Panel house organizers of the January 6 Trump rally

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WASHINGTON (AP) A House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6 uprising in the capitol has subpoenaed 11 officials who helped plan rallies to support former President Donald Trump before the attacks, along with the massive event on the day of the siege where the president told his supporters to fight like hell.

The announcement follows the first round of subpoenas last week that targeted former White House and administration officials in contact with Trump before and during the uprising.

The committee said in a release Wednesday that the subpoenas were part of the panel’s effort to collect information from organizers and their associated entities on the planning, organization, and funding of those events. In the letters to the subpoenas, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi that officials will provide documents to the panel on Oct. 13 and appear on separate deposits scheduled by the committee from late October to early November.

Thompson mentioned in the letters the efforts of representatives of the Women for America First group to organize the rally on Jan. 6 and to speak together with senior White House officials. The subpoenas also cited other events the group planned in the weeks between Trump’s November election defeat and the January attack.

The House committee of nine lawmakers seven Democrats and two Republicans has combined its investigation in recent weeks as it attempts to dispel the origins of the Trump supporters ’uprising and find ways to prevent it from happening again. Trump loyalists beat and injured police as they fought inside the building, destroyed property and sent lawmakers running for their lives. Trumps repeatedly lied about rampant election fraud, they interrupted the certification of President Joe Bidens ’victory and left those in the U.S. Capitol severely shaken.

The list of subpoenas includes Amy Kremer, founder and chair of Women for America First; Kylie Kremer, founder and executive director of Women for America First; Cynthia Chafian, an organizer who submitted the first permit for the rally; Caroline Wren, who the committee said listed on the permit papers for the Jan. 6 rally as a VIP Advisor “; and Maggie Mulvaney, who the panel said listed on the permit as a VIP Lead.

Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser, is a national finance consultant for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee. The AP previously reported that Wren was involved in at least one call before the pro-Trump rally with members of several groups listed as rally participants to arrange credentials for VIP attendees.

Amy Kremer, who the committee said was listed as one of several designated contact points for the rally, condemned the attack in a statement released Jan. 6 and said it was provoked after the rally a little that bad actor, while apparently blaming Democrats and news organizations for the chaos. She is also the cofounder of the Women for Trump PAC and the former head of the Tea Party Express.

Mulvaney, a niece of former top Trump aide Mick Mulvaney, worked as director of financial operations for the Trump campaign, according to his LinkedIn profile. Maggie Mulvaney retweeted several messages on Jan. 6, including one from the president urging support for Capitol Police.

Former Trump campaign official Katrina Pierson, who the committee said was reportedly involved in the organization at the rally on Jan. 6 and a little more the other day, was also subpoenaed. The panel said in its letter to Pierson that it was aware of reports that he had met Trump in the days before the rally.

The remaining names on the list were involved in managing and conducting the rally and addressed scheduling, operations and logistics. Those individuals were Justin Caporale and Tim Unes of Event Strategies Inc., Megan Powers of MPowers Consulting LLC, Hannah Salem of Salem Strategies LLC and Lyndon Brentnall of RMS Protective Services.

Event Strategies says on its website that it has played a major role in every U.S. presidential campaign since its inception. Caporale and Unes were listed in the permit papers on Jan. 6 as rally project manager and stage manager, per committee.

Powers, who served as director of campaign operations in 2020, worked as a White House press aide and at NASA, and was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event. Salem, a former special assistant to the president and director of the White House press advance, is the manager of rallys operations for logistics and communications, according to permit papers.

The panel said Brentnall was listed on the permit papers as the On-site administrator. He is the owner of Florida-based RMS Protective Services, which advertises protection, investigation, tracking and bug removal.

None of the subpoena recipients who contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday night responded for requests for comment.

Many of the rioters who rushed to the Capitol walked into the National Mall from the rally as Trump spoke for more than an hour and told the large crowd to fight like hell and overthrow his defeat. He reiterated his baseless claims about widespread election fraud, despite the fact that it was denied by election officials and courts across the country.

At the rally, Trump suggested protesters march to the Capitol from the performance area near the White House to encourage GOP lawmakers to strengthen and overthrow voters ’will to give him another term in office. Many did, and he was still speaking as people stormed the building.

Trump’s reelection campaign in January said it did not organize, operate or fund the event ”on Jan. 6. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign participated, they did not do so in that direction. of the Trump campaign

The House committee on Jan. 6 last week issued subpoenas to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy House of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino, former Defense official of Defense Kashyap Patel and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The four men were among Trump’s most loyal aides and some of them talked to or were with him that day.

Thompson wrote to those four that the committee was investigating the facts, circumstances, and causes of the attack and asked them to produce documents by Oct. 7 and appear on deposits in mid-October.

In July, the committee held an emotional first hearing with four police officers who fought the rebels and were injured and assaulted as rioters stormed the building. They discussed their long-term physical and mental injuries and described in detail how they were attacked by the mob. An official said he was called racial slurs as he suppressed the rebels.

At least nine people who were there died during and after the riot, including a woman shot and killed by police as she tried to enter the Chamber room and three other Trump supporters suffering from medical emergencies. Two police officers died in suicide in the following days, and a third officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died after joining the protesters. A medical examiner concluded that he died of natural causes.

Metropolitan Police announced this summer that two more of their officers who responded to the uprising, Officers Kyle DeFreytag and Gunther Hashida, also died of suicide.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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