January 6 Rally organizers lied about plan to march on the Capitol, report shows

A pro-Trump group that organized the “Save America” ​​rally in Washington on January 6, 2021, lied to federal officials about President Donald J. Trump’s plans to call on the crowd to march on the Capitol, where the protest about his election took place. The loss turned into a violent riot, according to a new inspector general investigation.

Nearly three years after the mob laid siege to Congress, halting certification of Trump’s election defeat and injuring more than 150 police officers, the Interior Department’s inspector general on Monday released a 47-page report detailing the licensing process was investigated causing tens of thousands of Trump supporters to gather in Washington ahead of the violence.

The report found that Women for America First, which organized a Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse, about two miles from the Capitol, “intentionally failed to release information” to the National Park Service “during the permitting process related to a march to the US. Capitol.”

According to the investigation, Women for America First, which is led by Amy and Kylie Jane Kremer, a conservative mother-and-daughter team, repeatedly told Park Service officials that there would be no march on the Capitol even though they were planning one. had.

When private text messages were shown indicating a march would take place, a park ranger involved in the permitting process told investigators: “bl[ew her] spirit,” the report said. The Park Service had repeatedly asked Women for America First if there would be a march, and the organization “was simply adamant that there would not be a march.”

A White House contact with the rally organizers sent a text message to Women for America First on Jan. 3 about a demonstration at the Ellipse. “POTUS’s expectations are intimate and then send everyone to the Capitol,” the message said.

Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Trump, had sent an email on January 2, 2021, with almost identical language.

Also on January 3, Women for America First, which had received a permit for a 5,000-person gathering on January 1, expanded the number of attendees to 30,000 while continuing to deny to Park Service officials that a march would take place.

On January 4, Kylie Jane Kremer wrote in a text message: “POTUS let us march there/to the Capitol.” She added: “It can’t come out about the march either because I’m going to get in trouble with the National Park Service and all the agencies, but POTUS is going to ‘unexpectedly’ call for it.”

When a National Park Service permit specialist showed the texts from the inspector general’s office, she put it this way: “So, um, basically she lied to all of us,” the report said.

The inspector general’s report builds on evidence released by the now-defunct January 6 House of Representatives committee. At a hearing last year, the panel described Trump’s efforts to rally his base in Washington for a last-ditch effort to reverse his loss. It also described how he tried to make the march on the Capitol appear spontaneous, even as he and his team deliberately rallied and encouraged the crowd to disrupt Congress’ confirmation of his electoral defeat.

Since the attack on the Capitol, Mr. Trump and his defenders have described the violence as a free-flowing, peaceful protest that failed. His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, even claimed that Trump “adlibbed” his comments at the Ellipse calling for a march on the Capitol. But the report is further evidence that the former president and his supporters planned in advance to lead the mob to Capitol Hill and tried to conceal their intentions.

On January 3 at 12:25 p.m., Women for America First sent out a widely circulated email stating: “Jan. 6 will be a historic day. All the rallies in the cold, all the thousands of miles and all the stress have all been to SAVE AMERICA from a hostile globalist takeover.”

A representative for Women for America First did not respond to a request for comment.

On Dec. 29, 2020, the group initially applied for the permit for the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse and “repeatedly” stated that there would be no march on the Capitol, the report said. The permit issued stated that it “does not permit a march from the Ellipse” and that the organization “would not hold an organized march from the Ellipse at the end of the meeting.”

Mark Lee Greenblatt, the Interior Department’s inspector general, said in a statement that his report “added important information and context to the historical record of the events leading up to and occurring on that day.”