A document titled “1776 Returns” was allegedly given to Proud Boys Chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection laid out detailed plans to occupy more than half a dozen buildings surrounding the US Capitol. The document described tactics to be used by occupiers as they “Storm the Winter Palace.”

One former federal prosecutor described the document last month as “an absolutely devastating piece of evidence.” It came as the House select committee started investigating the Capitol riot.

Last year, at a sentencing hearing of one of the January 6 rioters, a federal judge criticized the move of the accused in which he stormed the US Capitol waving a 1776 flag. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said at the time that his attempt to overturn a democratic election betrayed the values of the American Revolution.

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“This isn’t a good analogy,” Jackson said. “… In 1776, the people who went on to form a democracy didn’t do that at the urging of a single head of state. …” Berman said last year.

“The point of 1776 was to let the people to decide who would rule them,” Jackson continued, contrasting it with January 6, where “the point was to substitute the will of the people with the will of the mob… It was not under the banner of 1776.”

“You were a participant, albeit a minor one, in an effort to subvert and overturn the democratic process,” Jackson said. “That day didn’t just cost you a lot, it cost our country a lot.”

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The year, 1776, is celebrated in the US as the official beginning of the nation, with the Declaration of Independence issued on July 4.

By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain.

Throughout the winter of 1775–1776, the members of the Continental Congress came to the conclusion that there was no way to reconcile with Britain, and that, independence was the only course of action available to them. 

Congress opened colonial ports in April of 1776 in response to the British Parliament prohibiting trade with the colonies.

During Tuesday hearing, the committee heard that Ali Alexander – who had close contact with Roger Stone and others close to Trump – texted that the president was supposed to order supporters to the Capitol, noting “We shall see.”

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The night before, at a rally on the evening of Jan. 5, Alexander told a crowd of Trump supporters, “1776 is always an option. These degenerates in the deep state are going to give us what we want or we are going to shut it down.”

Similar violent rhetoric was voiced by Stone, Alex Jones, and Mike Flynn.