EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in 'Dozens' of Planning Meetings

[Tony_FLADEM]

With Members of Congress and White House Staff

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

[C_U_L8R]

1. I hope Grand Juries are hearing this too

Appreciate Congress but we need some real prosecutions.

[KPN]

45. Are there any specifically looking at 1/6?

[lagomorph777]

62. Not as far as I can tell.

Garland seems to find this to be an annoying distraction from his real job.

[agingdem]

66. we don't know what Garland is doing

so don't assume he's doing nothing because he isn't running to MSNBC/CNN...not everything has to be out in the open...he's allowing the various committees to interview, subpoena, and get testimony...Garland will take his "shots" when he knows he can't miss

[lagomorph777]

67. I do know his prosecutors are letting the Capitol terrorists walk with little or no charges.

So there is a public record here, and it is not good.

[2Gingersnaps]

76. If they clogg up court dockets with the low hanging fruit, and they all choose to go to trial,

it will be years before the organizers and the Capo get their day. New information is still emerging and the January 6 Commission is where it is emerging from.

[lagomorph777]

80. We have enough courts to handle this tiny increase in case load.

[Progressive Jones]

88. It doesn't clog up court dockets to hand out maximum sentences, no matter how small the crime. nt

[ancianita]

81. Not true. His prosecutors are at state levels and make the sentencing recs, not Garland.

What do you think should be the sentence for 100 individuals who didn't know each other, didn't communicate, just followed a crowd and were charged with "Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building; Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building; Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building"? Are those one charge or separate charges?

Here's justice.gov list (easy for you to access) of who's being 'processed' across at least 20 states. Check it out.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases

It's main justice's federal prosecutors at state levels that handle these. So based on their charges, there turn out to be a couple hundred or more arrestees who are out on personal recognizance ... which is up to the judges. Not any attorney general. Right?

It's not fair for you to equate your knowing nothing with the DOJ doing nothing.

fyi, out of the 113 that have been convicted (a number that increases every single day) the first 20 are at the lowest level of sentencing.

This is building a precedence of rulings that make the punishment fit the individual crime on a case-by-case basis.

No person acted alone, and yet the harm to the capitol and the People's Congress were greater than the sum of their individual actions, but each and every one is tried for their individual actions. Because the whole ended up being a collective act of sedition and insurrection, doesn't mean each individual's actions can be charged with sedition.

There are still 318 indicted by grand juries that are in court or still have to go to court.

I'm no lawyer, but given the unusual number of charged persons -- 649 -- this lowest group fit the pattern of the FBI's and DOJ's up-the-chain method of prosecutions and sentence recommendations.

[triron]

71. I will assume little to nothing until I hear otherwise. Not too optimistic.

Garland is the Neville Chamberlain of our time.

[KPN]

79. Hope you're right, but I'm still suffering from Muelleritis at this point. Also, what I've seen

from Garland to date doesn't give me an abundance of confidence; it seems he is giving the relative lack of bipartisanship in the Jan 6th and other potential "TFG" criminal investigations too much weight in the face of the current risks our democracy is facing.

A measured approach is always a good thing -- in a "measured" or secure or normal environment.

We are not living in a normal environment today -- by any measure!

[rso]

2. 1/6

Not only the House Committee, but DOJ needs to get involved in this immediately as well.

[certainot]

48. they can't indicate they're involved up to their necks

their involvement would likely involve career people who would not get barred again

there probably be a lot of establishment republicans in there but the protrump contingent is minimal now and on notice if still there

unfortunately because dems and progressives continue to ignore rw radio there are a lot of dumbshits who think trump is still a thing even tho his red velvet bandwagon limbaugh is dead

[rso]

3. 1/6

Not only the House Committee, but DOJ needs to get involved in this immediately as well.

[Dorian Gray]

4. Ali Alexander

has to be one of the informants. Hahahahahahha

Would be funny if Ginny Thomas was the other.

[2Gingersnaps]

77. Rolling Stone says three cooperating on the Qongressional seditionists.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

5. K & R!

[mcar]

6. Wish I could read the whole piece

but this is big.

[CatWoman]

8. why can't you read the whole piece?

the entire Rolling Stone article came up for me.

[AllaN01Bear]

19. i read the whole peice as well.

[Lasher]

49. Me too.

No paywall at RollingStone.

[mcar]

60. I got a paywall - that's strange

[orleans]

53. call me and i'll read it to you over the phone

[RussBLib]

7. if there were dozens of meetings

Then they sure fucked up. Didn't achieve hardly anything at all. Not very "organized" I'd say, despite attacking the Capitol from multiple directions. Clowns in action.

Maybe they did get away with something, or some goods of some kind, that hasn't been revealed yet.

[agingdem]

52. I read the article and what struck me

was the whining and finger pointing and the inability to accept responsibility and blame.....not our fault, not what we intended, Ali Alexander....stoking a murderous insurrection?..never!...this is like the idiot kid throwing a come-all party when the parents are out of town and 300 kids show up and the idiot kid is shocked when the house gets trashed, the yard is destroyed, the pool is on fire, the family silver disappears..not his fault, not what he intended ...

