Page:CTRL0000034607 - Deposition of Ali Alexander, (Dec. 9, 2021).pdf/52

52 :BY :

Staying on exhibit 26, if we could go to page 242—and we're just trying to get a better understanding of the events on that day by using these text messages.

I can appreciate that.

So page 242, you text Mr. Thomas Van Flein, who we've already established is Mr. Gosar's chief of staff. "I think you and your staff should maybe leave. This is hell out here." Why did you think Mr. Gosar's staff should leave?

For the same reason that Caroline Wren thought I should leave. Well, she thought I should leave for my safety, and because, you know, people would try to blame me and other activists and the President. But I was very concerned, again, with these text messages that I got that were either tweets or pictures of conflict. I had never seen anything like that. I'd never seen anything like that. People were scaling the wall like Spiderman. I've never seen anything like that. Nothing like that's ever happened at a Stop the Steal rally, still to this day.

And so I was very concerned about my friend. I knew a lot of people in Congress. I wouldn't want them hurt. So I said I think you and your staff should maybe leave. Now in retrospect that's stupid because where were they going to go? But remember I'm seeing one picture, one tweet. I think it's happening on one side, a side that no one's authorized to be on. And I'm just, like, I'm just thinking about lives and people. I'm not thinking about my event. My event's already ruined. I can't have it. I'm concerned about people.

So you thought Mr. Gosar and Mr. Gosar's staff was in danger?

I thought that they could potentially be in danger at some point if this escalated. I was, like, there's no way this escalates because surely police will put