Fact check: D.C. police did not act as ‘private security’ for ‘Antifa’ on Jan. 6, claims feature old video

Posts on social media make the claim that the Washington D.C. Police “escorted Antifa” into the U.S. capital ahead of the January 6 protests. A spokeswoman for the D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told Reuters this assertion is false. As evidence, some iterations feature a mislabeled video that has been circulating since at least Dec. 5, 2020, allegedly showing St. Paul, Minnesota not Washington D.C.

Reuters Fact Check. REUTERS

Examples are visible on Twitter and Facebook here , here , here

Some iterations also feature a video as “evidence”, in which a man claims he saw three state trooper vehicles that “escorted four Antifa shuttle buses”. Posts are visible here , here , here , here .

Alaina Gertz, Public Affairs Specialist of the Washington MPD, told Reuters via email that “the Metropolitan Police Department does not act in the capacity of private security for any group.”

The claim appears to have originated from a tweet from the pro-Trump account @RED_IN_PA, who posted the video on January 3 here . In a subsequent less retweeted post here , the account clarified that the video “wasn’t now/recent; it was from a rally of ago”.

According to the earliest iteration Reuters could find, the video has been circulating since at least Dec. 8 2020 here , here , allegedly showing St. Paul, Minnesota on Dec. 5, 2020

It is also visible on microblogging and social networking service, Parler here

The scene appears to have been recorded somewhere near the Nov. 5 protest outside Governor’s Tim Walz residence, located here ( bit.ly/3s1ncQQ ). At the beginning of the video, the man appears to refer to Summit, the street where the house is located.

As reported by local media here , on Dec. 5 a Black Lives Matter demonstration counter protested a group supporting law enforcement that called for “an end to statewide COVID-19 restrictions” near the Governor’s Residence.

Reuters could not find any evidence to support the claim made in this video and could not independently verify the authenticity of the St Paul video. The Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

False. D.C. police did not escort “Antifa” into D.C. Posts feature a mislabeled video that has been circulating at least since Dec. 8, 2020 allegedly recorded at a protest in St. Paul, Minnesota.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts  here  .