A suspected Capitol rioter showed up at the U.S.-Mexico border during this week’s visit by Republican lawmakers, telling them he was an “independent journalist” with Border Network News, CNN reported on Friday.
Anthony Aguero, reportedly a close ally of freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted a livestream of the event on his YouTube channel, interviewing multiple GOP House members including Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Tom Tiffany (Wis.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Mary Miller (Ill.), Ronny Jackson (Texas), John Rose (Tenn.) and Chris Jacobs (N.Y.).
Aguero even served as a translator during parts of the trip, according to CNN.
“I appreciate the Congressmen and Congresswomen that went out of their way to come to the Border to see the crisis for themselves,” he told the network.
Buckley Carlson, deputy communications director of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which organized the lawmakers’ trip, reportedly said the group did not know who Aguero was and his presence was “purely incidental.”
“Chairman [Jim] Banks [R-Ind.] never spoke to the individual in question, the Republican Study Committee was unaware of his identity and whereabouts on January 6, and he did not travel with our group to the border,” Carlson said.
Aguero has not been formally charged over the insurrection, but CNN’s KFile showed he went into the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6 and was cheering “our house” on the building’s steps.
The far-right conservative YouTuber is known for documenting the southern border and has a history of criminal violence, CNN reported.
Mitchell Hailstone, the RSC’s communications director, told The Hill in a statement that CNN’s story is “absurd and false.”
“The RSC did not invite this person to the border and has no knowledge of who he is. He most certainly did not accompany the RSC in any way,” the statement reads. “It appears he is an independent journalist who showed up on his own to cover the border crisis with several others who are there doing the same on a regular basis.”
“The story is more troubling considering CNN did accompany us to the border,” Hailstone added.
— Updated at 2:09 p.m.