Rolling Stone Sunday night posted a blockbuster report on Republican officials who helped plan the Jan. 6 protests. The report cites two unnamed sources who have been sharing information with congressional investigators on the “dozens” of planning meetings that preceded the protests. The report identifies one as a rally organizer and the other as a planner. Rolling Stone‘s Hunter Walker claims “both sources were involved in organizing the main event aimed at objecting to the electoral certification, which took place at the White House Ellipse on Jan. 6” as well as dozens of other demonstrations around the country leading up to Jan. 6:
“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”
This is not breaking news. Greene was open about her involvement in trying to stop certification of electoral votes on Jan. 6.
Which “unrelated ongoing investigation”?
But there are others named in the story and one detail in particular seems significant (highlighted):
Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer.
And Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
Which “unrelated ongoing investigation”?
Noticeable in the report is that none of the named congressional Republicans nor their spokespersons responded to requests for comment.
The organizer tells Rolling Stone:
“The reason I’m talking to the committee and the reason it’s so important is that — despite Republicans refusing to participate … this commission’s all we got as far as being able to uncover the truth about what happened at the Capitol that day,” the organizer says. “It’s clear that a lot of bad actors set out to cause chaos. … They made us all look like shit.”
And Trump, they admit, was one of those bad actors. A representative for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
“The breaking point for me [on Jan. 6 was when] Trump starts talking about walking to the Capitol,” the organizer says. “I was like. ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here.’ ”
The planner tells Rolling Stone, “I have no problem openly testifying.”
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance cautions not to get too far ahead of the ball on what this report means. It doesn’t reference plans for violence, but primarily for planning around the Trump rally that day at The Ellipse and for bringing objections before the House.
“I didn’t have Rolling Stone with 1st to report on Jan 6 witnesses on my 2021 bingo card, but proceed with caution here,” Vance tweets, “the witnesses seem to say the plan was for a vote in Congress, not violence at the Capitol. Jan 6 Comm has lots of work to do.”
“It’s one thing if Rep Gosar was dangling pardons on his own. The article doesn’t suggest it’s more than that & prosecutors would need to follow up on whether Gosar had explicit conversations with Trump or others close to him with authority,” Vance continues. “Assumptions aren’t evidence.”
Plus, “with their other legal issues and the House investigation, both of these sources have clear motivation to cooperate with investigators and turn on their former allies,” Walker writes. After all their planning ultimately resulted in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. So the two sources have an interest in painting themselves in the best light possible, as Walker notes. But why take their story to Rolling Stone and not to a major news outlet?
A senior staffer for a Republican member of Congress, who was also granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, similarly says they believed the events would only involve supporting objections on the House floor. The staffer says their member was engaged in planning that was “specifically and fully above board.”
“A whole host of people let this go a totally different way,” the senior Republican staffer says. “They fucked 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 .”
Easy to say now. But the potential for violence was not easy to miss. As with any of Trump’s rally speeches, the threat of violence is always implicit, if not open.
“They knew that they weren’t there to sing ‘Kumbaya’ and, like, put up a peace sign,” the planner says of the various fringe-right paramilitary groups in town for the Jan. 6 protests. “These frickin’ people were angry.”
They played with matches. The entire country got burned.