Marjorie Taylor Greene Edits Post to Remove New Jan. 6 Conspiracy

Marjorie Taylor Greene has reportedly removed content promoting a new January 6, 2021 conspiracy from her profile on X, formerly known as Twitter. She had shared claims that a rioter holding a vape on that fateful day was instead a law-enforcement officer in disguise, holding a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) badge.

"I'm calling on @SpeakerJohnson to create a January 6th Select Committee. Releasing the tapes is not enough!," Greene wrote in her original post published on Sunday on X. "There needs to be investigations and ACCOUNTABILITY for ALL of the lies, deceit, and lives ruined," she added. "Every member of the Jan 6th committee, Nancy Pelosi, FBI, DOJ [Department of Justice], DC Police, Cap[itol] Police, Jan 6 witnesses who lied, all need to be subpoenaed. Criminal referrals must be written and prosecutions MUST happen under a Trump DOJ."

On Friday, the newly elected House Speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, said that he wants to release all of 44,000 hours of Jan. 6 footage to the public. By the afternoon of the same day, Johnson had released 90 hours of footage to the House Administration Committee's website.

"That's a law enforcement badge in his hand while disguised as a Trump supporter in a MAGA hat," Greene wrote in a line later deleted. It referred to the image of a rioter at the Capitol holding a vape. Many commenting on the post wrote that what Greene thought was an FBI badge in the hand of an officer in disguise and wearing a MAGA hat was really convicted January 6 rioter Kevin Lyons holding a vape in his hand. Newsweek contacted Greene's spokesperson for comment by email on Monday.

Greene later edited the post to delete that line and the image attached, but it can still be seen by reviewing the edits on the social-media platform. X introduced the possibility of editing posts under the leadership of new owner Elon Musk. Greene kept the post's conclusion unchanged: "I've said it all along, MAGA did not do this," she wrote.

The same claim—that a rioter holding a vape was really an FBI officer holding a badge—was made by Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who published two posts on X supporting the unfounded theory.

"Liz, we've seen footage like that a million times," Lee wrote on X in response to former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney sharing footage from the riots on January 6, 2021.

"You made sure we saw that—and nothing else. It's the other stuff—what you deliberately hid from us—that we find so upsetting. Nice try," Lee added. "P.S. How many of these guys are feds? (As if you'd ever tell us)."

In another post on Saturday, Lee shared a post by former Republican Rep. Derrick Evans, who asked if an image of a rioter holding a vape was an FBI officer "flashing a badge."

Lee wrote: "I can't wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing." Newsweek contacted Lee's office for comment by phone on Monday but did not receive an immediate response.

Lyons, a 40-year-old father from Chicago identified in the video as the person holding a vape, not a badge, was sentenced to more than four years in prison for his part in the assault of the Capitol building. Fact-checking on X said that Lyons was holding his vape, a photograph of John Lewis and a wallet stolen from then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the moment of the photo referred to by Evans, Lee and Greene.

On the day of the Capitol riots, Lyons called police officers "Nazi b*******" and "SS." Before his sentencing, Lyons told the judge he had a lot of shame for what he did on January 6, adding that he was an idiot.

More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riots until now, despite MAGA Republicans like Greene trying to reframe the riots as a patriotic event, and those charged with crimes related to the day as political prisoners.