FILE – Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump stand outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. The public hearings of the House committee investigating the insurrection pose a challenge to Democrats seeking to maintain narrow control of Congress. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
A document filed in federal court on Wednesday appears to lay out a plan in which Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, would have occupied congressional office buildings as well as the Supreme Court and demanded a new election in an effort to prevent President Biden from taking office.
The document, titled “1776 Returns,” had previously been referenced by prosecutors who charged a group of Proud Boys leaders with seditious conspiracy over their role in the attack on the Capitol last year.
An attorney representing Zachary Rehl, one of the Proud Boy defendants, attached the document to a motion submitted Wednesday, asking for her client to be released from pretrial detention.
It’s unclear who drew up the plan or whether the group had agreed to set it into motion. The document does not list the Capitol building itself as one of the targets to occupy.
Prosecutors said earlier this month that Enrique Tarrio, the former national leader of the Proud Boys, had received the document about a week before Jan. 6 from an unnamed female acquaintance.
The plan calls for groups to infiltrate and then occupy the Supreme Court and six buildings that house the offices for members of Congress.
The goal of the plan was to “maintain control over a select few, but crucial buildings in the DC area for a set period of time, presenting our demands in unity.”
“We need many people as possible inside these buildings,” the document reads. “These are OUR buildings, they are just renting space. We must show our politicians We the People are in charge.”
While the plan did not call for storming the Capitol building on Jan. 6, prosecutors suggested earlier this month that Tarrio was referencing the plan that day while communicating with Proud Boys who were participating in the riot.
The chief demand outlined in the plan was for a new presidential election, to be conducted with only in-person voting using paper ballots and monitored by the National Guard.
The document ends by calling out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), then-Vice President Mike Pence and the billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates. “We the People are watching you,” the documents warns the group.