A Minneapolis, Minnesota Trump supporter has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 2 counts of wire fraud after it was discovered he set fire to his own trailer and defaced his garage with pro-Biden and Black Lives Matter graffiti then claimed he was a victim of arsonists because of his Trump MAGA flags.
29-year-old Denis Vladmirovich Molla made the news in September of 2020 when his trailer and vehicles burned and graffiti including the phrases "Biden 2020", "BLM" and the anarchy symbol—a capital letter "A" in a circle—were found on his garage.
Molla then submitted multiple insurance claims for the damages to his property, as well as collecting more than $17,000 from donations made to two GoFundMe accounts.
Court documents stated Molla:
"submitted multiple insurance claims seeking coverage for the damage to his garage, camper, vehicles, and residence caused by the fire."
You can see initial WCCO CBS Minnesota coverage from 2020 here:
Molla originally claimed the fire was set because he was a Trump supporter and made a big deal of how it affected his family.
Molla's wife Deana told reporters after the fire:
"My son’s bedroom, his window is facing the garage."
"My son smelled like smoke this morning when I was putting him down to sleep after the whole thing, he smelled like smoke, so it just blows my mind that someone would stoop this low."
Denis said in 2020:
"It just shocked me."
"These kind of stuff should not happen, especially over beliefs of some sort."
KARE 11's Lou Raguse tweeted about his recent conversation with Molla, in which his willingness to talk about the fire seemed to have drastically changed.
\u201cA couple months ago I called Denis and talked to him on the phone, asked him about doing a follow up story. He very much so did *not* want to talk about it, unlike the first week he did the media tour and promoted the gofundme.\u201d— Lou Raguse (@Lou Raguse) 1657679438
Twitter users were largely unsurprised to find out the whole thing was a setup.
\u201c@LouRaguse Shocked, shocked I tell you!\u201d— Lou Raguse (@Lou Raguse) 1657679438
\u201c@kadenz_warpup @LouRaguse Trump supporters can't help themselves but to project\u201d— Lou Raguse (@Lou Raguse) 1657679438
\u201c@chadloder You don't say\u201d— Chad Loder (@Chad Loder) 1657679857
\u201c@LouRaguse A trump supporter projecting blame on other people for something they did themselves.\u201d— Lou Raguse (@Lou Raguse) 1657679438
\u201c@LouRaguse No true leftists were gonna paint Biden 2020. \ud83d\ude06\u201d— Lou Raguse (@Lou Raguse) 1657679438
\u201c@chadloder All anarchists are huuuuuuge into electoral politics, common fact.\u201d— Chad Loder (@Chad Loder) 1657679857
\u201c@chadloder And no one was surprised\u201d— Chad Loder (@Chad Loder) 1657679857
\u201c@chadloder Nice placement of the A inside the circle. Anarchists are known for staying inside the lines.\u201d— Chad Loder (@Chad Loder) 1657679857
\u201c@chadloder Police became suspicious after it was revealed anarchists don\u2019t like centrist Dems that much\u201d— Chad Loder (@Chad Loder) 1657679857
Molla had his first court appearance on Tuesday.