[lagomorph777]

63. Risky business.

[monkeyman1]

9. just being said this will make 1 hell of a bunch of congress critter's piss their pant's !

[CatWoman]

10. that's why they're tripping

they know they are guilty as hell.

[monkeyman1]

15. the damn just broke & the fact this is out there !

any guess what will be said tomorrow's new's ???

[lastlib]

12. Expel their asses! Tomorrow morning!

I can wait that long!
Then lock 'em up in a dungeon and seal the door forever. Nothing too harsh, of course.....

[IronLionZion]

11. They posted about it openly online leading up to the protest

many of us saw it. People have archived the posts and send it to the FBI.

[CatWoman]

13. ....

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.”

[slightlv]

84. The one name I didn't see?

Hawley from Missouri. Where was he? Is he just a "grab it by the tail, and say I was there?" type poser? Makes him even more of a fake. I hope this is really brought out by those who hate him in his hometown (and there are a LOT of business people in his hometown who hate him.)

[Kingofalldems]

14. Trump's secret pals not liking this one.

[SpankMe]

16. If the tables were turned...

Repubs would be going house to house with armed military dragging people in on sedition charges. Those cockholes would be trying to bring back public hangings.

Republicans and conservatives are evil asshole motherfuckers. And that's the good thing about them.

[certainot]

51. important to keep in context. sex on the wrong brain theory clarifies they're a mastubation cult

just like the taliban and the nazis before them. mixing sex and logic creates fear of uncertainty - the defining characteristic of authoritarianism - and boebert and greene may have heavy duty vibrational insstruments that , unfortunately, they hold in their right hands. not a major problem unless there may be heritable old world co factors. like their ancestors came from gene pools where right handed masturbation (connected to the left brain) made the slight difference that helped survival in times of conflict and scarcity and was compounded over generations.

[Champp]

73. #RepublicanMasturbationCult now trending down

into the moral cesspool of latter day RepubliQons and their anti-American russian Komrades.

[certainot]

82. sometimes i wish i was on twitter.....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. They had a war room

That proves that there was advanced planning

Link to tweet

[monkeyman1]

18. tfg is on the phone conference calling as we speak ! every man for himself !

REPUBLICAN'S - ABANDON SHIP !

[AllaN01Bear]

20. my anger meter is burning up.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. Every Member of Congress who was involved should be expelled.

Link to tweet

[lagomorph777]

64. +1000 It's right in the Constitution; they are ineligible to ever hold office again.

[area51]

65. +1 n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Is there a corroborating source/story from another news organization?

I would LOVE this to be true and I'm sure the reporter thinks it is, but this is too important to take one publication's word for it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

27. MTG confesses to being part of a planning session for an insurrection.

Link to tweet

[2Gingersnaps]

78. I've seen Bob Costa and Rolling Stone both sourced.

[Ferrets are Cool]

23. Heads gotta roll

but they wont.

[Septua]

24. Was there ever any doubt?

Trump lacks the intelligence and necessary knowledge to pull off everything that has transpired. There had to be a team of political savvy people coaching and directing him.

[gab13by13]

25. Paul Gosar

told dozens of insurrectionists that they would get a blanket pardon from Trump.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

26. Members of Congress reportedly in touch with the White House and others about planning for the Jan.

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

28. The string of news these last 2 weeks convinces me

that there is a master plan to turn the tide and defeat these traitors, because this didn't just break today, it was allowed to break today, TPTB have known about it a long time. And we've gone from a 'spontaneous riot' by 'rioters' in January to the word 'insurrection' being bandied about in April, to many Democrats, as well as journalists, calling them insurrectionists, AND talking about the planning from November to Jan 5, and the hotel meeting, it is all coming out, it is more than a trickle now, it's a steady stream, and the Jan 6 Committee is investigating and issuing subpoenas ... we are on a roll! (of sorts).

So buckle up, do your part if you can for the elections in 10 days, keep fighting, we're on permanent watch and permanent vigilance because we have to be.

[CatWoman]

29. what is TPTB?????

[bucolic_frolic]

30. Acronym, the powers that be

[bahboo]

33. I think "the powers that be..." but could be wrong...

[H2O Man]

32. Very well said.

[Joinfortmill]

37. Tick Tock, Traitors.

[triron]

40. But what is Garland doing?

[gab13by13]

42. He needs to appoint a special prosecutor

to investigate the insurrection. Barr appointed one, John Durham, to investigate the Trump/Russia investigation. Barr even put in guard rails so that Durham can't be shut down. Durham is still getting paid to cover up for Trump. Surely to hell an attack on our democracy deserves a special prosecutor that can't be removed if the GQP wins back Congress.

[H2O Man]

31. Recommended.

Thank you for this!

