Give me an example of someone acting on it
Tucson cement plant incident
In May 2018, Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer livestreamed a Facebook video from the site of a
Tucson cement plant, asserting, "This is a child sex trafficking camp that no one wants to talk about, that no one wants to do nothing about." The video was viewed 650,000 times over the ensuing week. Tucson police inspected the plant without finding evidence of criminal activity. Meyer then occupied a tower on the property for nine days, until reaching agreement with police to leave. He later returned to the tower in July, whereupon he was arrested for trespassing. Meyer referenced QAnon and the #WWG1WGA hashtag on his Facebook page.
[279][280][281]
Hoover Dam incident
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/friend/f9/Hoover_Dam_Matthew_Wright_vehicle.png/220px-Hoover_Dam_Matthew_Wright_vehicle.png
Matthew Wright's armored vehicle used to block a bridge over the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border
On June 15, 2018, Matthew Phillip Wright of
Henderson,
Nevada, was arrested on terrorism and other charges for driving an armored truck,
[282] containing an
AR-15 and handgun, to the
Hoover Dam and blocking traffic for 90 minutes.
[283] He said he was on a mission involving QAnon: to demand that the
Justice Department "release the
OIG report" on the conduct of FBI agents during the investigation into
Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
[24][32][284] Since a copy of the Office of the Inspector General report had been released the day before, the man had been motivated by a Q "drop" which claimed the released version of the report had been heavily modified and that Trump possessed a more damning version but had declined to release it. In video recorded inside his armored truck, Wright expressed disappointment that Trump had not honored a "duty" to "lock certain people up," asking him to "uphold your oath."
[32][285]
Wright was found guilty and, on 17 December 2020, sentenced to 7 years on a terrorism charge and 9 months consecutively for unlawful flight.
[286]
Targeting of Michael Avenatti
On July 29, 2018, Q posted a link to
Stormy Daniels's attorney
Michael Avenatti's website and photos of his
Newport Beach,
California, office building, along with the message, "Buckle up!". The anonymous poster then shared the picture of a still unidentified man, appearing to be holding a cellphone in one hand and a long, thin object in the other, standing in the street near Avenatti's office, adding that a message "had been sent". This sparked an investigation by the
Newport Beach Police Department. On July 30, Avenatti asked his Twitter followers to contact the Newport Beach Police Department if they "have any details or observed" the man in the picture.
[287][288][289]
Harassment of Jim Acosta
At a
Trump rally in
Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 2018, Trump supporters exhibited hostile behavior toward CNN chief
White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Exponents of QAnon-related theories were at the rally.
[290]
The next day,
David Martosko of the
Daily Mail asked
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether the White House encouraged the support of "QAnon fringe groups". Sanders denounced "any group that would incite violence against another individual", without specifically responding to the QAnon mention.
[291] Sanders added that Trump "certainly doesn't support groups that would support that type of behavior".
[292][293]
Grass Valley Charter School fundraiser
The Blue Marble Jubilee fundraising event at
Grass Valley Charter School in
Grass Valley, California scheduled for May 11, 2019, was canceled as a precaution after a tweet by former FBI head
James Comey on April 27 using the hashtag #FiveJobsIveHad, in which the first letters of the jobs were GVCSF, was interpreted by QAnon followers as a veiled reference to the Grass Valley Charter School Foundation, suggesting that Comey planned to stage a "
false flag" terror attack at the event; the hashtag was also interpreted by QAnon adherents as an anagram of "five
jihads", and the time stamp on the post was related to the
9/11 attacks. The police and the FBI received warnings, in addition to the school, which decided not to take the risk of
Internet vigilantes attending "to guard the place", as a police sergeant put it.
[294][295]
Murder of Frank Cali
Anthony Comello of
Staten Island, New York, was charged with the March 2019 murder of
Gambino crime family underboss Frank Cali. According to his defense attorney, Comello had become obsessed with QAnon theories, believing Cali was a member of a "deep state," and was convinced he "was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself" to place Cali under
citizen's arrest. Confronting Cali outside his Staten Island home, Comello allegedly shot Cali ten times. At his first court appearance, Comello displayed QAnon symbols and phrases and "
MAGA forever" scrawled on his hand in pen.
[296][297] Comello had also posted material on Instagram praising Fox News personalities such as
Sean Hannity,
Tucker Carlson and
Jeanine Pirro.
[298]
Kidnapping incidents
In December 2019, Cynthia Abcug was arrested and charged in Colorado with conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping of one of her children who had been removed from her custody. Her other daughter reported to police that Abcug had been collaborating with an armed male who was "definitely part of this group QAnon," that her mother had gone to QAnon meetings and believed that the child had been taken by "evil Satan worshippers" and "pedophiles."
[299] Abcug pleaded not guilty to the charge in September 2020 and is to be tried in February 2021.
