Rolling Stone published an exclusive Sunday detailing what the paper branded “explosive allegations” from organizers of the Jan. 6 White House protest.
“As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communication with congressional investigators,” reported the story, which is now trending on Twitter.
The paper’s “explosive” scoop? That elected members of Congress were involved in the planning of a political rally where several of them gave speeches.
“Multiple members,” Rolling Stone wrote, “were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.” The last three words, which encapsulate the entire framing of the piece, were ostensibly added to erase any distinction between the peaceful demonstrations at the White House and the riot at the Capitol, which began before President Donald Trump finished his address.
Relying on three anonymous sources, Rolling Stone documented coordination between the offices of Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Mo Brooks, R-Ala., Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and protest organizers; the story then framed routine planning as a scandal. Cawthorn and Brooks each spoke at the event.
“This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses,” the paper wrote in reference to House Democrats’ weaponized probe to indict any and all involved as criminal dissidents. “While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope.”
The scope? Assistance in planning a White House protest with the president.
“Everyone was going to stay at the Ellipse throughout the congressional thing,” one organizer said. “The Capitol was never in play,” said another.
Any association with the protest, however, has been deemed toxic after House Democrats in conjunction with select Republicans with a vendetta against Trump launched a snap impeachment, indicting the rally as the trigger for the Capitol chaos. Despite multiple degrees of separation, including the fact the assault began 20 minutes before Trump was done speaking, the president’s explicit calls to remain peaceful, and the failed impeachment with fabricated evidence, Democrats continue to treat the riot at the Capitol and the rally at the White House as the same.
The Rolling Stone piece was given a highlighted front-page hit on the Drudge Report Monday, with an aggregation of the magazine’s reporting trending as the most popular headline on The Hill.
In their first three rounds of subpoenas, Democrats and GOP Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney primarily targeted private citizens involved with the peaceful demonstrations as part of the lower chamber’s Jan. 6 investigation.
Even Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the leftist Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, called the House subpoenas a bridge too far.
“At minimum, there needs to be some distinction between people who actually participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and those who were in D.C. lawfully exercising their right to protest,” Goitein said, fearing a “dangerous precedent.”
“For instance, I worry about a future committee, under different leadership, finding some pretext to subpoena the emails and text messages of Black Lives Matter Leaders or other racial justice activists,” she added.
