A right-wing activist who helped organize the “Stop the Steal” rallies is reportedly cooperating with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Ali Alexander, a right-wing provocateur and longtime Republican operative, is cooperating with the House panel’s probe following a subpoena in October. He appeared for a deposition
Congressional investigators subpoenaed Alexander, who was born Ali Abdul Akbar, on Oct. 7. He was listed on a permit application for the “One Nation Under God” event, which was meant to be a rally for “the election fraud in the swing states.”
“Mr. Alexander explained it was the intention of Stop the Steal to direct earlier attendees of a rally on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 held by Women for America First and ‘sponsored’ by Stop the Steal to march at the conclusion of that rally to Lot 8 on the U.S. Capitol Grounds, which is the location for which the [U.S. Capitol Police] granted the permit for the ‘One Nation Under God,’ rally,” the committee wrote in a statement.
Alexander’s reported cooperation comes following several subpoenas by the committee. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the panel, announced on Thursday that the panel has already met with almost 300 witnesses and has “received exceptionally interesting and important documents” from witnesses, including former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Alexander is expected to emphasize that he was not involved in the violence of Jan. 6 during his opening statement to the committee on Thursday, according to a copy of his prepared remarks obtained by ABC News.
“I want to be crystal clear at the outset. I had nothing to do with any violence or lawbreaking that happened on January 6,” Alexander will say in his opening remarks.
“I had nothing to do with the planning. I had nothing to do with the preparation. And I had nothing to do with the execution. Any suggestion on the contrary is factually false. Anyone who suggests I had anything to do with the unlawful activities on January 6 is wrong. They’re either mistaken or lying,” he added.
He will also tell the committee that he has spent more than 80 hours searching through his archives to complete the panel’s subpoena and roughly 120 hours preparing for questions from the congressional investigators.
“It’s prevented me from working. It’s prevented me from sleeping, at times. It’s been extremely difficult and burdensome. But I am voluntarily here to do the patriotic thing,” he will say, according to ABC News.
Alexander is one of the rally organizers who has been vocal about allegedly cooperating with lawmakers ahead of Jan. 6. He has revealed on livestreams that he had discussions with Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).
“I was the one that came up with the Jan. 6 idea,” he said in one video.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” he said in a post that has since been deleted. He said the scheme was part of a plan to have people “hearing our loud road from outside.”
Both Brooks and Biggs denied being involved with Alexander. Gosar has not commented on the matter but his chief of staff told the New York Times that Gosar was not involved in planning.