Trump fanatic who, along with five others, was hit with a conspiracy charge and other offenses recently for his alleged participation in the attack.
“We will not betray the sacrifices of those brave Americans from 1776 to this day by allowing communists to take control of our government!” Rohrabacher said at that December rally.
“And don’t mistake it, what we’ve got now are dedicated Marxist-Leninists who are trying to destroy the integrity of our voting system to make sure that they can overcome the people of this country.”
The former congressman, who lost his bid for reelection in 2018, moved to Maine in 2019.
