One of the three DisruptJ20 agitators caught on camera discussing plans to set off fire alarms and spray butyric acid stink bombs at the “Deploraball” Thursday night has been arrested.
Scott Ryan Charney, identified as Scott Green in the Project Veritas video, was arrested late Thursday night and two other agitators are still being sought by police, The Washington Times reported.
The 34-year-old man arrested Thursday night for conspiracy to commit assault at the event was among the activists featured in the undercover video released this week, according to court documents made public on Friday.
Scott Ryan Charney was one of the three men caught on camera discussing plans to set off fire alarms and spray Butyric acid — an ingredient commonly used in stink bombs — at the National Press Club, where the party for Donald Trump supporters was held Thursday night. In the Project Veritas video, Mr. Charney is identified as Scott Green, the documents state.
Project Veritas this week publicly released an undercover video taken Dec. 18 that shows three men associated with the D.C. Antifascist Coalition and DisruptJ20 group discussing plans to disrupt the DeploraBall.
After the release of the video, DisruptJ20 organizers told the media that they knew all along that the Project Veritas undercover journalist was a plant and they were just leading him on.
That explanation may have fooled the mainstream media, which held off on reporting on the Veritas videos, but it didn’t fool the D.C. police.
Court documents state that police relied on the video turned over to investigators on Tuesday by the unidentified witness as well as emails sent between protest organizers when they filed the criminal charge against Mr. Charney. The court documents do not indicate how the emails were obtained, but state that Mr. Charney wrote to several individuals that he had conducted reconnaissance at the National Press Club, and believed the the group “would be able to accomplish their objective ‘with no negative consequences for our side, nor any collateral damage.’”
Mr. Charney “went on to further discuss that more people would be needed inside the building to carry out their plans,” according to the court documents. The email message states that the group would further discuss the plans in person.
Charney was arraigned on the charges in D.C. Superior Court on Friday where he pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge. He was released from custody on the condition he stay away from the inauguration zone throughout the rest of the weekend, the Times reports. The two other men being sought by police, identified as Luke Kuhn and Colin Dunn in the video, have not yet been taken into custody.
Several of the left-wing agitators had bought tickets to the Deploraball, but the tickets were refunded as soon as organizers discovered (thanks to the Project Veritas videos) who they were. In a tweet on January 17, Deploraball organizers announced that they had also shared evidence of their ticket purchases and guest requests with police, noting that police were building a case of criminal conspiracy.
Two days later, Charney was arrested for conspiracy to commit assault at the Deploraball.
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