New Footage Showing Woman Behind LibsOfTikTok at Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
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Chaya Raichik, known for running the channel Libs of TikTok, appears to have been spotted in videos from the US Capitol on January 6 after giving her first on-camera interview.
Raichik appeared on December 27 to “Tucker Carlson Today,” a show on the Fox News streaming service Fox Nation.
In the interview, she spoke about her channel, where she gathers content from other users, predominantly LGBTQ ones, to mock them. Though her page was banned from TikTok in March, she built up a following on Twitter of some 1.7 million people.
In the interview she alleged that the LGBTQ community is become a “cult” whose members “brainwash people.”
The interview also showed people what Raichik looked like, leading to people matching her image to a woman at the US Capitol on January 6.
In less then 5 hours after the Tucker interview they were able to identify Chaya Raichik’s (LibsOfTikTok) face & attire while on the Capital Grounds on Jan 6th.pic.twitter.com/4o5sc4bpj9
— ChudsOfTikTok (@ChudsOfTikTok) December 27, 2022
Extremism and disinformation researcher Chad Loder gathered evidence and documented videos and images in their newsletter and said it had persuaded them that Raichik was there. They noted screenshots of a Twitter account shaya_ray, which software developer Travis Brown identified in April to be associated with Raichik, appeared to show her describing heading to DC that day.
“I am taking off work to come support Trump,” one now-deleted tweet said. “Every single supporter matters.”
Loder also noted a distinctive ring on Raichik’s right hand in the interview clip, which is also visible in a photo of a woman who looks a lot like Raichik from the Trump rally that preceded a group of protesters heading to the Capitol and starting to riot.
Raichik also seems to be visible, wearing the same MAGA hat, in a video posted on TikTok by a user named @huebs22c on January 8, 2021.
Raichik’s apparent face is most clear in GoPro footage released by federal prosecutors in the trial of Ronald Sandlin, a rioter who was sentenced to 63 months in prison.
Loder alleged based on evidence from the videos and others that Raichik had joined the crowds in a restricted area of the Capitol, which Loder said amounted to trespassing.
Loder noted that there was no evidence of Raichik doing any more than joining the crowds outside the Capitol.
Newly-released analysis of footage appears to show Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the LibsOfTikTok account, trespassing on restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Today Chaya Raichik, a professional bigot whose anti-LGTBQ posts have been blamed for threats on children’s hospitals, revealed her face for the first time in an interview with Tucker Carlson, in which she called the LGBTQ community a “cult”.
Raichik claimed to have been present at the Jan 6th Capitol riot in now-deleted Tweets. One of the tweets appears to show footage filmed from the northwest lawn of the Capitol. The full video is not available in the Internet Archive.
My analysis of video footage leads me to believe that Chaya Raichik was not merely present near the Capitol on January 6th, but that she trespassed on restricted Capitol grounds that day. In the rest of this article, I’ll walk you through the evidence I used to draw my conclusion, so that you form your own opinion.
The Evidence
Chaya Raichik’s interview today on the Tucker Carlson show provided us with the first clear, confirmed images of her face. In the interview, you can see that Raichik wears a distinctive ring on the 4th finger of her right hand.
Note also the following details in this photo from the Ellipse (you may need to zoom in):
- Dark coat
- Silver-gray iPhone with the clear plastic case
- Black purse strap with white stitching and buckle
- Red MAGA hat with a flag visible on the left side
- Black hair tie or wrist band on right wrist
You can see the same woman, who I believe to be Chaya Raichik, with the same outfit and details, in this TikTok video by user @huebs22c. This video was filmed on the steps of the NW plaza of the Capitol.
The full TikTok video is only 24 seconds long, with other frames showing clearly where on Capitol grounds the video was filmed. This video was filmed on or near the steps leading from the NW Plaza to the Lower West Plaza of the Capitol. You can see the woman holding an iPhone with a clear plastic case and a white battery charging cable plugged in.
The same woman appears in GoPro footage released by the government as “Exhibit 4” in the federal criminal trial of Ronald Sandlin, who was recently sentenced to 63 months in prison for his role in the Jan 6th Capitol attack. The woman appears at roughly the 1:49 mark of the GoPro footage, the full version of which is over 10 minutes long. (Sandlin himself can be seen in the orange jacket on the right side.)
Read Choder’s full case here.
