Gay #WalkAway Founder Pleads Guilty for 1/6 Riot
Brandon Straka, 44, will be sentenced in January
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
An out gay Trump supporter
and founder of
an organization that
urged Democrats to
leave that party and join the Republican
Party has pleaded guilty
to a single count of disorderly conduct
for joining the mob of Christian
nationalists, neo-Nazis, Proud
Boys, and other right wing groups
that rioted at the US Capitol building
on January 6.
Brandon Straka agreed to plead
guilty to one count of “Engaging
in Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct
in the Capitol Building or
Grounds” in August, according to
US Department of Justice records.
The deal was made public on October
6. Straka, 44, faces up to six
months in jail and a $5,000 fi ne
when he is sentenced on December
17. He must also pay $500 for his
portion of the nearly $1.5 million
in damage the rioters caused to
the US Capitol building.
Straka, who declined to comment
for this story, became a darling
of the far right in 2018 when
he released a video announcing
that he was leaving the Democratic
Party. As the founder of the #Walk-
Away Campaign, he would go on to
make appearances on right wing
news outlets, at conservative conferences,
and at Trump campaign
rallies.
On his Facebook page on October
9, Straka wrote, “As we get
closer to a resolution and close the
book on this most recent chapter, a
new one begins. With that our new
boots on the ground movement
will begin under the label of the
#WalkAway Campaign Super PAC.
In order to defeat big-tech censorship
and drown out the noise of
the radical left, we need numbers
on the ground. We intend on creating
the largest grassroots movement
this country has ever seen,
and to do that we need your support
in signing up.”
Straka was not the committed
Democrat that he claimed to be
in his speeches and appearances.
His voting record in New York City
Out gay #WalkAway founder Brandon Straka pleaded guilty for his role on January 6 at the US Capitol.
shows that between 2004 and
2018, he voted in general elections
fi ve times and in a primary race
just once. In New York, Democrats
hold an advantage among registered
voters and the primaries often
decide the winner in the general
election.
Following Trump’s defeat in November
2020, Straka attended at
least one rally in Michigan and he
spoke at a January 5 #StoptheSteal
Coalition rally in Washington, DC.
“Patriots! Welcome to the revolution!”
Straka said at the Washington,
DC rally. “That’s right ladies
and gentlemen, we have before us
a revolution.”
He went on to decry complacency
among Americans on the right,
telling the audience that too many
had not heeded his warnings about
the election. Nothing in his speech
indicates that he was exhorting
his audience to be violent then or
the next day.
“And people still became complacent,”
he said. “It has taken us
getting this close to losing Donald
Trump to wake up the beast in
the American people. Make some
noise. Keep this fi re alive, today,
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/JARED HOLT
the next day when you go home
from Washington, DC, and every
day going forward until we stop
the steal and until we drain the
swamp in Washington, DC and get
back to a government of the people,
by the people, and for the people.”
The next day, Straka recorded
a video of himself on the Capitol
building steps in the middle of the
rioting. The Capitol grounds and
the building were closed to the
public that day. Straka is among
the more than 600 people who
have been charged with misdemeanors
or felonies for entering
the grounds or the building. There
is no evidence that Straka ever
went inside the building or joined
POLITICS
in the violence.
Videos made that day show the
rioters attacking police. Some rioters
brought guns, knives, clubs,
baseball bats, and other weapons
to the US Capitol building. One
police offi cer, Brian Sicknick, died
from natural causes following the
rioting and another four police offi
cers who fought the rioters died
of suicide.
In 2019, Straka booked space at
the LGBT Community Center in
Manhattan for a #WalkAway Campaign
event. Following a community
outcry, The Center canceled
the event and Straka sued charging
The Center had discriminated
against him and co-presenters.
That lawsuit was dismissed.
While Straka has avoided serious
consequences for his actions
on January 6, he faces the possibility
of further economic penalties.
Seven Capitol police offi cers
have sued Trump, the Trump campaign,
and other organizations
and individuals, including Straka,
charging the defendants violated
the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 federal
law that was intended to dismantle
the Klan and other racist
groups, and other laws during the
January 6 rioting. At least fi ve of
the offi cers are Black.
“Defendants violated the Ku Klux
Klan Act, which was designed to
prevent precisely the kinds of politically
and racially motivated violence
they caused and committed
on January 6,” the complaint in
that lawsuit charges. “Defendants
also committed bias-motivated
acts of terrorism and other torts
in violation of District of Columbia
law.”
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