Trump's team agreed to encourage Jan. 6 attendees to march to the Capitol: rally organizer
Former President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows took part in Jan. 6 planning phone calls, according to one rally organizer who was working with Kylie Jane Kremer, who was heading up the Women for America First group that planned the rally and signed off on all of the permits.
According to Rolling Stone, Scott Johnson explained that the Trump team agreed that they would encourage the rally attendees to march to the Capitol but not ask them to directly. The goal, he explained, was to "make it look like they went down there on their own."
In reality, however, Trump made it clear that the group would be marching to the Capitol and even promised that he would lead them.
"And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn't, that will be a, a sad day for our country because you're sworn to uphold our Constitution," said Trump. "Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down..."
"Anyone you want, but I think right here, we're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them," said Trump to the crowd. "Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated."
It was previously reported by Rolling Stone in Oct. 2021, that two sources involved in the planning of the Jan. 6 rally were naming names about Republican elected officials, White House officials and Donald Trump campaign advisers who participated in the organization of the events that day.
A third source last year, who has already spoken to the committee and was also involved in the Ellipse rally said that Kylie Kremer, daughter to Women for Trump founder Amy Kremer, was bragging that she was going to meet with Meadows at the White House before the rally's kickoff. Amy Kremer's name appeared on all of the documents asking for permits for Jan. 6.
In Sunday's Rolling Stone, Scott Johnson, who worked with the younger Kremer, explained that everything Trump claims, attempting to absolve himself of any responsibility, is false.
Johnston told the magazine that he revealed the information from the call to the House Select Committee Investigating Jan. 6.
"Johnston says he overheard Mark Meadows, then-former President Trump’s chief of staff, and Katrina Pierson, Trump’s national campaign spokesperson, talking with Kylie Kremer, the executive director of Women For America First, about plans for a march to the Capitol," the report revealed. "Johnston said the conversation was clearly audible to him since it took place on a speakerphone as he drove Kremer between the group’s rallies in the final three days of 2020."
"They were very open about how there was going to be a march. Everyone knew there was going to be a march," Johnston says.
Johnson said that Meadows, Pierson and Kremer talked about a permit to make the march from the White House to the Capitol official. They decided against it, saying that the security costs would be high. They were also worried about the optics of a sitting president organizing a march to Congress while lawmakers were certifying his loss.
The former president swears it wasn't pre-planned, but several books that have been released after the Trump administration have revealed more details. Meadows, in particular, wrote in his book that it was nothing more than "the actions of a handful of fanatics across town."
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), however, revealed that he was told there would likely be so much violence that he should wear body armor. It's still unclear who told Brooks to do that.
One account also quoted Trump asking an aide if he thought there would be violence. The aide replied that his people weren't violent, but Trump remarked about how angry they were.
Johnston also revealed that the rally organizers were "constantly" using "burner phones," which has prompted questions as to why it would be necessary to use such a phone if there was no illegal activity planned.
“I’m the one that bought the burner phones,” Johnston told Rolling Stone.
Pierson disagrees with Johnston's account.
"No such call took place,” Pierson wrote. She also said that phone records would prove his "defamatory claims."
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