A popular TikTok attorney went off after a liberal group tried to pay him to create a video on the main findings of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. The offer was part of a "influencer" campaign by the Good Information Foundation to remind people of the revelations learned earlier this year. They're working with influencers to promote videos from the hearings, prompting conservatives to allege the spread of "fake news."
"The facts are clear and indisputable: Trump Republicans at all levels of politics engaged in a criminal conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election and sow distrust in our democratic institutions," the group's spokesperson said in a release. "We believe it is vital to the preservation of democracy that every American realizes the threat uncovered by the January 6th committee."
In his video, conservative attorney Preston Moore (who goes by @trialbypreston on TikTok) said that the Good Information Foundation offered him $400 to post a video about the Jan. 6 hearings. He said the group wanted him to make an "anti-Trump propaganda post."
The group told him to refer to the Jan. 6 riot as a "criminal conspiracy" and to use the phrase "Trump Republicans" instead of "Trump and his allies," along with another notes.
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Moore said he was particularly struck by the fact that the group told him to state that the "Trump campaign paid literally millions of dollars to make January 6th happen." When he reached out to the group for more information, they refused to offer support for the claim. They told him that he didn't need to make that claim in his video if he did not want to.
While there is no evidence that the Trump campaign paid for the attack to happen, the Jan 6. committee and journalists have uncovered several links between Trump's allies and the "Save America" event that preceded the Capitol riot
The pro-Trump organization Women for America First requested the permit for the "Save America" rally. The Trump campaign paid more than $4.3 million to help organize the rally, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit campaign finance tracker. The funds went to organizers and vendors for the event, but that likely only scratches the surface of the funds spent for that day. For example, a so-called "Command Center" at the Willard Hotel was ultimately reimbursed by the Trump campaign, the Washington Post reported, citing campaign finance reports.
What the House committee has argued is that the organizers knew that the march to the Capitol could happen.
"Rally organizers interviewed by ProPublica said they did not expect Jan. 6 to culminate with the violent sacking of the Capitol. But they acknowledged they were worried about plans by the Stop the Steal movement to organize an unpermitted march that would reach the steps of the building as Congress gathered to certify the election results," said the site's report in 2021.
Dustin Stockton, one of the Women for America First organizers, said that they felt like they needed to warn the White House that the march could happen and it could get chaotic, the report also said.
What has been discovered in the year since that report is that the House Select Committee walked through all of the evidence showing Trump knew the crowd was armed, the White House had been warned about a march possibly taking place, and Trump called on the audience to march to the Capitol, promising he'd be there with them.
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A White House security official told the committee that Trump had the impression that he could march with the crowd to the Capitol. "We all knew that this would move from a normal, democratic, you know, public event into something else," the security official told the committee.
"What was driving that sentiment, considering, that — this part of it, the actual breach of the Capitol hadn't happened yet?" the committee asked.
"Why were we alarmed?" the security official asked the committee on the recording. "The president wanted to lead tens of thousands of people to the Capitol. I think that was enough grounds for us to be alarmed."
This particular issue remains a key piece to the committee. Millions of dollars were paid by the campaign for the event, and the president intended to march to the Capitol, where he told people to "fight like hell."
The video posted by @trialbypreston has had over 1.2 million views by publication and has been promoted by the Post Millennial and the National Review, which described the Good Information Foundation as a "Soros-backed group."