Author of January 6 Rebellion Plan to Host War Games on Bitcoin 2023
Political consultant and cryptocurrency advocate Samuel Armes announced last week that he is planning “a wargaming session in Miami” to coincide with the Bitcoin 2023 conference. Armes was questioned last year by the House Select Committee on his alleged links to the Proud Boy conspiracy and the January 6 riot.
Citing the threat posed by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), financial technology regulations and the Wells notice issued last week to Coinbase, Armes said the meeting would be “a follow-up to two very successful war gaming sessions I hosted last year.”
On March 20, two days before Armes’ announcement, Florida Governor Ron Desantis proposed legislation to ban the use of a federally enacted CBDC. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said the creation of a CBDC would represent an attempt by the federal government to “track every single transaction that happens in the world.”
But Desantis’ proposed legislation is an initiative of the Florida Blockchain Business Association (FBBA), which was founded by Armes in 2017. FBBA is a “non-profit chamber of commerce” that works to promote pro-web3 policies in the state.
Read more: Proud Boy’s ties to pro-crypto political consultant Samuel Armes
Armes formed the FBBA with Erika Gemma Flores, a relationship that surfaced when he was interviewed last year by the House Select Committee on the January 6 riot. Investigators asked Armes about another war game, which led him to write a tactical brief used by Enrique Tarrio and the Proud Boys in their effort to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Flores allegedly transferred the document to Tarrio, a relationship Armes told investigators he knew about at the time.
Armes claims the Feds groomed him
Despite his connections to the Proud Boys through Flores and Joel Greenberg, Armes prefaced his upcoming war game by criticizing the US government’s policies of mass incarceration, imperialist wars and government surveillance.
Armes appears to have maintained credibility with Florida Republicans following the release of his interview with House investigators. This despite conspiracy theories on the right that the uprising on 6 January was driven by agents provocateurs from US intelligence and special forces, for whom Armes says he worked and was groomed.
In addition to war games and a chamber of commerce influencing Florida’s crypto policy, Armes also has a newsletter and a podcast. But some projects have disappeared in recent months.
Before news broke of Armes’ Jan. 6 interview with investigators, he worked at a political non-profit called Sunshin3 with Gary Sheng and attorney John Montague. But now all information has been removed from the website and references to it have fallen from the founders’ social media.
In May, Armes heads to Miami, the crypto scene that introduced him to Flores and Tarrio, for his next war game.
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