Bombshell report links Trump insiders to Washington rally that led to Capitol riots

Trump campaign team had said that they did not ‘organise, operate or finance’ the 6 January rally

At least three people from the campaign team of Donald Trump allegedly played a key role in organising the rally in Washington that culminated in a deadly assault on the US Capitol building, belying the campaign’s claim that they did “organise, operate or finance” the event.

Among those associated was Maggie Mulvaney, the niece of former acting White House chief of staff , Mick Mulvaney, found an investigation by the Associated Press.

The AP report revealed that during the event organised by the Trump-supporting group, Women for America, a public gathering permit was granted to Ms Mulvaney, where she was listed as a “VIP Lead”.  She worked as director of finance operations for the Trump campaign, the wire agency found, upon going through her LinkedIn profile. Her Federal Election Commission (FEC) records further confirmed her association with the re-election campaign team of President Trump, according to which she earned about $5,000 every two weeks. 

President Trump is accused of provoking a mob, which had descended in the capital to support his unsubstantiated claim of electoral fraud that later led to the deadly riots.

Pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol building on 6 January in an attempt to prevent the joint congressional session from certifying Joe Biden as the next president of the country. The siege left five people dead. 

Since the riots, several, including Ms Mulvaney, have tried to distance themselves from the unprecedented reckoning in American history. 

The Associated Press found that Ms Mulvaney had suspended her Twitter account last Monday, in the aftermath of the attack. The account reappeared only after she was questioned by the AP about her account’s removal. 

In a statement to AP, the campaign insisted no staff member were involved in the organisation or operation of the rally and former employees who participated, “did not do so at the direction of the Trump campaign.” 

However, among the others associated with Mr Trump’s re-election campaign who were linked to the rally, were Megan Powers and Caroline Wren. Ms Powers was listed as one of the two operation managers for the 6 January event with her LinkedIn profile saying that she was Trump campaign’s director of operations in to January 2021. 

Ms Wren is a veteran Republican fundraiser and was named as a “VIP Advisor” on the permit. She was the national finance consultant for Trump Victory, which is a joint fundraising committee between the president’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee and was being paid $20,000 a month from mid-March to mid-November last year, according to the FEC records.

Ms Wren had retweeted and deleted some of the messages promoting the event and later upped the privacy settings of her Twitter account after the AP reached out to her, asking about her involvement in the Trump rally. 

Additional reporting from the wires