A former Navy submarine technician was arrested after regulation enforcement says he drove an SUV into the FBI headquarters close to Atlanta on Monday afternoon. It continues to be unclear why the suspect, Ervin Lee Bolling, tried to drive entry into the headquarters, however analysis carried out by the nonpartisan public-interest nonprofit Advance Democracy and shared completely with WIRED has discovered that accounts believed to be related to Bolling shared numerous conspiracy theories on social media platforms, together with X and Facebook.

Just after midday on Monday, Bolling rammed his burnt-orange SUV with South Carolina license plates into the ultimate barrier at FBI Atlanta’s headquarters, wrote Matthew Upshaw, an FBI agent assigned to the Atlanta workplace, in a sworn affidavit on Tuesday. Upshaw added that after Bolling crashed the SUV, he left the automotive and tried to observe an FBI worker into the safe parking zone. When brokers instructed Bolling to sit down on a curb, he refused and tried once more to enter the premises. The affidavit additionally said that Bolling resisted arrest when brokers subsequently tried to detain him.

Bolling was charged on Tuesday with destruction of presidency property, in line with court docket data reviewed by WIRED.

Advance Democracy researchers recognized an account on X with the deal with @alohatiger11, a reference to the Clemson University mascot which Bolling has expressed assist for on his public Facebook web page. The deal with is much like usernames on different platforms like Telegram and Cash App, and in addition bears similarities to a Facebook web page with Bolling’s title. The profile image used within the X account additionally resembles an image of the identical man proven in Bolling’s public Facebook profile. The X account is at present set to personal, however dozens of its outdated posts are nonetheless publicly viewable by means of the Internet Archive.

In December 2020, the X account responded to a put up a few federal authorities stimulus invoice that said, “Wonder what it will take for people to wake up.” The X account believed to be related to Bolling responded, “I’m awake. Just looking for a good militia to join.”

Around the identical time, social media accounts seemingly related to Bolling repeatedly boosted QAnon content material and interacted with QAnon promoters, together with by posting a hyperlink to a now-deleted QAnon-associated YouTube channel alongside the remark: “Release the Kraken”—in direct reference to Sidney Powell’s failed legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election leads to Georgia.

On what’s believed to be Bolling’s Facebook account, there have been varied posts associated to anti-vaccine memes as nicely.

The accounts additionally posted in assist of former president Donald Trump. In December 2020, “I love you” was posted in response to a put up on X from Trump that falsely claimed the election had been rigged by Democrats.

Courtney Bolling, who’s recognized because the suspect’s spouse on Facebook, didn’t reply to requests for remark by way of telephone or messages despatched to her social media profiles. No authorized counsel is listed on report for Bolling.

It is to date unclear how Bolling got here to espouse these beliefs, however far-right teams and extremists have for many years used social media platforms as a method of spreading conspiracies and radicalizing new members. In current years there have been quite a few examples of far-right groups making online claims or threats which have been shortly followed by real-world violence.