6.10 TheDonald.win: “Occupy the Capitol”

6.10 TheDonald.win: “Occupy the Capitol”

¶Within three minutes of President Trump’s tweet, a user on TheDonald.win message board posted: “Trump Tweet. Daddy Says Be In DC on Jan. 6th.”³³⁸³³⁸ Post by username r3deleven, “Trump Tweet. Daddy Says Be In DC On Jan. 6th,” Patriots.Win, Dec. 19, 2020, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20210105024826/https://thedonald.win/p/11R4q2aptJ/trump-tweet-daddy-says-be-in-dc-/c/ (archived). Moderators pinned the post to the top of the board from December 19th until January 6th. It garnered nearly 6,000 comments and more than 24,000 upvotes during that time.³³⁹³³⁹ “How a Trump Tweet Sparked Plots, Strategizing to ‘Storm and Occupy’ Capitol with ‘Handcuffs and Zip Ties’,” SITE Intelligence Group, (Jan. 9, 2021), available at https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/how-a-trump-tweet-sparked-plots-strategizing-to-storm-and-occupy-capitol-with-handcuffs-and-zip-ties.html. Many of the site’s users quickly interpreted President Trump’s tweet as a call for violence. For example, one user wrote, “[Trump] can’t exactly openly tell you to revolt. This is the closest he’ll ever get.”³⁴⁰³⁴⁰ “How a Trump Tweet Sparked Plots, Strategizing to ‘Storm and Occupy’ Capitol with ‘Handcuffs and Zip Ties’,” SITE Intelligence Group, (Jan. 9, 2021), available at https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/how-a-trump-tweet-sparked-plots-strategizing-to-storm-and-occupy-capitol-with-handcuffs-and-zip-ties.html. Jody Williams, the site’s then-owner, testified that while users had been talking about traveling to Washington, DC since the election, after the tweet “anything else was kind of shut out, and it just was going to be the 6th.”³⁴¹³⁴¹ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jody Williams, (June 7, 2022), p. 72.

¶In the days that followed, users on TheDonald.win discussed: surrounding and occupying the U.S. Capitol; cutting off access tunnels used by Members of Congress; the types of weapons they should bring; and even how to build a hangman’s gallows.³⁴²³⁴² Ryan Goodman and Justin Hendrix, “The Absence of ‘The Donald’,” Just Security, (Dec. 6, 2021), available at https://www.justsecurity.org/79446/the-absence-of-the-donald/. The parallels to what transpired on January 6th are obvious.

¶TheDonald.win and its predecessor site was a website for some of its namesake’s most ardent fans. Even before President Trump was elected, his social media team monitored and interacted with the site’s users. In the summer of 2016, then-candidate Trump himself engaged in a written question and answer session on TheDonald, which at the time was a forum on Reddit.³⁴³³⁴³ Amrita Khalid, “Donald Trump Participated in a Reddit AMA, but not Much of Anything was Revealed,” Daily Dot, (July 27, 2016), available at https://www.dailydot.com/debug/donald-trump-reddit-ama-fail/. This online community, which had upwards of 790,000 users, was banned by Reddit in mid-2020.³⁴⁴³⁴⁴ Memorandum from Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Briefing with Reddit, (May 19, 2022); Mike Isaac, “Reddit, Acting Against Hate Speech, Bans ‘The_Donald’ Subreddit,” New York Times, (Jan. 29, 2020, Updated Jan. 27, 2021), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/technology/reddit-hate-speech.html. However, the site’s users migrated to another online location, becoming TheDonald.win.³⁴⁵³⁴⁵ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jody Williams, (June 7, 2022), pp. 31-32. In fact, Williams testified that he and other moderators had the opportunity to advertise the new website on Reddit for months. See id., at 32-33. This gave TheDonald.win “immediate” access to “hundreds of thousands of people” who used the Reddit forum. See id., at 33.Show full note

