Records show that President Donald Trump’s campaign aides and allies helped plan rallies that preceded the deadly Capitol riot on January 6, according to the Associated Press.
A group called “Women for America First” hosted the “Save America Rally” where Trump urged his followers to go to the Capitol, where five people including a police officer were killed when hundreds of his supporters overran security and hunted for lawmakers through the halls of Congress.
Trump’s campaign said no campaign staff were involved in the rally and if any former employees did so “they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.”
But the AP found that Megan Powers, who was the Trump campaign’s director of operations, was one of the two operations managers listed for the January 6 rally.
At least three Trump campaign aides who were named on the permit “rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration” by locking the social media accounts and blocking reporters, according to the AP.
Campaign aides involved:
Carolina Wren, a GOP fundraiser who was paid $20,000 per month by a Trump campaign committee, was listed as a “VIP advisor” on the Women for America First documents. Wren later apparently removed tweets about the event.
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney’s niece Maggie Mulvaney, a former director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, was also listed as a “VIP lead” on the documents. She briefly removed her Twitter account and later blocked an AP reporter who raised questions about her involvement.
Other allies listed on docs:
Justin Caporale, a former top aide to First Lady Melania Trump, was also listed on the paperwork as the event’s project manager. He was identified as a partner with Event Strategies, a production company.
Tim Unes, the president of Event Strategies, which has longstanding ties to Trump and received $1.3 million from his campaign, was listed as the stage manager on the document.
Hannah Salem, who spent three years as a White House press aide, was also listed as the rally’s “operations manager for logistics and communications.”
