The Groypers have been summoned by the January 6 Select Committee.
On Wednesday evening, the congressional committee tasked with investigating the Capitol riot issued a pair of subpoenas, for Nicholas Fuentes and Patrick Casey, both white nationalist leaders of an organization called America First. Their gaggle of edgelord, MAGA-capped followers are often known as “Groypers”—and their big blue flag saying AF—or AMERICA FIRST—has been a mainstay of pro-Trump rallies. The flag was also seen fluttering inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Videos by VICE
Both Fuentes, 23, and Casey, 32, were on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, and were heavily involved in “Stop the Steal” events leading up to the riot, according to letters sent to both men by the committee.
At the “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, 2020, Fuentes reportedly urged his followers to “storm every state capitol until January 20, 2021, until President Trump is inaugurated for four more years.” He also said conservatives needed to be “more feral” in their efforts to overturn the results of the election, according to the bipartisan committee.
The committee also noted that photos and video footage appeared to show Groypers inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. The next day, Fuentes wrote on Twitter, “The Capitol Siege was fucking awesome and I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t.”
Fuentes and Casey also received $250,000 and $25,000, respectively, in Bitcoin from a French programmer the month before the insurrection. That programmer had sent a total of $500,000 in Bitcoin to far-right activists before dying by suicide. The FBI has been investigating those funds to determine whether they were used to organize the Capitol attack or any other illegal acts, according to the committee.
Fuentes and Casey have been key figures in the modern white nationalist movement over the last five years. They both attended the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. At that point, Fuentes had already established a reputation as a far-right livestreamer.
Casey later became the leader of Identity Evropa, a now-defunct preppy white nationalist group whose members marched in Charlottesville. While acting as a leader of Identity Evropa, Casey was vocal about his goal to take his white nationalist ideology mainstream and gain a foothold in GOP politics. Casey was deposed as a witness in the massive civil case against leaders of Unite the Right.
Fuentes, who still spews racist vitriol on his podcasts today, continued to build a following in the wake of Unite the Right, and they assumed the title of “Groyper Army.” In late 2019, Fuentes and the Groypers began heckling events hosted by Turning Point USA, a Trump-loving conservative student organization. They were targeting this particular group because of recent statements they’d made decrying racism and promoting inclusivity.
In 2020, Fuentes held his first America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), which was intended to rival the annual conservative conference CPAC. The following year, Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right congressman from Arizona, was a keynote speaker at AFPAC. Fuentes had also posted a photo of himself and Gosar having coffee together at a restaurant with the caption “great meeting!”
“The Select Committee is seeking facts about the planning, coordination, and funding of events that preceded the violent attack on our democracy,” Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement announcing the subpoenas against Fuentes and Casey. “The committee will continue to push forward to get answers for the American people and help ensure nothing like January 6th ever happens again.”
