It’s no shock that both the campaign and the officials on the permit are all trying to erase their connections. From AP:
In a statement, the president’s reelection campaign said it “did not organize, operate or finance the event.” No campaign staff members were involved in the organization or operation of the rally, according to the statement. It said that if any former employees or independent contractors for the campaign took part, “they did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.”
At least one was working for the Trump campaign this month. Megan Powers was listed as one of two operations managers for the Jan. 6 event, and her LinkedIn profile says she was the Trump campaign’s director of operations into January 2021. She did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The AP’s review found at least three of the Trump campaign aides named on the permit rushed to obscure their connections to the demonstration. They deactivated or locked down their social media profiles, removed tweets that referenced the rally and blocked a reporter who asked questions.
“Shell companies and ‘dark money’ may hide details of Trump ties to DC protests,” OpenSecrets.org reports. But not all. For example, Open Secrets found that Powers was paid about $290,000 by Trump’s campaign while on its payroll from February 2019 through at least November 2020, according to FEC records.
Bloomberg calculated that eight of the individuals and firms on the rally permit were paid more than $2.7 million by the Trump campaign. The payments show “an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation,” Bloomberg found.
I expect that much more information about this will come out in Donald Trump’s upcoming Senate trial. Ditto for the upcoming Senate investigation into Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley’s role in the sedition.
