How one Jan. 6 participant cooperated with the FBI

AUGUST 2, 2022

THE BIG STORY

"You will go to your grave as a traitor": How one Jan. 6 participant cooperated with the FBI

Brandon Straka at a pro-Trump rally in New York City in March 2019 Stephanie Keith / Getty Images

Newly unsealed court documents detail the "significant information" that right-wing influencer Brandon Straka provided to the FBI as part of a plea deal over his involvement in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Last week, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered the unsealing of documents detailing his cooperation following a request from a coalition of media outlets, including BuzzFeed News. But in an apparent error, sealed attachments were also released despite the judge asking for additional information on whether these should be made public.

Over the course of several meetings with the FBI, Straka provided information regarding "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander and members Amy Kremer, Kylie Kremer, and Cindy Chafian. He also gave information about Simone Gold, the founder of America's Frontline Doctors, a group that has questioned COVID-19 vaccines and pushed unproven drugs. And at the end of last year, Straka's attorneys tipped the government off to a registered sex offender at the riot who "was not previously identified by the FBI."

Straka was sentenced in January to three months of home detention, a $5,000 fine, and three years of probation for one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. He's defended himself online against accusations of being a "snitch," insisting that he hadn't got anyone into trouble.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Brittney Griner's trial continued Tuesday

Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to accept a deal where Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan are released. The call last week was the highest level known exchange between Russia and the US since the start of the war, AP reported.
US schoolteacher Marc Fogel was also arrested in 2021 on drug charges after bringing cannabis into Russia. Fogel is currently serving a 14-year sentence in a high-security prison. His wife, Jane Fogel, told the Washington Post, "There's a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind" in the potential prisoner swap.

SNAPSHOTS

A 10-year-old girl is the last injured victim of the Uvalde shooting to be discharged from the hospital. Mayah Zamora was released Friday, 66 days after she was first admitted.

A 68-year-old neurologist has been found guilty of sexually abusing six of his patients at his offices in New York City, Philadelphia, and Hopewell, New Jersey. Ricardo Cruciani prescribed his patients highly addictive medicine and then withheld it unless they performed sexual acts on him.

Taylor Swift's representative tried to defend her CO2 emissions by claiming that she "regularly" loans out her private jet, and it's only made people more angry. What Taylor's jet reportedly put out in just 200 days equates to 1,184.8 times more than the average person's total emissions in an entire year, according to analytics from Yard.

"THAT'S THE SHEEP'S CLOTHING"

Why a bunch of lawmakers are asking questions about TikTok

Maddie Abuyuan / BuzzFeed News

Two separate BuzzFeed News investigations revealed that TikTok, the world's most popular app used by millions in the US, let its China-based parent company ByteDance repeatedly access the data of the app's American users. Following these investigations, Brendan Carr, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores.

"TikTok is not just another video app," Carr tweeted. "That's the sheep's clothing."

Nine Republican senators led by Marsha Blackburn also sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and demanded answers to questions about the privacy of American users.

ByteDance said former employees' allegations that they were instructed to promote pro-China content on the now-defunct news app Top Buzz were "false and ridiculous." Additionally, TikTok's internal PR documents, obtained by Gizmodo, showed how TikTok prepped its staff to answer tricky questions, including those about its links to China. "Downplay the parent company ByteDance, downplay the China association, downplay AI," one of the sentences in the documents reads.

"I'M THAT GIRL"

Has Beyoncé ever had fun like this?

Getty Images

Since her paradigm-shifting self-titled visual album in 2013, Beyoncé's career could be called many things: revolutionary, industry-shattering, sexually liberated, valiantly self-interrogational, and thrillingly ambitious among them, writes DJ Louie XIV. But "fun," save for a few highlights ("Blow" Hive, stand up!), doesn't immediately jump to mind.

The real question when it comes to Renaissance, a dazzling, dense vortex of Black and queer diasporic musical history filtered through a strikingly loose and gloriously libidinous Beyoncé, is: "Has Beyoncé ever had fun like this?"

Renaissance arrives as Beyoncé's first solo album in over six years, the first of her 40s, since the beginning and end of the Trump presidency, the COVID-19 pandemic, and in a pop music ecosystem completely subsumed by streaming. Throughout this record, pop's ultimate perfectionist has fully and finally hit the "fuck it" button, granting us an unfettered look at the thoroughly bizarre — and very horny — mind beneath the meticulous veneer.

Help is on the way,

Alexa

📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Alexa Lee and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.

👉 Your support of BuzzFeed's journalism does not constitute a charitable donation, and your contribution is not eligible for a tax-deduction. This is part of an effort to explore a deeper relationship with our most active supporters.

🔔 Want to be notified as soon as news breaks? Download the BuzzFeed News app for iOS and Android (available in Canadian, UK, Australian, and US app stores).

💌 Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get BuzzFeed News in your inbox!