'Stop the Steal' organizer Ali Alexander appears before federal grand jury
Ali Alexander, the conservative activist behind the "Stop the Steal" movement, appeared Friday before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Alexander's attorney confirmed to ABC News.
Alexander provided nearly three hours of testimony to one of the grand juries impaneled in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., as part of the Department of Justice’s criminal probe into the events of Jan. 6, Alexander’s attorney, Paul Kamenar, said.
The appearance came six months after Alexander testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
In a written statement on Friday, Alexander said that several months ago he received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's office "requesting essentially the same documents I turned over to the January 6 Committee and to testify."
"I was assured that I was not a target but a fact witness," Alexander said in the statement. "I provided the documents requested and suggested they obtain my full transcript of my testimony from the January 6 Committee. They responded then that they cannot obtain those transcripts due to separation of powers and thus, they needed me to repeat my testimony here today."
Alexander, who organized a series of "Stop the Steal" rallies in the months leading up to Jan. 6, was at the U.S. Capitol during the attack but has said he was only there to de-escalate the conflict, and that his comments at rallies and on livestreams leading up to the riot have been taken out of context and misconstrued as encouraging violence.
"I did not plan or participate in any illegal activity, and in fact, pleaded with protestors not to enter the Capitol," he said in Friday's statement.
On Dec. 9, Alexander spent eight hours taking questions from the House Jan. 6 committee on everything from his organization's finances to his communications with Republican officials. Afterward Alexander described the tone of the questions as "absolutely adversarial," but said he was "truthful" with the committee.
Later that month, ABC News reported that Alexander had told congressional investigators that he had communicated with several House Republican lawmakers ahead of the Jan. 6 rally and Capitol riot, along with at least one member of the Trump family's inner circle. Alexander disclosed his communications in a lawsuit he filed challenging the panel from obtaining his phone records from Verizon.
Alexander disclosed his communications in a lawsuit he filed trying to prevent the panel from obtaining his phone records from Verizon.
"I am challenging in court the Select Committee's unlawful subpoena to Verizon to fish through my phone records and those of one of my volunteers whose only 'crime' was to exercise her First Amendment rights to pass out a few signs at the rallies, sing patriotic songs, and pray," Alexander said in Friday's statement.
