Far-left activists were captured on an undercover video discussing how to unleash stink bombs during a gathering of President-elect Trump’s alt-right supporters at an inaugural celebration this week.
But the group now says they intentionally divulged false information to trick the filmmakers.
Project Veritas, an organization run by conservative activist James O’Keefe, released a video Monday showing members of a D.C. Anti-Fascist Coalition meeting in December discussing how to disrupt the Deploraball, an event being held Thursday at the National Press Club.
The Deploraball is organized by alt-right supporters of Trump. Project Veritas’ video showed activists discussing a stink bomb and how it could cause the pro-Trump event to be shut down. The anti-Trump activists stated in the video that their goal is to shut down the inauguration and possibly force Trump to be sworn-in on a different day.
But later on Monday, after O’Keefe’s video was posted online, the activists denied this was their actual plan. They insisted they knew Project Veritas was filming them, so they fed them false information.
In a statement, the DisruptJ20 movement organizers stated they hatched the plan after figuring out they had been infiltrated. They met with the Project Veritas filmer at Comet Ping Pong as a nod to the Pizzagate conspiracy theories and decided the stink bomb plan would be funny.
The group said those plans were false and did not reveal their actual plans, which they say are non-violent demonstrations
“The group had no intention of causing any damage or disruption at the Deploraball,” an organizer said in a statement. “Instead, the intent was to capture on video any compromising moments from the performers or speakers, such as the Nazi salutes that similar groups gave in November, broadcast widely by The Atlantic.”
They assured they do not plan to harm anyone during the inauguration.
