Insurgence USA leader paid tens of thousands by CNN and NBC for Capitol riot footage, he says

A self-styled leftist activist disavowed by Black Lives Matter leaders said he was paid tens of thousands of dollars by major media outlets that wanted to use the video footage he shot at the Capitol as he encouraged the mob during the siege on Jan. 6.

John Sullivan, founder of Insurgence USA, was indicted in early February for a host of crimes, including two felonies related to obstruction during Congress’s efforts to count and certify President Biden’s Electoral College victory over former President Donald Trump.

Video taken by the 25-year-old showed him following and encouraging Trump supporters from the entrance of the Capitol all the way to the moment when 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who attempted to climb through a window into the Speaker's Lobby, was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.

In arguing he was a journalist and not an agent provocateur, Sullivan’s lawyer, Steven Kiersh, submitted four invoices purportedly from major broadcasters, revealing a $35,000 payment to Sullivan from CNN for video license usage spanning from Jan. 6 through Jan. 13, a $35,000 payment from NBC Universal Media dated Jan. 27, a $5,000 undated payment for “footage of the siege of the Capitol” citing his Twitter page to be used on Showtime’s The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, and a $2,375 payment from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation dated Jan. 27.

The Justice Department previously laid out how Sullivan allegedly violated a Utah judge’s conditions of release, including accessing three of his Twitter accounts in contravention of the court’s instructions, flouting the supervision officer’s instructions by buying a new phone, appearing on InfoWars to defend his actions, and to encourage people to follow his group, and mass emailing his Insurgence USA members to “Pack The Courtroom."

"Insurgence USA is not deemed to have been involved in any criminal activity," Sullivan's lawyer claimed Tuesday as he attached the media invoices. "Defendant is legitimately self-employed as a documentarian and it is oppressive to require that he not be allowed to continue his primary area of employment for an extended period of time."