Evidence reveals California Trump supporters' violent plot targeting Democrats to avenge election loss
Newly released evidence reveals a plot by a pair of Donald Trump supporters to blow up a variety of targets in California to avenge the former president's election loss.
Ian Rogers, a successful Napa Valley mechanic shop owner, and Jarrod Copeland, a salesman who used to work for him, spent the final months of 2020 discussing what targets to attack to avenge Trump's loss, and investigators say they intended to put their plan into action after the Jan. 6 insurrection, reported KQED-TV.
“I say we storm the capital armed on the 19,” Rogers wrote to Copeland, according to newly released text messages. “We gotta organize and do it. Mobilize the 3%.”
Copeland agreed, saying he was willing to die for the former president.
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“I have 5 nieces and a nephew that' s enough for me to lay down my life for,” Copeland said the day after the Capitol riots.
“Sad we will need to die but it probably will happen,” Rogers said. “Are you ready?”
“I have the gear and the toys so yeah, mentally yeah I’m there I believe,” Copeland said.
“Are you ready to leave your wife?” Rogers asked.
“She knows how I am and she knows I will put myself in harms way for what I believe in,” Copeland replied.
The pair, who participated in a local Three Percenters militia group, hatched the plan after Trump's loss to target the California governor's mansion, the Democratic Party's headquarters in Sacramento and the offices of social media companies Facebook and Twitter.
“I think right now we attack democrats," Rogers texted. "They’re (sic) offices etc. Molotov cocktails and gasoline."
Business associates and friends describe the 47-year-old Rogers as a loving and responsible father and husband, but witnesses told KQED that he also showed a fascination with Nazism and used racial slurs.
“He’s a bad dude,” said one Napa resident. “He’s going to get what he deserves, hopefully. But he’ll also be some sort of martyr for extremists.”