St. Louis’ Rally Runner Pleads Guilty to Charges Related to January 6 Riot

By Andrea Arnold On Mar 23, 2024

The St. Louis man that Tucker Carlson previously suggested was an “agent provocateur” working for the feds during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 has pleaded guilty to federal charges. Guess that whole “agent” thing didn’t work out too well?

Daniel Donnelly Jr., now 46, had become a familiar sight in St. Louis when the Cardinals were playing at Busch Stadium, running laps around the stadium with his face painted red whenever the team most needed to rally. Back in 2015, he was even featured in a story about Cardinals super-fans in a friendly local alt-weekly (ahem). As “Joe the Balloon Man” told the RFT of Donnelly at that time, “I thought he was crazy. In a good way.”‘ ‘Twas a more innocent time.

But on January 6, 2021, Donnelly traveled to D.C. for then-President Donald Trump’s Stop the Steal rally — and after it ended, joined others in breaching the U.S. Capitol. In Donnelly’s case, he did so wearing a red jacket, a red “Keep America Great” hat and that distinctive red face paint.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office explains what happened next:

“Court documents say that Runner, standing just outside the Tunnel, first helped the crowd pass a ladder toward the Tunnel’s opening before moving closer to the front of the crowd of rioters. Runner then made his way to the threshold of the Tunnel’s entrance, facing off with police and holding a riot shield he had obtained earlier. Law enforcement officers attempted to move the crowd out of the Tunnel. Runner is seen holding up the stolen riot shield to the law enforcement officers, forming a wall in connection with other shields held by other rioters.

“The rioters then surged forward as a group, with Runner in the lead, using his shield to push officers backward. Runner used his shield for the next several minutes to continuously push against officers, gaining ground and eventfully forcing the officers into the Capitol building. After approximately 10 minutes, a second group of officers joined the push, and the rioters were forced out of the Tunnel. After being forced out of the Tunnel, Runner triumphantly celebrated his conduct.” He also later boasted about what he’d done on Facebook.

Naturally, there was only one possible explanation for Donnelly’s behavior: The Rally Runner was a federal informant, a “false flag” designed to stir up the crowd, stoke violence and make Trump voters look bad.

In January 2021, Carlson — in conversation with a lawyer named Joseph McBride — advanced just that theory on Fox News. The red-faced Rally Runner, McBride told Carlson, was “clearly a law enforcement officer.”

Replied Carlson, “Who is this person? Why hasn’t he been charged?”

Well, time marches on, and he has. Donnelly was arrested in August of 2023.

Today, he pleaded guilty in the federal court in Washington, D.C., to a felony offense of civil disorder. He’s set to be sentenced in July.

And so we leave you, Cardinals fans, with a word (or two) of admonition:

Don’t get caught up breaching the Capitol if your guy loses. Stick to running around Busch Stadium.

And if you should feel like committing a felony while all of America is watching, maybe use a different costume than the one that’s endeared you to an entire city. What may look like a false flag to Fox News just looks to the rest of us like another local who’s lost his mind over a failed politician eager to use him for his own ends — and that’s a scenario that never ends well.

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