US Navy veteran accused of crashing into FBI office has an online history linked to QAnon: Reports

The ex-military member who drove his SUV into a barrier at the FBI office in Atlanta on Monday (April 1) had online ties to QAnon-related content and appeared to be a supporter of Donald Trump, as per the open-source investigation by Advance Democracy group.

Identified as Ervin Lee Bolling, he presently faces a count of damaging government property. Bolling has not yet entered a plea. As the FBI affidavit states, after crashing his car, Bolling got out and tried to walk past the gate where he was stopped by three special agents.

According to the charging documents, Bolling refused to obey instructions to sit on the curb and resisted arrest when the agents attempted to detain him.

NBC News, quoting a report by Advance Democracy, stated that the social media accounts purportedly associated with Bolling, reportedly have a track record of spreading conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and QAnon.

One account thought to be connected to Bolling wrote, "I love you @realDonaldTrump," back in December 2020, according to Advance Democracy. "You have more support than even you know."

According to Advance Democracy, a different Telegram account with the name "Lee Bolling" and a handle that Bolling seems to have used on other platforms belonged to nine public organisations, some of which were associated with QAnon.

Details of the Advance Democracy report were first published by Wired.

Daniel J. Jones, the president of the non-profit group Advance Democracy, told NBC News that it was important to take "the increasing violent rhetoric and actions we’re seeing seriously, and our elected officials, especially Republican elected officials, need to speak out" against violent actions.

“We don’t yet know the individual’s motivation for using his vehicle to crash into a gate at the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office," Jones said. "But this individual’s suspected social media activity is part of a trend: Trump supporters espousing anti-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories — often echoing Trump’s own statements — that decide to take violent action against public officials."

What isQAnon?

QAnon is afar-right political movement thatbelieves in abaseless conspiracy theory according to whichSatan-worshipping paedophiles control the government, business and the media and only former president Donald Trumpcan beat them.

Members of this group were also part of the mob that stormed the US Capitol in Jan 2021.

(With inputs from agencies)