'Scares the hell out of me': J6 expert warns of disinformation ramp-up in mid-October

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Denver Riggleman, who served as senior technical advisor to the January 6^th Committee, said he believes there is a significant risk of violence during the vote count of the Nov. 5, 2024 election because supporters of Republican nominee Donald Trump are so deeply immersed in conspiracy theories.

“They still have a plan to probably use lawfare to go after some of these certain states, but violence is certainly possible,” Riggleman told Raw Story. “I would say it’s actually probable. And I think it’s because you have people that are so riled up with these conspiracy theories and this good-against-evilvendetta that Donald Trump and I think a lot of the far right and the Christian nationalist type of individuals have been pushing into sort of the MAGA communications ecosystem.

"It scares the hell out of me, as someone who's dealt in counterterrorism for so long, to know that some of the same people who are around him — or a lot of the same people around him — for January 6th, 2021," Riggleman added, "are the same people in his campaign today and the same people who were authors of Project 2025."

A former Republican congressman and former military intelligence officer, Riggleman spoke to Raw Story after taping a message to North Carolina Republicans and independent voters on behalf of the Harris campaign at a recreation center in Greensboro on Thursday.

“Violence is bubbling right beneath the surface,” Riggleman said, citing the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the two assassination attempts on Trump this past summer. Riggleman identified variations on the QAnon conspiracy theory as a driving force of political violence.

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“QAnon and that whole conspiracy theory mindset of ‘the Deep State’ or ‘globalists,’ or ‘false flags,’ that has bubbled into almost a mainstream belief, I would say within 30 to 35 percent of the Republican Party,” he said. “So, now it’s a battle of good against evil, as far as they’re concerned. The Democrats, independents and the RINOs — whoever they are — represent what’s evil. And I think that should scare the hell out of people. Because once you start dehumanizing people, that’s when violence is possible.”

In contrast to the last cycle, when the Jan. 6, 2021 certification at the U.S. Capitol became the focal point of political violence, Riggleman predicted that threats this time will converge around major counting centers and state legislatures immediately following the election in the event that Trump loses.

“And you’re going to see that disinformation bloom happening starting, I would think, in the middle of October. It’s really going to ramp up, like it did before November 3rd of 2020,” Riggleman said.

Riggleman suggested that citizens should monitor far-right media outlets and personalities to understand the kind of conspiracy theories that are most likely to motivate Trump’s supporters to take action.

“Don’t be afraid to go look at crazy because crazy is how they’re going to try to affect the election,” he said. “It’s just like January 6^th and QAnon. You think about January 6^th — that was all fantasy. Every single person who went into the Capitol that day probably thinks Lord of the Rings is a documentary. That’s the issue that you have. They’ve completely gone off their rocker in this good-against-evil sort of disinformation landscape.”

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Watch the interview at this link.