Mark Meadows was a 'regular figure' on Jan. 6 planning calls with organizers: report
Two sources involved in the planning of the Jan. 6 rally are naming names about Republican elected officials, White House officials and Donald Trump campaign advisers who participated in the organization of the events that day.
"Both sources also describe Trump's White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as someone who played a major role in the conversations surrounding the protests on Jan. 6," said Rolling Stone in an exclusive report. Among other things, they both say concerns were raised to Meadows about Ali Alexander's protest at the Capitol and the potential that it could spark violence.
Meadows is among those who have been subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Select Committee for records about their activities on that day. He joins Steve Bannon, who the House voted to hold in contempt of Congress last week.
"Meadows was 100 percent made aware of what was going on," one of the organizers told Rolling Stone. "He's also like a regular figure in these really tiny groups of national organizers."
A third source, 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.
The man who began the organizing for the "Stop the Steal" rally, Ali Alexander, agreed that his event that day wouldn't be a "wild protest," and that the Ellipse would be the only event. He is now in hiding.
The organizers said that "when Alexander seemed to be ignoring that arrangement, both claim worries were brought to Meadows."
"Despite making a deal … they plowed forward with their own thing at the Capitol on Jan. 6 anyway," the organizer explained of Alexander and his group. "We ended up escalating that to everybody we could, including Meadows."
The report also said that sources claimed the members of Congress and their staff told them to hold rallies in specific states to specifically target top Republican Senators and put "pressure" on anyone "we considered to be persuadable."
"We had also been coordinating with some of our congressional contacts on, like, what would be presented after the individual objections, and our expectation was that that was the day the storm was going to arrive," the organizer claimed. "It was supposed to be the best evidence that they had been secretly gathering. … Everyone was going to stay at the Ellipse throughout the congressional thing."
What they had discussed with the organizers ahead of the event, however, was only about the rally at the Ellipse to hear "evidence" and the president speak. There was no plan for them to walk to the Capitol, despite Trump's request for them to do so from the podium, they said.
"It was in a variety of calls, some with Gosar and Gosar's team, some with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her team … Mo Brooks," the organizer told Rolling Stone.
"The Capitol was never in play," one of the event planners said.
A senior staffer to a Republican member of Congress said that the official was engaged in planning, but it was "specifically and fully above board."
"A whole host of people let this go a totally different way," the senior Republican staffer claimed. "They f*cked it up for a lot of people who were planning to present evidence on the House floor. We were pissed off at everything that happened."
The sources told Rolling Stone they were concerned about Alexander because they'd seen him working with militia groups.
"The two sources also claim to have been concerned about drawing people to the area directly adjacent to the Capitol on Jan. 6, given the anger among Trump supporters about the electoral certification that was underway that day," said the report.
"They knew that they weren't there to sing 'Kumbaya' and, like, put up a peace sign," said a rally planner. "These frickin' people were angry."
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