Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "At least five former Trump staffers have spoken with January 6 committee" video.
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Let's be clear, when Trump said "stop the steal" it was code word for his followers to "start the steal."
The insurrection was Trump's revenge against our democracy and our Constitution. It was his way of getting back at everyone who didn't vote for him, and those who refused to violate our Constitution on his behalf. Watching his followers storm the Capitol while wearing his hat and waving flags emblazoned with his name, was the greatest day of his presidency. He had never felt more like the dictator he's always wanted to be than he did on that day. And he reveled in it.
Some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Two of these people have detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turnedViolent.
Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is the first account detailing their role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.
The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified.
“I rememberMarjorie T.G. specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”
Rolling Stone has confirmed that both sources were involved in organizing the main event aimed at objecting to the electoral certification.
These two sources also helped plan a series of demonstrations that took place in multiple states around the country in the weeks between the election and the storming of the Capitol. According to these sources, multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events that took place during this period communicated with members of Congress throughout this process.
Along with Greene, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer.
And Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House "Freedom" Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
The organizer claims the pair received “several assurances” about the “blanket pardon” from Gosar.
“I was just going over the list of pardons and we just wanted to tell you guys how much we appreciate all the hard work you’ve been doing,” Gosar said, according to the organizer.
In another indication members of Congress may have been involved in planning the protests against the election, Ali Alexander, who helped organize the “WildProtest,” declared in a since-deleted livestream broadcast that Gosar, Brooks, and Biggs helped him formulate the strategy for that event.
“I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and Congressman Andy Biggs,” Alexander said at the time. “We four schemed up on putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that — who we couldn’t lobby — we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”
The rally planner, who accused Alexander of ratchetingUP the potential forViolence that day while taking advantage of funds from donors and others who helped finance the events, confirmed that he was in contact with those three members of Congress.
“He just couldn’t help himself but go on his live and just talk about everything that he did and who he talked to,” the planner says of Alexander. “So, he, like, really told on himself.”
The sources plan to share that information with congressional investigators right away. While both sources say their communications with the House’s Jan. 6 committee thus far have been informal, they are expecting to testify publicly.
“I have no problem openly testifying,” the planner says.
--Rolling Stone
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