JAN. 6 PANEL SUBPOENAS JONES, STONE
Trump allies helped draw crowds to D.C. before Capitol riot
The House committee investigating the Capitol attack issued five new subpoenas Monday, focusing on allies of former President Donald Trump who helped draw crowds to Washington before the riot Jan. 6, including political operative Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The subpoenas, which come after the committee has interviewed more than 200 witnesses, indicate that investigators are intent on learning the details of the planning and financing of rallies that drew Trump’s supporters to Washington based on his lies of a stolen election, fueling the violence that engulfed Congress and delayed the formalization of President Joe Biden’s victory.
“We need to know who organized, planned, paid for and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers
had with officials in the White House and Congress,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the committee.
Stone promoted his attendance at the rallies Jan. 5 and 6, and solicited support to pay for security through the website stopthesteal.org. While in Washington, he used members of the Oath Keepers as personal security guards; at least one of them has been indicted on charges that he was involved in the Capitol attack.
In a statement, Stone
said he had not yet been served with the subpoena and denied any involvement with the violence.
Jones helped organize the rally at The Ellipse near the White House before the riot — including by facilitating a donation from Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the heiress to the Publix Super Markets fortune — to provide what he described as 80 percent of the funding, the House committee said. Jones has said that White House officials told him that he was to lead a march to the Capitol,
where Trump would speak, according to the committee.
Stone and Jones were among the group of Trump allies meeting in and around the Willard Intercontinental Hotel near the White House the day before the riot.
Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, was seen flashing his signature Nixon victory sign to supporters as members of the Oath Keepers protected him. He was also photographed Jan. 5 with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser
who has also been subpoenaed. But Stone has said that he was leaving town as rioters stormed the Capitol.
Stone said he had decided against a plan to “lead a march” from The Ellipse to the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a video posted on social media.
Jones conducted an interview of Flynn from the Willard on Jan. 5 in which the men spread the false narrative of a stolen election. Jones was then seen among the crowd of Trump’s supporters the next day, amplifying false claims but also urging the crowd to be peaceful. Among those who marched alongside him to the Capitol was Ali Alexander, a promoter of the “Stop the Steal” effort who has also been issued a subpoena, the committee said.
“The White House told me three days before, ‘We’re going to have you lead the march,’ ” Jones said on his Internet show the day after the riot. “Trump will tell people, ‘Go, and I’m going to meet you at the Capitol.’ ”
The panel is also demanding documents and testimony from Dustin Stockton and his fiancée, Jennifer L. Lawrence, who assisted in organizing a series of rallies after the election advancing false claims about its outcome.
Stockton was concerned that the rally at The Ellipse would lead to a march to the Capitol that would mean “possible danger,” which he said “felt unsafe,” the committee said.
These concerns were escalated to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.