Trump Campaign Paid $2.7 Million To People, Firms That Planned Rally Sparking Capitol Riot
Donald Trump’s reelection campaign paid more than $2.7 million over two years to businesses and individuals that organized the rally in Washington which sparked the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, according to campaign finance records.
The startling payments were tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics in a report issued Friday. The Associated Press first revealed some of the payments last week, along with the critical involvement of Trump campaign money and actors in the event that instigated the Capitol riot, which claimed five lives, including that of a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
The center warned that the full extent of involvement by the Trump campaign and supporters may never be known because of dark money hidden in shell companies.
Eight paid Trump campaign officials were listed on the permit issued by the National Park Service for the rally, according to records. One of them, Maggie Mulvaney — the niece of Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — was paid $138,000 by the campaign through Nov. 23, which is the latest date covered by the most recent required campaign finance filings. She was listed on the permit as the “VIP lead” for the rally and worked as the Trump campaign’s “director of finance operations.”
Mick Mulvaney, who had become the special envoy to Northern Ireland, said he left the Trump administration this month in protest against the attack on the Capitol. “I was shocked, I was angered, I was sad, I was embarrassed,” Mulvaney told Fox News host Chris Wallace, who pressed him on his responsibility for enabling Trump.
Event Strategies Inc. got the lion’s share of payments — $1.7 million from the Trump campaign and a joint fundraising committee, according to records. Company owners — Justin Caporale, the Trump campaign’s advance director, and Tim Unes — were identified on the permit as rally production and stage managers.
Event Strategies also received $2.1 million...
