Report: GOP donor threatened to withhold contribution

Alabama AG’s dark money group was supposed to promote Capitol rally

A donor threatened to withhold a contribution to a group headed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall if it did not encourage people to attend a rally that preceded the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that the unnamed person made a donation to the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a political action committee with limited disclosure requirements that’s tied to the Republican Attorneys General Association, contingent on the release of a robocall encouraging people to attend the Jan. 6 March to Save America.

Marshall, the chair of the defense fund, said last week he was not told of the robocall in advance and did not approve it. The executive director of the Republican attorneys general group, Adam Piper, resigned a few days later.

At the March to Save America rally, President Donald Trump — who spent months making voter fraud claims about his unsuccessful reelection effort that were rejected by elections officials, courts, his own administration and the U.S. Supreme Court — goaded the crowd to march on the Capitol. The ensuing riot resulted in the deaths of at least five people and damage to the Capitol building. Dozens of people have been arrested in connection with the riot. Trump was impeached Jan. 13 as a result of the attack on the Capitol.

Marshall, who joined a lawsuit that made assertions of fraud in four states, denounced the riot and said the defense fund is conducting an internal review of its role.

The Republican Attorneys General Association’s members and affiliates consist of a number of other elected officials, including Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III. Slatery said previously he was not aware of the robocall or any other involvement by the defense fund with the rally.

“He is appalled by violence at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday (Jan. 6), saddened over the deaths and injuries and deeply disappointed with the president’s interactions with the crowd that day,” said a statement Slatery released after the riot.

In December, Slatery announced Tennessee had signed on to an amicus brief, offering its support to a longshot lawsuit aimed at blocking Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin from finalizing election results. Tennessee was one of 17 conservative states to sign on to the amicus brief.

A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who is also chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said he had “no knowledge or involvement in this decision.”

Attorneys General Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Aaron Ford of Nevada, the co-chairs of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, criticized Republican attorneys general and the defense fund for the robocall, saying that they “have no legal or moral ground on which to stand here: The organization paid for robocalls to recruit attendees” in a Jan. 8 statement.

The Democratic co-chairs also stated that “It is not enough for Republican Attorneys General to denounce the violence at the Capitol; they must publicly distance themselves from the Republican Attorneys General Association and its leadership.”