House committee issues subpoenas for organizers of rallies leading up to January 6 attack
On Wednesday, the chairman of the special House committee investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempted coup on January 6, Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), announced that the committee had issued 11 new subpoenas against people responsible for organizing, financing and promoting fascist partisans. Trump “Stop the Steal” meets on January 6 and the weeks leading up to it.
Those targeted include the founders and senior leaders of the far-right organization Women for America First (WFAF) which held âStop the Stealâ rallies in Washington DC on November 14, 2020, December 12, 2020 and January 6, 2021 , as well as rallies throughout 2020 against public health measures related to the pandemic. These rallies, which went on until the Jan.6 attack on the United States Capitol, were heavily attended by fascist militia groups reportedly leading the far-right mob against Congress, such as the Prouds. Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Reunification Church, a Christian fascist. cult also known as “Moonies”.
The WFAF also organized two âMarch for Trumpâ bus tours across the country following the November election. The tours, which were partially funded by fascist My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, had more than 25 stops, including in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. During the stops, Amy Kremer, founder of the WFAF and one of 11 people subpoenaed, urged the crowd to join her in Washington DC on January 6.
At the January 6 rally organized by the WFAF outside the White House, Trump, family members, Republican lawmakers and campaign agents expressed support for Trump’s “big lie”: that the election was stolen and that Trump was the real winner. Speaking at the rally, former New York mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani called for a “combat trial” as Trump urged the crowd, which included hundreds of past and present members of the police, army and militia, to “fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell you won’t have a country.”
Those subpoenaed include:
- Amy Kremer, founding member of the Tea Party Patriots and founder and president of the WFAF. In a letter to Kremer, Thompson wrote that âyou were one of several designated points of contact for the rally. According to news reports, you and others working with you and the WFAF to organize the January 6 rally collectively communicated with President Trump, White House officials, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and others on the rally and other events scheduled to coincide with the certification of Electoral College results for 2020.
- Kylie Kremer, daughter of Amy, Founder and Executive Director of WFAF. She was named “responsible person” on the WFAF rally license. On December 18, 2020, Kylie tweeted, âCalvary [sic] is coming, Mr. President! January 6 | Washington DC #MarchForTrump #StopTheSteal »
- Cynthia Chafian, who submitted the first application on behalf of the WFAF for the rally on January 6 and has worked intermittently with the organization since October 2019. According to Pro Publica, Chafian worked with the WFAF for three weeks before the event of January 6, producing a âbudgetâ and a âsupplier breakdownâ. Chafian is also the founder of the Eighty Percent Coalition, which “is dedicated to eradicating socialist policies that hurt all families, businesses, schools and churches.”
- Caroline Wren, was on the list of “VIP advisers” for the rally on January 6. According to Pro Publica, Wren âplayed an important role in managing the operations of the event. Records show that Wren oversaw the logistics, budgeting, funding and courier for the January 6 rally. Pro Publica wrote that Wren put special emphasis on organizing the rally to ensure that the ‘message’ and ‘time’ of the rally coincided with the ‘votes. [certifying Bidenâs victory] That day [January 6]. Pro Publica also notes that Wren and his consulting firm, Bluebonnet Consulting, have been paid over $ 890,000 by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and Trump Victory since April 2017.
- Maggie Mulvaney is the niece of former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, listed on permit documents for the January 6 rally as a “VIP advisor.” She previously worked as the director of financial operations for the Trump campaign, where she was paid $ 10,000 per month.
- Justin Caporale has been listed as the âproject managerâ for the rally and works for Event Strategies Inc. Event Strategies Inc. has been paid over $ 1 million throughout the 2020 election cycle by the Trump campaign. Pro Publica previously reported that Caporale was previously a “senior associate” to former First Lady Melania Trump.
- Tim Unes, Founder of Event Strategies Inc. Unes worked on Trump’s âCampaign Ad Tourâ in 2015 and then joined the campaign as âDeputy Advance Directorâ.
- Megan Powers, of MPowers Consulting LLC, was on permit documents for the Jan. 6 rally as “operations manager for planning and guidance.” According to his LinkedIn profile, Powers served as Donald J. Trump’s âCOOâ for President, Inc. from January 2019 to January 2021.
- Hannah Salem, of Salem Strategies LLC, was on permit documents for the Jan. 6 rally as “operations manager for logistics and communications.” Salem is also a former special assistant to the president and the director of operations for the March to Save America.
- Lyndon Brentnall, of RMS Protective Services, was on the permit documents for the Jan. 6 rally as an “on-site supervisor.” RMS Protective Services boasted in a Facebook post on December 1, 2020 that the company was “now a proud member of the US State Department’s Foreign Security Advisory Council.”
- Katrina Pierson was involved in organizing rallies January 5-6 in Washington DC and was in direct communication with Trump regarding the rallies according to the the Wall Street newspaper. The the Wall Street newspaper reported that Trump allegedly told Pierson that during the Jan. 6 rally he “wanted to be joined primarily by lawmakers helping him prevent electoral votes from being counted” and “members of his own family.” Pierson served as the spokesperson for the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
In a press release announcing the subpoenas, Thompson wrote that he had “asked witnesses to testify during depositions and produce a wide range of documents.”
As part of the Democratic Party’s continued efforts to contain the fallout from the attempted coup, even though those subpoenaed were urged to comply with all requests for documents by October 13, the committee will not release not publicly their statements, which will instead be taken into account. behind closed doors later in October.
These subpoenas follow four that were issued last week against high-level Trump conspirators: former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, former White House Special Advisor Stephen Bannon and Kashyap “Kash” Patel, Chief of Staff to former Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
In a January statement to AP and ABC News, the Trump campaign denied having organized, organized or funded the January 6 rally and claimed that if former employees or independent contractors helped organize the event, “they wouldn’t. have not done under the leadership of the Trump campaign.
Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) rebuffed the fiction propagated by Trump and his cronies that January 6 was not a coordinated attack.
âWell, Donald Trump would certainly invite us to believe that this was some kind of spontaneous eruption of hugs and kisses towards the officers. It’s pretty far from the truth. There was obviously a lot of coordination and planning that took place and we will rebuild it, âhe said.
In fact, as the list above shows, the rally that sparked the violent attack on Capitol Hill was designed, organized and orchestrated by former senior Trump campaign officials, who laid the groundwork for the attempt to coup that followed.