¶Dan Scavino, the President’s social media guru, amplified content from this website. During the 2016 presidential campaign, “a team in the war room at Trump Tower was monitoring social media trends, including TheDonald subreddit . . . and privately communicating with the most active users to seed new trends.”³⁴⁶³⁴⁶ Ben Schreckinger, “World War Meme: How a Group of Anonymous Keyboard Commandos Conquered the Internet for Donald Trump and Plans to Deliver Europe to the Far Right,” Politico Magazine, (Mar./Apr. 2017), available at https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/memes-4chan-trump-supporters-trolls-internet-214856/. “Campaign staffers monitored Twitter and TheDonald subreddit, and pushed any promising trends up to social media director Dan Scavino, who might give them a boost with a tweet.”³⁴⁷³⁴⁷ Ben Schreckinger, “World War Meme: How a Group of Anonymous Keyboard Commandos Conquered the Internet for Donald Trump and Plans to Deliver Europe to the Far Right,” Politico Magazine, (Mar./Apr. 2017), available at https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/memes-4chan-trump-supporters-trolls-internet-214856/. In 2017, President Trump tweeted a video of himself attacking CNN.³⁴⁸³⁴⁸ Daniella Silva, “President Trump Tweets Wrestling Video of Himself Attacking ‘CNN’,” NBC News, (July 2, 2017), available at https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/president-trump-tweets-wwe-video-himself-attacking-cnn-n779031. The video had appeared on The Donald four days earlier.³⁴⁹³⁴⁹ Justin Hendrix, “TheDonald.win and President Trump’s Foreknowledge of the Attack on the Capitol,” Just Security, (Jan. 12, 2021), available at https://www.justsecurity.org/79813/thedonald-win-and-president-trumps-foreknowledge-of-the-attack-on-the-capitol/. In 2019, Politico reported that Scavino “regularly monitors Reddit, with a particular focus on the pro-Trump /r/The_Donald channel.”³⁵⁰³⁵⁰ Andrew Restuccia, Daniel Lippman, and Eliana Johnson, “‘Get Scavino in Here’: Trump’s Twitter Guru is the Ultimate Insider,” Politico, (May 16, 2019), available at https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/16/trump-scavino-1327921. The Select Committee sought to question Scavino about how he and others on President Trump’s social media team interacted with The Donald subreddit and then TheDonald.win. But Scavino refused to cooperate with the committee’s subpoena.³⁵¹³⁵¹ H. Rept. 117-284, Resolution Recommending that the House of Representatives Find Peter K. Navarro and Daniel Scavino, Jr., in Contempt of Congress for Refusal to Comply with a Subpoena Duly Issued by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, 117th Cong., 2d Sess. (2022), available at https://www.congress.gov/117/crpt/hrpt284/CRPT-117hrpt284.pdf.

¶White House social media director Dan Scavino Jr. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

¶After President Trump’s December 19th tweet, users on the site posted simple maps of the U.S. Capitol and telegraphed their intent to invade the building.³⁵²³⁵² Justin Hendrix, “TheDonald.win and President Trump’s Foreknowledge of the Attack on the Capitol,” Just Security, (Jan. 12, 2021), available at https://www.justsecurity.org/79813/thedonald-win-and-president-trumps-foreknowledge-of-the-attack-on-the-capitol/. “If we occupy the capitol building, there will be no vote,” one user wrote.³⁵³³⁵³ Post, “If we occupy the capitol building, there will be no vote,” Patriots.Win, available at https://patriots.win/p/11Rh1RiP9l/if-we-occupy-the-capitol-buildin/. “The media will call us evil if we have to occupy the Capitol Building on January 6th. Let them,” another post read.³⁵⁴³⁵⁴ Post by username REDMARAUDER, “The media will call us evil if we have to occupy the Capitol Building on January 6th. Let them,” Patriots.Win, Jan. 2, 2021, available at https://patriots.win/p/11ROC9U7EM/the-media-will-call-us-evil-if-w/. One user argued the goal should be to “surround the enemy” and “create [a] perimeter” around the Capitol on January 6th, such that no one was allowed to leave until President Trump was “re-admitted for another 4 years.”³⁵⁵³⁵⁵ Post by username Sharker, “THIS IS NOT A RALLY OR PROTEST. We are all here for the sole purpose of correcting this ILLEGAL election. Surround the enemy and do NOT LET THEM LEAVE until this mess is cleaned up with Trump being re-admitted for 4 more years. SACK UP PATRIOTS.” Patriots.Win, Jan. 5, 2021, available at https://patriots.win/p/11Rh1WGo3K/this-is-not-a-rally-or-protest-w/c/. This same user posted a diagram of the U.S. Capitol’s perimeter with arrows indicating where the “Capitol Access Tunnels” were located.

¶On January 5th, another user on TheDonald.win encouraged President Trump’s supporters to “be prepared to secure the capitol building,” claiming that “there will be plenty of ex military to guide you.”³⁵⁶³⁵⁶ Ben Schreckinger, “World War Meme: How a Group of Anonymous Keyboard Commandos Conquered the Internet for Donald Trump — and Plans to Deliver Europe to the Far Right,” Politico Magazine, (March/April 2017) available at https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/memes-4chan-trump-supporters-trolls-internet-214856. Multiple other posts made it clear that the U.S. Capitol was the target on January 6th, with one poster writing that people should bring “handcuffs and zip ties to DC,” so they could enact “citizen’s arrests” of those officials who certified the election’s results.³⁵⁷³⁵⁷ “How a Trump Tweet Sparked Plots, Strategizing to ‘Storm and Occupy’ Capitol with ‘Handcuffs and Zip Ties’,” SITE Intelligence Group, (Jan. 9, 2021), available at https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/how-a-trump-tweet-sparked-plots-strategizing-to-storm-and-occupy-capitol-with-handcuffs-and-zip-ties.html. Another post highlighted the “most important map for January 6th. Form a TRUE LINE around the Capitol and the tunnels.”³⁵⁸³⁵⁸ Alex Thomas, “Team Trump Was in Bed With Online Insurrectionists before He Was Even Elected,” Daily Dot, (Jan. 15, 2021), available at https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dan-scavino-reddit-donald-trump-disinformation/. That “post included a detailed schematic of Capitol Hill with the tunnels surrounding the complex highlighted.”³⁵⁹³⁵⁹ Alex Jones, “Team Trump Was in Bed With Online Insurrectionists before He Was Even Elected,” Daily Dot, (Jan. 15, 2021), available at https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dan-scavino-reddit-donald-trump-disinformation/.

