New Evidence Shows Trump Chief Of Staff Planning March To Capitol

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Caleb Newton
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According to a man named Scott Johnston who was involved with planning the large, outdoor rally in D.C. that immediately preceded last year’s attack on the Capitol, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was involved with plans to have a march to the Capitol on January 6. As part of those planning deliberations, Meadows, then-Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson, and January 6 rally organizer Kylie Kremer “decided against officially permitting the march, citing concerns about security costs and about the optics of a sitting president organizing a push towards Congress as lawmakers certified his loss in the 2020 election,” Rolling Stone explains, based on revelations from Johnston. Troublingly, the lack of a permit could have helped with leaving law enforcement unprepared for the mob that ended up descending on the Capitol complex.

Johnston says that he directly overheard a conversation along these lines between Kremer, Pierson, and Meadows, and he also says that he’s testified to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot about it. The point, Johnston claims, was to “direct the people down there and make it look like they went down there on their own.” Although he could have come up with the sentiment separate from these alleged planning conversations, Trump himself directly backed up the idea that there was going to be a march to the Capitol. In a speech that he gave at that D.C. rally, he said: “And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you… we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them.”

As Rolling Stone explains the ramifications of pushing ahead without a permit, “Johnston’s account suggests there was a deliberate strategy by Trump’s allies to have supporters descend on the Capitol. Such a connection would implicate top White House and campaign officials in drawing crowds to Congress without a permit — a step that could have required added security and may have allowed law enforcement to better prepare for the day’s events.” Individuals implicated by allegations Johnston made have denied the substance of his claims — the “claim regarding the substance of any phone call between Katrina Pierson, Kylie Kremer and Mark Meadows is absolutely false,” Kylie and Amy Kremer’s spokesman, Chris Barron, said. As for the push to get conclusive answers to these and related questions, Meadows has largely refused to cooperate with the riot panel, to which he’s seemingly never testified (although he did give investigators documents before stopping his cooperation). Read more at this link.

The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has been pushing forward with its probe through obstruction by Trump and his allies. A previous letter from the panel’s chairperson Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) to Meadows suggested investigators were interested in his role in planning the events of January 6: “It appears that you were with or in the vicinity of President Trump on January 6, had communications with the President and others on January 6 regarding events at the Capitol, and are a witness regarding activities of that day… Moreover, at least one press report indicates you were in communication with organizers of the January 6 rally, including Amy Kremer,” as that letter put it.



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