INTERVIEW: Conservative Veteran Filmmaker Arrested for Doing Journalism at the Capitol, Leftist Reporters Who Did the Same Are Praised
Conservative documentarian and influencer Jesus Rivera is being charged for doing journalism at the Capitol on January 6 — while Black Lives Matter activists and leftist New Yorker reporters who were doing the same thing are not.
Rivera, a father of four, husband and U.S. Marine Corps veteran works as a camera man and cinematographer — but has been unable to do his job since the feds confiscated all of his equipment.
“I’m a cinematographer and I was actually just there documenting what was happening in DC that day. This included going into the Capitol, which is why I am being treated as some type of ‘domestic terrorist,'” Rivera explained. For years, he has been travelling to Trump rallies and interviewing attendees, filming the scene, and posting videos online. “For me, the most frustrating thing has been that I did less documenting than Luke Mogelson from the New Yorker — he followed in the guy with the horns, he went into the senate chambers, he posted documents from inside the senate chamber. He has got nothing but praised for what he did. I did the same thing he did, but I went in after most of it had already gone down.”
** Rivera has now made a fundraising account on GiveSendGo. People who wish to contribute can do so here.
Rivera got footage people going in through open door on the side, completely unobstructed, police officers inside directing traffic as people casually filtered through the building, and other scenes from inside. He maintains he was not protesting — simply doing journalism — the same as Mogelson.
On January 20, Rivera got a knock on the door from the FBI. Luckily, his wife had just left with their children to take them to school.
“They came in guns blazing,” Rivera said. “My wife and my kids had literally just left to go to school.”
Rivera said that he was arrested, taken to the FBI headquarters and questioned about why he was there.
“They were trying to make it seem like I was part of, what they called, the ‘insurrection,'” Rivera said. “I explained to them that I was just there documenting. That’s what I do, it is what I have been doing for years.”
Rivera had been working for a production company as a camera man and filmmaker, but was doing his own stuff on the side as well. He had amassed quite a large following on social media for his unique work. Some of it is still available on the We the People 1776 Facebook account.
After his arrest, Rivera was banned from all social media and GoFundMe banned his fundraiser. The platform froze the nearly $5,000 he had collected to defend himself from these charges and support his family while the process plays out. GoFundMe, which allowed countless fundraisers for BLM rioters, refuses to explain to him if it will ever be released. He said that they keep telling him “I don’t know what to tell you,” when he tries to get it cleared and sent to him.
Rivera has now made a fundraising account on GiveSendGo. People who wish to contribute can do so here.
In another shocking detail of his case, Rivera says that after his documenting of the Capitol protest, local station WRKG had offered him a job on the 7th. However, they kept leading him on and saying that they were waiting for a background check to come through as they chatted him up.
“The entire time they were talking to me they were getting information,” Rivera says.
When the FBI showed up at his home, the station was across the street ready to film it.
Rivera says he does not know if they were working with the FBI and believes that they might have just seen that he had an impending arrest when conducting his background check. “I can’t trust anybody know though,” he said.
It isn’t just Rivera that is being smeared, leftist activists have also attempted to get his wife fired from her job at their church for having travelled to DC with him.
“They bombarded us with all sorts of things,” Rivera said. “I’m a filmmaker. I was there to film the rally. I thought that capturing footage of what was going on was actually going to help my career as an aspiring journalist. Instead, I had all my accounts banned — while leftists who filmed similar things are being celebrated.”
The account for his film company was also banned from social media because it was linked to his personal account.
With all of his equipment seized, including his laptop, he can no longer work in his field. He is also not permitted to travel outside certain parts of Florida without two week notice, meaning he can’t take camera crew jobs.
Now, while waiting to find out if he will lose his freedom, Rivera has also lost his livelihood.
The charges against Rivera include entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; engaging in disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol buildings.
Besides worrying about himself, Rivera is concerned about how the dozens of other veterans who have been arrested are holding up. For example, as Gateway Pundit previously reported, a veteran’s wife miscarried after their home was raided in the early morning. Her husband was filmed picking up trash inside the Capitol.
“I know that there’s a lot of veterans going through this right now. That’s worrisome, they’re using service against them in this situation. I feel like that is what they’re also going to do with me. There are other veterans who need to be reached, so we all know we’re in this together,” Rivera said.
The post INTERVIEW: Conservative Veteran Filmmaker Arrested for Doing Journalism at the Capitol, Leftist Reporters Who Did the Same Are Praised appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.