John Sullivan, also known as JaydenX, a 29-year-old Utah resident and a January 6 riot instigator and agent provocateur, will be sentenced on Friday afternoon by Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee. In November, he was found guilty on charges including felony obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder. Sullivan has been in custody since his conviction last year. The government is seeking a seven-year sentence, among the longer prison terms imposed on January 6 defendants.
Sullivan posed as a supporter of then-President Donald Trump to conceal his Black Lives Matter/Antifa activism as the leader of Insurgence USA while inciting the riot at the Capitol and bragging about being “on the front lines.” He entered the Capitol through a broken window. In video footage played for jurors, Sullivan says, “I brought my megaphone to instigate s***” and to “make those Trump supporters f*** s*** up.”
During closing arguments, a federal prosecutor told the jury that Sullivan went to the Capitol with the “goal of inciting the crowd.” and to “foment anarchy.” Sullivan was indeed an anarchist, who prosecutors described as an “antiestablishment” activist who wanted to “burn it all down.”
Sullivan told documentary filmmaker Jade Sacker, who entered the Capitol alongside him, that he was:
siding with anyone willing to rip this down and put something new in place, put something better in place.
Prosecutors said that Sullivan carried a knife at “two of the most serious inflection points.” He offered his retractable knife with a nearly 4-inch blade to rioters gathered at the House Main door as it was guarded by officers, saying:
Hey guys, I have a knife. I have a knife. Let me up.
In his interview with the FBI, he admitted to wearing a gas mask and ballistic vest inside the Capitol.
In the aftermath of the riot, Sullivan sold his video footage, including the killing of Ashli Babbitt, to media outlets. At the same time, he rebranded himself as a journalist in hopes that claiming freedom of the press would exempt him from prosecution.