[Joinfortmill]

34. We're getting close to the truth.

[sarcasmo]

36. Pardons for insurrection is on brand for Trump.

[rdking647]

38. i want to see them perp walked out of congress

taken away in cuffs before the entire nation.

and when convicted to face life w/o parole in the supermax

[triron]

39. And no one wants to listen to Seth Abramson.....

[orangecrush]

41. Oh, KICK!

[Whiskeytide]

43. This is NOT some kind of admission of wrongdoing. We need ...

… to not fall for misleading media stories that suggest more than what is actually there (so far) factually.

They are acknowledging that they met and planned the rally and the protest, not that they planned the breach of the capitol building and the hunt for MOCs to hang. There is a difference.

When they have actual evidence that one of these shitstains had meetings to plan to use wanna-be para-military asshats to break into the building and capture politicians, using the slobbering crowd as cover for that activity - I’ll get excited.

They’ve admitted planning the rally since Jan 6. They’re proud that they participated in that shit. It surely confirms that they are assholes sucking up to Тяцмр, but without more it doesn’t really mean what RS is implying it means.

[gab13by13]

46. C'mon man,

Trump's lawyer pal Eastman put it in writing how they were going to do the coup. There didn't have to be bloodshed for these insurrectionists to overthrow our democracy.

Read the Eastman blueprint, it's in writing, what more proof is needed?

[C_U_L8R]

57. And commemorated their treasonous plot with promo swag

[Whiskeytide]

58. My point exactly. Eastman's memo doesn't mention a rally or protest as ...

… part of the strategy to overthrow American democracy. Roiling Stone is conflating the two and we’re falling for it.

[uponit7771]

59. This goes against their "spontaneous riot" BS since there was so much planned out

[Whiskeytide]

70. Maybe. But nothing has come out yet that ...

… any of these people “planned” the riot (at least not that I have seen). They “planned” the rally that turned into a riot, sure. But there is a difference between picking out the ribbons to decorate the stage and mapping out the weakest access points to breach the building.

Look, I want their heads on a pike as much as the next guy. I fully believe that some of them DID plan to use the rally to jumpstart the riot and use that as cover for some really dark shit. But this article doesn’t offer support for that scenario. There IS some circumstantial indications (most notably to me is the use of military assault team tactics to move through the crowd) - but that really doesn’t suggest that MOCs helped them.

I just think we look stupid when we conflate an admission that someone helped plan the rally with an admission of planning the physical attack on Congress. RS is intentionally promoting that conflation.

[uponit7771]

74. There are too many people admitting they were planning at least the riot if not their protest

... and too many connections to the insurection itself.

There's no doubt smoke here ... The fire will be found

Let those involve separate themselves from the crime of treason versus just planning out a first amendment activity

[tenderfoot]

44. It must be pretty bad...

especially since none of this site's resident trolls has responded.

[gab13by13]

47. I'm still waiting to hear

who authorized tours of the Capitol and waiting to hear who disabled the panic buttons on the desks.

Is Colombo or Perry Mason still alive?

[gordianot]

50. This reminds me of Murder on the Orient Express.

They are all guilty. Not enough cell space to hold them all.

[UCmeNdc]

54. No wonder why the GOP wants to stop the investigation.

They are part of the plot to overthrow the government.

[DallasNE]

55. Interesting That There Was No Common Ground On

What form the planned protest should take and yet they ended up with the worst of the choices. My thouhgt is that what they got is what Individule 1 wanted.

Some were appalled at things turning violent because they believed that they could do their best Ken or Karen and win over enough votes to move.the election into the House where each State gets 1 vote which Trump could then win. But sense that effort lacked data showing fraud then passion alone made that unlikely and some in the know were likely dismissing that as an option. And it was pretty naive for them to think they had the goods to make it work. And frustrated because each time they thought they headed off the Alexander plan to violently attack the Capitol it kept coming back.Silly goose, the Alexander plan was what the guy in the Whitehouse was demanding.

[bucolic_frolic]

69. A spontaneous planned insurrection in search of a scapegoat to take the fall

And where all are equally guilty, we have a crime without a criminal, and 45 had nothing to do with it.

That was the plan, that is the cover story. Nothing to see! Move along.

[spanone]

56. RICO

[Paladin]

61. I found a link to this article while glancing at the right-wing Drudge Report, this morning.

Meanwhile, over at the supposedly left-wing New York Times' opinion section, Charles Blow is taking the paper's daily shit on the Biden administration.

I guess they think these things will be forgotten in the future. They're wrong.

[triron]

68. We'll see I guess

[Champp]

72. Wake up and do your job corporate media

This planned violent attack on America by Republican thugs is a HUGE story, and corporate media is still playing patty cake with it, and check it's designer hair in the mirror.

[rso]

75. 1/6

Sounding more like the actual federal felony known as “seditious conspiracy”.

[ffr]

83. They should be pressured to resign. You know, like we do to Democrats

for looking at something the wrong way or wearing the wrong color clothes after May 1st or if their are allegations made by some RW political assassination group, stuff like that.

What you say McCarthy? Gonna do the right thing and boot seditionists....like yourself?

[mrsadm]

85. K &R

[UTUSN]

86. K&R

[LetMyPeopleVote]

87. We caught members of Congress trying to overturn our election in a failed coup attempt.

Link to tweet