AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
- "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander said on Saturday that he will not challenge his congressional subpoena.
- He received the subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee, a House group charged with investigating the Capitol riot.
- "The only reason I'm going is because I don't want to go to jail," Alexander said in a Telegram message.
Ali Alexander, the organizer behind the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, DC, said he will comply with a congressional subpoena over his role in the Capitol riot on January 6.
The rally was where then President Donald Trump spoke before a crowd of his supporters. The rally led up to the siege on the Capitol, which left five people, including one police officer, dead.
Rioters were emboldened by Trump's calls to protest the results of the 2020 election, despite Democrat Joe Biden's victory. While members of Congress were meeting inside the Capitol to certify the results and verify Biden's presidency, Trump supporters attempted a coup and stormed the Capitol.
The January 6 Select Committee, made up of a group of Republican and Democratic representatives, has been issuing subpoenas to collect documentation and testimony in its investigation of the Capitol riot.
Alexander has received a subpoena and announced in a Telegram message Saturday evening that he would comply.
He said he wouldn't challenge the subpoena because he doesn't have "money to spend on legal bills."
"The only reason I'm going is because I don't want to go to jail," he said. "So under the threat of imprisonment and spending tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers, I will be privately deposed before this committee in December."
So far, at least 702 people have been charged in relation to the riot.
In February, CNN reported that FBI affidavits and court documents showed insurrectionists scrambled to delete photos and social-media posts proving their participation in the Capitol riot. Some reportedly broke their cellphones, scrubbed their social-media accounts, and tried to wipe hard drives that might contain photos and other proof of their involvement, CNN reported.
But others boasted of their involvement, making it easier for the FBI to charge them.
source https://www.businessinsider.com/stop-the-steal-organizer-will-comply-with-congressional-subpoena-2021-11