AUSTIN, Minn. — Online evidence suggests the Johnson father and son, arrested Thursday for roles in the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, were deep into Trump conspiracy theories, including wild exaggerations of fact.
> The son on crowd size the night of the riot: “Couple thousand. Lol try like 4 million people.” Most experts peg the number at the Trump incitement rally at 30,000 tops. Not all made the one-mile trek to the Capitol.
> The night before his arrest, the father posted: “Governments worldwide are struggling to contain a new virus that could have a huge impact on billions of lives worldwide. The virus is called TRUTH.”
> Another post: “If you are just now thinking that Fauci is full of shit, you are months behind some of us.” Anthony Fauci is a leading immunologist who for 50 years has been among the most frequently cited scientists in medical journals. His awards include treatments that ended AIDS as an epidemic.
> Another: “Unvaccinated lives matter.” A racist takeoff on the Black Lives Matter movement.
> Another with a hypodermic needle image: “Proudly unvaccinated.”
Local prominence
The Johnson were well known in St. Ansgar, which made it easy for locals to identify them from Capitol riot images. Daryl’s father, Norm Johnson, is a retired business operator and former mayor of Ansgar, population 1,100. He ran a pizza shop and sold insurance for many tears. Asked by a Des Moines Register reporter about the arrest of his son and grandson, Johnson declined: “”I have plenty of thoughts, but I’m not going to share them.”
Siege vanguard. Johnson claimed to be among first to storm the Capitol. Image: FBI