A crypto advocate and US politician named Samuel Armes has said he helped form key strategies later outlined in the ‘1776 Returns’ document — a crucial file in the Proud Boys conspiracy case.
An Интервју between Armes and the US House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection was released among a raft of transcripts last week. It shows that Armes had ties to the Proud Boys through his connections in the crypto industry. However, the links go further back.
Armes previously worked for convicted sex trafficker and crypto fraudster Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison for a range of criminal behavior.
In 2019, Greenberg was Seminole County’s tax collector.
He hired Armes to be the area’s ‘Blockchain and Legislative Affairs Director.’
Greenberg and Armes were soon after listed as co-managers for an organization called Government Blockchain Systems LLC.
The following year, Proud Boy and Roger Stone protégè Jacob Engels was paid by Greenberg to post a smear campaign against a politicial opponent.
Armes says Jan 6 plans came from US wargame project
In the House Select Committee interview, Armes was questioned about his role in producing the 1776 Returns документ, which was used to disseminate plans for organizing the riot at the capitol in 2021. Armes told investigators that he didn’t write the document, but wrote a strategic brief as a reaction to the Transition Integrity Project, a wargame that anticipated disruptions to the 2020 presidential election.
Specifically, he was writing about what might happen if a president decided not to leave office after losing an election. Armes identified key locations and staging areas that protestors and insurrectionists might use to organize.
Armes confirmed to investigators these sections likely came from his original, three-to-five-page brief. He handed it to a venture capitalist in the Miami crypto community who then gave the document to the leadership of the Proud Boys.
Armes’ interest in crypto provides link to Proud Boys
Since his senior year of high school, Armes had an interest in cryptocurrency. While studying at the University of South Florida, Armes described “getting groomed” for a job in the intelligence community by adjunct professor Walter Andrusyszyn.
He apparently “set up the intel certificate,” where Armes took part in day courses and war games. It led him to take a position with the US Special Operations Command at MacDill Airforce Base in Tampa, where he worked in financial threat assessment. His main focus was the use of cryptocurrency in drug cartels and terror networks.
He went on to form the Florida Blockchain Business Association with the help of Erica Flores (rendered in the New York Times as Eryka Gemma) in 2017. Flores, known as the “Queen of Miami,” was a significant influence on Miami’s crypto scene.