Capitol Riot Aftermath
2 Jan. 6 rally organizers say they will implicate GOP members of Congress in plot to overturn Trump's loss
Two people who helped plan the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that preceded the Capitol insurgency have begun sharing their knowledge with the House Jan. 6 committee, and they have "explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both [former President Donald] Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent," Rolling Stone reported Sunday.
The two organizers described participating in dozens of planning briefings ahead of the Jan. 6 riot. "I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically," one organizer told Rolling Stone. Along with Greene (R-Ga.), both planners said GOP Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), and Louie Gohmert (Texas) or their top staffers participated in the conversations.
"We would talk to Boebert's team, Cawthorn's team, Gosar's team like back to back to back to back," the organizer said. Rolling Stone said it "has separately obtained documentary evidence that both sources were in contact with Gosar and Boebert on Jan. 6." Greene "had nothing to do with planning of any protest," a spokesman said.
The two Jan. 6 rally organizers told Rolling Stone there were tensions between their main rally near the White House, in which Trump spoke and urged his supporters to walk to the Capitol and "fight like hell," and a Jan. 6 "Wild Protest" on the Capitol lawn organized by "Stop the Steal" head Alexander Ali.
Ali said in a since-deleted livestream that he, Gosar, Brooks, and Biggs "schemed up" the "Wild" protest, and Gosar, Greene, and Boebert were listed as speakers at that Capitol protest. But the two organizers of the main protest said Alexander had agreed to call of his event, then reneged, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows declined to step in and stop that second, potentially explosive event. "They knew that they weren't there to sing 'Kumbaya' and, like, put up a peace sign," the second planner told Rolling Stone.
The established plan, they said, was for Trump and his allies to present evidence of election fraud while the GOP representatives objected to certifying President Biden's victory. "The Capitol was never in play," the planner told Rolling Stone. "The breaking point for me," the first organizer said, was when "Trump starts talking about walking to the Capitol."
Read more about the organizers' allegations, including Trump "blanket pardons" Gosar promised them, at Rolling Stone.