He’s further connected to Far Right groups and individuals such as Amanda Chase, Joshua Macias, and former U.S. General Mike Flynn

PHILADELPHIA, PA/WASHINGTON, DC — Antonio Paredes LaMotta, 63, was arrested by the FBI on August 16th in Chesapeake, VA, mere days after they secured a federal arrest warrant in the district court of the nation’s capitol. All of LaMotta’s charges against him relate to illegally entering the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021 to disrupt law enforcement and the electoral confirmation of the 2020 presidential election. He could face up to a year in prison on some of the charges. 

But that’s not all. LaMotta is identified as a QAnon adherent, a “security” person, and is connected to Far Right political figures in Virginia, and was arrested (because of a Virgina tipster) in Philadelphia immediately outside the convention center in November, 2020, where general election ballots were being tabulated. He was charged by the local district attorney with election interference and firearms act violations (“VUFA”) involving pistols, an AR-pattern rifle, a hundred-plus ammunition cartridges, a sword, and a lock-picking kit. One of the VUFA charges involves the lack of a valid permit, which can result in a third-degree felony conviction.

QAnon is the baseless (and anti-semitic inspired) belief that a cabal of satanic pedophiles, cannibals, and the deep state is running a covert campaign against the former president, Donald Trump. LaMotta has appeared at political events with QAnon political figures such as Virginia state senator Amanda Chase, sometimes providing “security” for her, and, sometimes being in and around Proud Boys, such as at the January, 2020, Virginia Citizens Defense League gun rights rally. 

LaMotta is also connected to Joshua Macias (real name: Joshua Erik Blum — the alias surname belongs to his wife). Macias was arrested with LaMotta at the convention center and faces similar if not the same charges as mentioned earlier. But like LaMotta, there’s more to Macias as his alias use would readily imply.

Macias was a 2016 co-founder of Veterans for America First, the successor to the 2015 Vets for Trump group. Both Macias and LaMotta were involved in the latter organization and its early origins. They both went together to the U.S. Capitol on January, 6th, 2021 (with Macias a legislatively claimed central figure), and they are avid supports of retired and disgraced Lt. General Mike Flynn, who is also QAnon adherent. Flynn helped build the infrastructure that protested the 2020 presidential election, and he also endorsed Ian A. Smith, a New Jersey gym owner who made headlines during the pandemic for illegally attempting to keep his gym open and who unsuccessfully – in the wake of also getting arrested on a DUI charge earlier this year – ran in this year’s GOP primary in New Jersey’s 3rd congressional district, just across the river from Philadelphia. Macias’ Veterans for America First also endorsed Smith who two weeks after his loss joined the Libertarian Party. 

LaMotta’s arrest may become a notable event in cracking elements of Far-Right infrastructure and events as here. He could be offered a plea deal and flip on Macias and implicate others. 

Since LaMotta is already facing state charges and the Philadelphia district attorney is even further interested now in revoking or increasing defendants’ bail — much less that the federal government can seek to hold him in pre-trial detention or impose severe conditions of release — LaMotta is in a real pickle and will have major choices to make. 

Court Documents