One of the two Donald Trump campaign aides reportedly involved in the now-infamous scandal in which an Arlington National Cemetery official was purportedly pushed aside for trying to enforce rules against campaign photography was an organizer of an event that became a January 6, 2021, attack, according to reports.
NPR reported late Thursday that the two officials from Trump's campaign who were allegedly involved in the altercation were deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.
"One of two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection bid, NPR has learned. The former president insisted this week the incident did not happen, highlighting a growing disconnect between the messaging of the candidate and his campaign," according to the report. "NPR is identifying both staffers after the campaign’s conflicting responses to the incident last week outside Section 60 of the cemetery, where many casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried."
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NPR further reported that Caporale was involved in the planning of the Jan. 6 event that ultimately led MAGA rioters to storm the Capitol.
"Caporale is a one time aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign," the NPR report states. "He was also listed as the on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 where Trump urged the crowd to 'stop the steal' before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol."
Earlier this year, in a report about "the operatives who benefited from Jan. 6," Mother Jones included information on Caporale's role in the event.
"Event Strategies—a company run by former Trump aides Justin Caporale and Tim Unes that had experience staging Trump rallies—turned a tidy profit on January 6. Caporale was one of [Trump fundraiser Caroline] Wren’s first calls after she learned of [Julie] Fancelli’s spending plans, and he played a key role in planning the rally," Mother Jones reported in January of this year. "The January 6 committee’s final report noted that a December 29 text Caporale sent Wren citing plans for 'a call to action to march to the [C]apitol and make noise' was the earliest indication the lawmakers found that Trump planned to urge his supporters to descend on Capitol Hill."