[300]
On March 20, 2020, Neely Blanchard was arrested and charged with kidnapping and custodial interference after taking her two daughters who had been in the sole legal custody of their grandmother. Blanchard had made multiple social media posts promoting QAnon including memes and pictures of her wearing QAnon shirts at Trump rallies. She also has taken actions connected with the
sovereign citizen movement.
[301]
Tintagel flag
QAnon flag flown at Tintagel Castle
In January 2020, John Mappin (also affiliated with
Turning Point UK) began to fly a Q flag at the Camelot Castle hotel near to
Tintagel Castle in
England.
[302] Advocacy group
Hope not Hate said, "Mappin is an eccentric figure, considered outlandish even by his fringe rightwing peers. This childish ploy is a weak attempt at getting attention for himself and his marginal Turning Point UK organisation, and is better off being ignored."
[303]
Jessica Prim arrest
In April 2020, Jessica Prim was arrested carrying several knives after live-streaming her attempt to "take out" presidential nominee
Joe Biden. Prim was arrested in New York City on a pier where she appeared to have been trying to get to the
U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Comfort. QAnon claimed the ship was used by a cabal of pedophiles. During her arrest, Prim was reportedly shown crying and asking police, "Have you guys heard about the kids?"
[304]
Before her arrest, Prim posted on Facebook that Hillary Clinton and Biden "need to be taken out" and that "Hillary Clinton and her assistant, Joe Biden and
Tony Podesta need to be taken out in the name of Babylon! ... I can't be set free without them gone. Wake me up!!!!!"
[304]
Prim's Facebook page was filled with references to QAnon. She encouraged her Facebook followers to check out QAnon "clues". In a video posted just hours before her arrest, Prim ranted about a video that she believed depicted Hillary Clinton and an aide murdering a child.
[304][305]
Aggravated assault in Texas
On August 12, 2020, Cecelia Celeste Fulbright was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Waco, Texas. Fulbright chased and rammed into another car whose driver she claimed "was a pedophile and had kidnapped a girl for human trafficking." She had made many posts online relevant to QAnon beliefs and sent a friend a text message saying that Trump was "literally taking down the cabal and the pedophile ring."
[140]
Misinformation on the 2020 Western United States wildfire season
Main article:
2020 Western United States wildfire season
As wildfires spread across large parts of the Western U.S. in September 2020, false rumors spread on social media that
antifa activists were setting fires and preparing to loot property that was being evacuated. Some residents refused to evacuate based on the rumors, choosing to defend their homes from the supposed invasion. Authorities pleaded with residents to ignore the false rumors.
[306] A firefighters' union in
Washington state described Facebook as "an absolute cesspool of misinformation" on the topic. QAnon followers participated in the misinformation, with one false claim that six antifa activists had been arrested for setting fires amplified by Q specifically.
[307][308] Days earlier, Trump and Attorney General
Bill Barr had amplified false social media rumors that planes and buses full of antifa activists were preparing to invade communities, allegedly funded by
George Soros.
[309][310][311][312][313][314]
2020 presidential election
Near Philadelphia's Convention Center, where mail-in ballots were being counted, two men from Virginia were taken into custody based on a tip of a threat of an attack with
AR-15s.
Bumper stickers on their truck referenced QAnon.
[315][316]
As baseless allegations of voting fraud spread following Trump's defeat in the election, QAnon followers advanced a hoax that voting machines made by
Dominion Voting Systems had deleted millions of Trump votes. The hoax was repeated on the far-right cable news outlet
One America News Network, and Trump tweeted about it.
[317][318] The
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced that the election was the most secure in American history, with "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."
[319]
Storming of the U.S. Capitol
Main article:
2021 storming of the United States Capitol
A QAnon emblem (
upper left) is raised during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.
Ashli Babbitt, a U.S. veteran who was shot by police while storming the
United States Capitol building, was described as an adherent of QAnon and had retweeted conspiracy theory attorney
L. Lin Wood in the final days of her life.
[320][321] Other QAnon-affiliated protesters either wore clothing with Q-related emblems or were identified as QAnon followers from video footage.
[322][323]
Jake Angeli (QAnon Shaman), the man seen in photos wearing fur, is a QAnon supporter and was arrested on January 9, 2021.
[324]
On January 12, Facebook and Twitter announced that they were removing "Stop the Steal" content and suspending 70,000 QAnon-focused accounts, respectively.
[325]
Interruption of Ghislaine Maxwell court hearing
On January 19, 2021, a hearing on the unsealing of documents related to a settled
Ghislaine Maxwell civil defamation suit with
Virginia Roberts Giuffre was interrupted after it was discovered that someone present was unlawfully streaming the proceedings on Youtube. The unauthorized stream reached approximately 14,000 viewers, including a contingent of QAnon supporters, before it was shut off after the judge warned the room.
[326][327][328]