Two political operatives who helped plan the rally that preceded the January 6th siege of the U.S. Capitol are disgruntled with the MAGA movement and will provide testimony to the House committee investigating the attack, according to a profile in Rolling Stone magazine.
The outlet reports that Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lynn Lawrence “will deliver testimony and turn over documents, including text messages, that indicate the extensive involvement members of Congress and the Trump administration had in planning the House challenge to certifying Biden’s election and rally near the White House where Donald Trump spoke — efforts that ultimately contributed to a massive and violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
Stock and Lawrence had worked closely with Steve Bannon, a Trump advisor, for nearly a decade. They were inspired to protest the results of the 2020 election because they truly believed there was fraud, but they were also motivated by a desire to receive a presidential pardon from Trump. Although never charged, the couple feared they were in legal jeopardy because of their involvement in Bannon’s fundraising efforts for a wall on the Southern border. Bannon was charged with fraud but was eventually pardoned.
The couple claims that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told them that Trump was considering issuing them a blanket pardon, too. “Keep up the good work,” Gosar said, according to Stockton. “Everybody’s seen what you’re doing.”
Gosar denied that a pardon was ever discussed.
Stockton and Lawrence were also disillusioned when Trump failed to present any specific evidence of voter fraud at the January 6th rally.
“We assumed that him sitting with all the access to all the agencies of government and classified information he … had access to vastly more information than we did,” Stockton told Rolling Stone. “We trusted when he told us that it was black and white and that there was clear evidence over, and over, and over again. We trusted that it would be there, and it ended up being a bluff, and he finally got caught in it.”
The couple also claims they expressed concerns about Ali Alexander, a far-right activist who promised a “wild protest” on January 6th. From Rolling Stone:
Stockton and Lawrence say [Amy Kremer, another rally organizer] said she brought these concerns to Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. They were under the impression Meadows would resolve the issue. A spokesman for Meadows declined to comment.
Ultimately, Alexander’s rally was granted a permit. In an interview for a television series hosted by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Alexander claimed he and Infowars host Alex Jones were contacted by the Trump campaign during Trump’s speech and told to lead crowds from the Ellipse to the Capitol. Alexander, who has an extensive history of ties to white nationalists and conspiracy theorists, has repeatedly insisted he played no role in the violence.
Stockton and Lawrence told Rolling Stone that they believe the organizers of the rally did not go far enough to denounce the violence of January 6th.
“It’s important to us that, not even just the committee, that the political actors on both sides — that includes Trump — that they don’t get to whitewash and cherry pick what parts of the story are told,” Stockton explained.
He added that he felt “conned or scammed” by Trump and regrets working on his behalf. More from Rolling Stone:
Stockton says the attack and its aftermath was “finally the thing that broke that false reality we had created about who he was.”
“At the end of the day, there is no excuse and the words came out of his mouth. It was the call of the president of the United States,” Stockton says.