“I’m a normal dude,” James tells the camera in a video posted to his wife Audrey’s TikTok account in early June. “The corruption and fraud that is being perpetrated by our government is absurd.” “I quite frankly believe him to be an American hero,” says Rachel Ann Halligan, who lives close to the Jameses in Arab. But many saw James as a man motivated by love of country, exercising First Amendment rights, who was ensnared in a politicized witch hunt. 6 to TIME as a legitimate protest over an election they wrongly believed to have been fraudulent. In Arab, where American and Confederate flags compete for space on some front porches with make America great again banners, more than two dozen residents described the events of Jan. The insurrectionists’ grievances were so strong, prosecutors allege, that they took the law into their own hands.īut this view has found strong support across the country. politicians who were the true enemies of the state. Many claimed they had been betrayed by U.S.
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6 were full of phrases like save the Republic and defend America, according to court filings. The communications between James and other veterans on Jan. In doing so, prosecutors allege, its members miscast criminality as patriotism. Over time, James found community in the Oath Keepers, which used the familiar terminology and camaraderie of military life to mobilize vets in support of a variety of right-wing causes. Many had served in the protracted post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, returning home to a country that paid them lip service but moved on without much notice to the wars they had fought. military, according to a George Washington University analysis. 6 riot, at least 1 in 10 was a current or former member of the U.S. Of the more than 500 people arrested in connection with the Jan. After his service, and rehabilitation from his injuries, he struggled to rebuild his life. Capitol is a mystery, there are clues to what drove him. If James’ decision to leave his family to join an attack on the U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta told him at an April hearing. James, I’ve got to tell you, I’m not sure of why anyone in your position, given the life that you’ve led, would do this,” D.C. The man presiding over James’ case professed bafflement. Federal prosecutors have described the Capitol rioters as a fringe group of violent extremists, conspiracy theorists and madmen. “This is my f-cking building!”įor many, reconciling the war hero and family man with the Jan. “Get out of my Capitol,” James allegedly shouted at riot officers. James was among the throngs of supporters of defeated President Donald Trump who rammed their way into the seat of American democracy. A federal conspiracy indictment contends James and at least 15 other members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, had organized, equipped and trained ahead of the siege that left five dead and dozens more injured. 6 of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory, investigators say, by coordinating and recruiting others to travel to Washington with paramilitary gear, including guns, tactical vests, helmets and radio equipment. military.īut the federal agents who showed up on James’ doorstep on March 9 described a very different man: an extremist who had not just broken the law but also carried out an assault on the same government he had sworn to defend as a soldier.įor weeks, James had helped plan an operation to disrupt the certification on Jan. Those who knew him better considered him a local hero-an Army combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient who got choked up when he talked to local teenagers about enlisting in the U.S. “Josh? You mean our Josh?” In Arab, a town of 8,380 in northeastern Alabama, much of the community knew James, 34, as a soft-spoken, God-fearing family man with three young kids who ran his own pressure-washing business. Claudia Schultz was walking out of her jewelry shop on the town’s small main street when another store owner told her Joshua James had been arrested. But even from afar, there was no mistaking the outsize yellow letters on the uniformed figures entering the single-story house at the end of the two-lane road: FBI. Some thought the police had found an escaped inmate who had been a leading story on the local news. Sound carries in the country, and on the rural outskirts of Arab, Ala., curious neighbors stepped onto their porches, craning their necks to see what was going on. These appear in KeyMappings.The crackle of handheld radios broke the morning stillness. This page lists all of the default controls, as well as the associated entries in KeyMappings.xml, which can be found in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\Heroes and Generals