Walking You Through 'The Breach'
Hello readers!
It has been a while. I am finally able to share the project that I have been working on for the past few months. It’s a book called “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January 6.”
The book was written by Denver Riggleman, an ex-congressman and former senior adviser to the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. Helping Denver tell his story was the honor of a lifetime. As any regular reader of this site knows, I was at the Capitol on January 6 and, ever since, have dedicated myself to exposing what happened that day. Bringing Denver’s story to the world is the culmination of those efforts.
I believe this book contains some of the most dramatic revelations about the attack on the Capitol and the involvement of the Trump administration as well as Republican members of Congress in the violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“The Breach” is out tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to give you all a sense of some of the more noteworthy revelations contained in this book:
Denver advised the committee from August 2021 through April 2022. During that time, he led and assembled a team that was focused on telephone analysis. These investigators helped the committee obtain phone records from persons of interest including high-level associates of President Trump and individuals who have been charged with participating in the Capitol attack. The team used this data to compile maps that — quite literally — show the direct links between the political and militant components of the effort to overturn the election. The largest map was dubbed “The Monster” by Denver and his team. He discussed it in more detail in an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday.
Phone records obtained by Denver’s team showed there was a call to a rioter’s cell phone that was connected through the White House switchboard during the Capitol attack. Following Denver’s appearance on “60 Minutes,” CNN identified the rioter who received the call as Anton Lunyk, a Brooklyn, New York man who entered the Capitol building on January 6. Lunyk claimed to CNN that he doesn’t remember receiving the brief call and that he didn’t know anyone in the White House. Despite Lunyk’s denials, the call from a White House landline to a rioter is the first definitive, publicly reported connection between Trump’s West Wing and the violent mob as it stormed the Capitol building.
The committee’s link maps also show extensive coordination between militant groups that took part in the attack, namely the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Along with communicating with each other, these groups were in extensive contact with Trump associates and activists who planned rallies that occurred in Washington on January 6.
Denver’s team also helped analyze and decipher thousands of text messages that were provided to the committee by Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. He describes these messages as “irrefutable time-stamped proof of a comprehensive plot — at all levels of government — to overturn a free and fair election and leave Trump in power.” That description is not remotely an exaggeration. The texts show members of Congress — including many whose role has not been previously detailed — sharing deranged conspiracy theories and working on plots to overturn the election. They also reveal that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was leading efforts to fight Trump’s loss and working out of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a right wing group that later employed Meadows. The book also explains how the texts were likely just the tip of the iceberg.
“The Breach” is largely focused on the data. It is not based on opinions or analysis. At the same time, in addition to presenting the raw evidence Denver details his own personal story, which includes growing up in a conservative religious home and going on to work as an air force intelligence officer and adviser to the secretive National Security Agency. Based on these experiences, Denver frames the “MAGA” wing of the Republican Party as a militant religious nationalist movement that uses many of the same techniques — both in terms of their operations and their efforts to radicalize recruits — that he saw when fighting Al Qaeda and ISIS. He also goes into emotional, painful detail about the insidious effect far right conspiracy theories have on families, including his own.
Denver also served one term in Congress as a Republican and member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus. He takes readers behind the scenes of the farthest right corners of the GOP including analyzing his own mistakes and going on record to accuse two colleagues — Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and former Iowa congressman Steve King — of openly espousing white supremacist rhetoric.
These are just a few of the things readers will learn in “The Breach.” You can pre-order it now or get it tomorrow wherever books are sold. I hope you believe this project is as important as I do and will check it out.
The Uprising is a newsletter dedicated to reporting on the January 6 attack and its aftermath. For the time being it is completely free. If you want to read more exclusive news and analysis, please sign up!
The book sounds interesting, but there's been considerable criticism directed at the timing of the publication. Why release the book before the 1/6 Committee has completed its work?