Is ‘Stop the Steal’ Founder Ali Alexander Testifying at House Jan. 6 Panel Hearing?

“Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander will appear as a witness in front of the U.S. House Jan. 6 panel that is investigating the Capitol riot in June 2022.

Fact Check

On June 27, 2022, a Telegram account bearing the name of “Stop the Steal” founder Ali Alexander posted the message, “Flying to DC for a special appearance tomorrow.” The message appeared to indicate the possibility that Alexander might be a witness at a hearing conducted by the U.S. House Jan. 6 panel on the next day. However, this has not been confirmed. It’s possible that this was little more than a joke, better known as trolling.

This was the Telegram message as it appeared on the platform.

The Telegram message came just hours after the Jan. 6 committee had announced a surprise hearing. The panel had previously indicated that the next hearing on its schedule would be weeks away.

Three days earlier, on June 24, ABC News reported that Alexander had appeared “before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.” According to the story, he testified for nearly three hours in front of “one of the grand juries impaneled in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.”

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.

In December 2021, Alexander spent around eight hours taking questions from the House Jan. 6 committee. ABC News later reported during the same month 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.”

Less than an hour after the Telegram message was posted, Alexander posted on his Truth Social account, “Thank you for your prayers. We will always tell the TRUTH and let the chips fall where they may. God bless America!” Truth Social was launched as an effort by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has falsely reported the most recent presidential election was stolen from him.

This message was posted to the @ali Truth Social account.

We’re still in the process of researching the veracity of this unconfirmed rumor and will update this story again soon.

Sources:

Dukakis, Ali. “‘Stop the Steal’ Organizer Ali Alexander Appears before Federal Grand Jury.” ABC News, 24 June 2022, https://abcnews.go.com/US/stop-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-appears-federal-grand/story?id=85664204.

Jalonik, Mary Clare, and Farnoush Amiri. “Jan. 6 Panel Calls Surprise Hearing to Present New Evidence.” AP News, 27 June 2022, https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-donald-trump-government-and-politics-1da6f068c617ba5dc14c84e975fba453.

Siegel, Benjamin. “‘Stop the Steal’ Organizer Ali Alexander Told Jan. 6 Committee about Contacts with Republican Lawmakers.” ABC News, 18 Dec. 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/stop-steal-organizer-ali-alexander-told-jan-committee/story?id=81837303.

Siegel, Benjamin, and Ali Dukakis. “‘Stop the Steal’ Organizer Cooperating with Jan. 6 Committee Probe, Sits for 8-Hour Interview.” ABC News, 9 Dec. 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/stop-steal-leader-cooperating-jan-committee-probe-deposition/story?id=81645579.