SALT LAKE CITY — More than two-and-a-half years after he was one of the first people arrested in the Capitol riots, jury selection begins Tuesday for John E. Sullivan.
Sullivan, a 29-year-old former speedskater who resides in the Salt Lake City area, will stand trial on seven counts. He has pleaded not guilty.
Of the 15 Utahns charged with crimes related to the riot, Sullivan is the first to take his case to trial.
Much has been made of Sullivan’s presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and at social justice protests in the months before that. Here’s what to know about him and his trial.
What are the charges and the accusations?
The most serious counts are possession of a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds, entering or remaining in a restricted building with a weapon, and a count of disruptive behavior in a restricted building with a dangerous weapon. Those have sent other Jan. 6 defendants to prison.
He is also charged with a count of obstructing an official proceeding, as well as three other counts that amount to civil disorder or parading or picketing without authorization.
Prosecutors allege Sullivan entered the building with the other rioters while carrying a knife. Once inside, according to court documents, videos — including those shot by Sullivan — show him cheering and encouraging the rioters.
A count of lying to the FBI was dismissed last month.
Who is Sullivan?
Sullivan went by Jayden X on Twitter, the platform now called X. He was a fixture at social justice protests in Utah during the summer of 2020. He had been charged with misdemeanors over a protest in Provo. A judge dismissed those charges earlier this year.
Sullivan has called himself a journalist, but he did not have the requisite press credentials on Jan. 6.
“And clearly, journalists would not be there participating, getting so close and shouting the things he did and carrying a knife,” said Mark Denbeaux, a professor emeritus of law at Seton Hall University who has researched the demographics of the Capitol riot defendants.
Sullivan sold some of his footage from the Capitol riot. The government seized about $90,000 from Sullivan in 2021 and is asking a judge for permission to keep that money. Sullivan, meanwhile, has said in court filings he is broke and living with his parents. A motion filed by Sullivan's lawyer asking the government to pay expenses related to his client's travel to Washington for the trial was denied by a judge Monday, saying he did not have the authority to order such a reimbursement.
He wasn’t a plant. Really.
Due to Sullivan’s advocacy for police reforms, rightwing politicians and commentators have accused Sullivan of being an agitator or even an FBI informant sent to entrap Donald Trump supporters.
There’s no evidence of that. Sullivan has denied being an organizer of the riot. Multiple news outlets have investigated Sullivan and not linked him to any conspiracies. Nor did the Justice Department charge Sullivan with conspiracy or a count of insurrection.
Samantha Kutner, the co-founder and chief intelligence officer of Glitter Pill, LLC, which tracks extremism, says Republicans have used Sullivan as a deflection strategy designed to minimize what happened on Jan. 6.
“I'd say most people at this point who continue to circulate this narrative are fully conscious of what they're doing,” Kutner said.
What’s the defense?
It appears Sullivan and his attorney plan to tell the jury he was there as a journalist. They have subpoenaed Jade Sacker, a documentary filmmaker who was with Sullivan at the Capitol and who made a film about Sullivan and his brother.
In other Capitol riot trials, defendants have also attacked the charges on technical grounds, such as contending that the defendants’ presence didn’t put then-Vice President Mike Pence at risk nor obstruct Congress. That has rarely worked. Of the more than 1,000 people charged in relation to the insurrection, only a few have been acquitted of even one of their charges.