Documentary filmmaker and progressive activist Michael Moore participated in a November 2016 rally against then-President-elect Donald Trump that was allegedly organized by Russian interests seeking to stir political unrest in America.
The 63-year-old Fahrenheit 9/11 director joined other protesters outside Trump Tower in New York City on November 12, 2016 for a “Trump is NOT my president” rally, one of several demonstrations that Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleged Friday was organized as part of a Russian campaign to sow political discord in the U.S. following the presidential election.
The indictment against 13 Russian nationals unveiled Friday alleged that outside actors organized both pro- and anti-Trump rallies following the election.
Moore — an outspoken activist who produced an anti-Trump documentary before the election and an anti-Trump one-man Broadway play last year — had shared photos and videos from the November 12 protest on his social media accounts.
“I’m going to join the people who’ve formed a protest of this racist, sociopath on his way to the White House,” Moore said in a widely-viewed Facebook Live video at the time.
The filmmaker had attempted to gain access to Trump Tower during the protest, but was rebuffed by Secret Service agents, as Breitbart News reported.
He later left a note with a doorman that read: “Mr. Trump. I’m here. I want to talk with you.”
Moore has previously accused Trump of colluding with the Russians during the 2016 campaign. In a March post to his Instagram account, the filmmaker called on Democrats to announce a “national emergency” until such time as the FBI could determine the extent of the allegations.
“No bill he supports, no Supreme Court nominee he has named, can be decided while he is under a criminal investigation,” Moore wrote. “His presidency has no legitimacy until the FBI – and an independent investigative committee — discovers the truth.”
Moore most recently appeared at the “People’s State of the Union,” a rally organized by celebrity critics of the Trump administration held the day before the president’s first State of the Union address.
“The need to remove him — and also any Democrat who is in the way of removing him — that is, at this point, a moral imperative for each and every one of us,” he said at the event. “Removing him, and Pence, and the whole disgusting lot of them… still won’t be enough. We must remove and replace the system and the culture that gave us Trump in the first place.”
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum