CNN, NBC Paid Left-wing Capitol Rioter $35,000 Each for Footage of Violence

John Sullivan, who is the founder of Insurgence USA — a social justice group that he sta
Courtesy Tooele County Sheriff’s Department
Joel B. Pollak

CNN and NBC each paid left-wing filmmaker John Sullivan $35,000 for his footage of violence during the Capitol riot, according to court documents filed by his attorneys.

Politico reported Tuesday that a federal magistrate judge allowed Sullivan to keep his Twitter and Facebook accounts, “but ordered him to end his involvement with a business he founded that the Justice Department says promotes and glorifies violent protests.”

Moreover, Politico noted:

The defendant, John Sullivan of Utah, has maintained that he attends raucous demonstrations as a journalist, sharing videos through his Insurgence USA website and social media platforms. Sullivan’s defense attorney even filed invoices with the court showing that CNN and NBC each paid Sullivan’s firm $35,000 last month for rights to video he filmed of chaotic scenes outside and inside the Capitol, including the deadly shooting of protester Ashli Babbitt by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

However, prosecutors contend that Sullivan is not a mere bystander or chronicler of protests. Instead, they say, he actively encourages violence, telling viewers how to make Molotov cocktails and evade identification by police. He was arrested last month on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, including interfering with police during a civil disorder. Sullivan was later hit with an additional charge: obstruction of Congress.

Update: Sullivan was also reportedly paid by other networks, including $5,000 from Showtime’s The Circus.

As Breitbart News noted in January, Sullivan founded Insurgence USA during the George Floyd riots last year.

Sullivan claimed to be a journalist merely documenting events, but he allegedly had no journalistic credentials, and evidence presented by federal prosecutors allegedly shows him joining in the violence and destruction.

Twitter has already apparently banned Sullivan’s account, though it waited two weeks to do so.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.