Trump campaign paid $3.5 million to rally organisers that led to deadly Capitol attack

(Karachi) With the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump currently underway, the former president’s role in inciting his supporters to initiate violent protests and storm the White House last month has once again taken center stage. But Trump’s massive political apparatus also played a prominent role in planning, staging, and most importantly, funding the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that immediately preceded the riots and resulted in the deaths of five people, including four Trump supporters and a Capitol police officer, a report from the Center for Responsive Politics stated.

As per the report, payments had been made in recent filings with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) showing that several people responsible for organizing the rally received large sums of money from the Trump campaign.

The report mentioned that more than $3.5 million in direct payments from Trump’s 2020 campaign, along with its joint fundraising committees, to people and firms involved in the Washington, D.C. demonstration before a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The findings revealed that at least three people whose names appeared on permit records for the rally were on the payroll of the Trump campaign through November 30, 2020.

“The Trump campaign paid Event Strategies Inc., a firm named in a permit for the rally that also employed two individuals involved in the demonstration, as recently as December 15, just three weeks before the attacks on the U.S. Capitol,” the report stated.

However, the amount is just a tiny figure the Trump’s operation spent to help organize the demonstration. “That’s because the campaign used an opaque payment scheme that concealed details of hundreds of millions of dollars in spending by routing payments through shell companies where the ultimate payee is hidden,” the report stated.

“Trump’s 2020 campaign and joint fundraising committee, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, spent more than $771 million through American Made Media Consultants LLC," the report transpired.

Earlier, Donald Trump addressed thousands of supporters, including members of far-right groups, at a rally in Washington protesting meeting of Congress to confirm his election loss to US President Joe Biden in November.

Hundreds of Trump supporters overturned barricades and clashed with police on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol where Congress was meeting, clambering onto the structures erected for Biden’s inauguration ceremony on January 20 to unfurl Trump flags and gathering on the Capitol steps. Police used teargas and pepper spray on some of the protesters.