¶Other posts on TheDonald.win included specific plans to build gallows outside the U.S. Capitol. “Gallows are simpler and more cost effective, plus they’re an American old west tradition too,” one user wrote on December 22, 2020.³⁶⁰³⁶⁰ Post by username wartooth6, “Gallows are simpler and more cost effective, plus they’re an American old west tradition too,” Patriots.Win, Dec. 22, 2020, available at https://patriots.win/p/11RNfN5v3p/gallows-are-simpler-and-more-cos/c/. A week later, another wrote: “Let’s construct a Gallows outside the Capitol building next Wednesday so the Congressmen watching from their office windows shit their pants.”³⁶¹³⁶¹ Post by username psybrnaut, “Builder Pedes...Let’s construct a Gallows outside the Capitol Building next Wednesday so the Congressmen watching from their office windows shit their Pants...,” Patriots.Win, Dec. 30, 2020, available at https://patriots.win/p/11RO2pYG2P/builder-pedes-lets-construct-a-g/c/. Another said that “building a hanging platform in front of Congress on the 6 should send a strong message.”³⁶²³⁶² Post by username TacticalGeorge, “Building a hanging platform in front of Congress on the 6 should send a strong message,” Patriots.Win, Dec. 30, 2020, available at https://patriots.win/p/11RO2oQy77/building-a-hanging-platform-in-f/. The site hosted a diagram showing how to tie a hangman’s knot,³⁶³³⁶³ Post by username Krunchi, “The One Thing You Must Know Before Going To DC on The 6th...,” Patriots.Win, Jan. 3, 2021, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20210105080829/https://thedonald.win/p/11ROGmlHG5/the-one-thing-you-must-know-befo/ (archived). with one site member writing that they should build gallows “so the traitors know the stakes.”³⁶⁴³⁶⁴ Post by username Badradness, “We will be building a gallows right in front of the Capitol so the traitors know the stakes. I’m driving up in a sedan but if a patriot with a pickup will assist I’m down to spend from my credit line at Home Depot for all of the supplies needed for this. Driving up Monday night or early Tuesday.,” Patriots.Win, Jan. 3, 2021, available at https://patriots.win/p/11ROGrJPVQ/we-will-be-building-a-gallows-ri/c/.Show full note On January 5, 2021, hours before the attack began, a user posted an image of gallows and titled it, “Election Fraud Repair Kit.”³⁶⁵³⁶⁵ Post by username AFLP, “Gallows on the Capitol Lawn,” Patriots.Win, Jan. 5, 2021, available at https://patriots.win/p/11RhArKEQ3/gallows-on-the-capitol-lawn/.

¶Text messages between Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows show that these kinds of posts reached deep into the President’s inner circle. Miller sent Meadows a text on December 30th, declaring, “I got the base FIRED UP.”³⁶⁶³⁶⁶ Documents on File with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, (Mark Meadows Production), MM014441; Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jason Miller, (Feb. 3, 2022), pp. 209. The thread contained a link to a TheDonald.win comment thread filled with reactions to a post by Miller promoting January 6th.³⁶⁷³⁶⁷ See Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jason Miller, (Feb. 3, 2022), Exhibit 45, pp. 4, 13. In his testimony to the Select Committee, Miller denied reading such comments and claimed not to recall whether Meadows had followed up with him about the thread. However, Miller did say that “sometimes” he would “click and see what people are saying” on sites like TheDonald.win, if he received a Google alert about himself. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jason Miller, (Feb. 3, 2022), pp. 209, 212, 214.Show full note Users in the thread made comments such as “gallows don’t require electricity,” and that millions will “bust in through the doors if they try to stop Pence from declaring Trump the winner,” all in response to Miller.³⁶⁸³⁶⁸ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of Jason Miller, (Feb. 3, 2022), p. 209, Exhibit 47.

¶On December 19, 2020, the same day President Trump posted his inflammatory “be wild” tweet, he also tweeted a noteworthy video. The short clip was titled, “FIGHT FOR TRUMP! - SAVE AMERICA—SAVE THE WORLD.”³⁶⁹³⁶⁹ Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter, Dec. 19, 2020 1:24 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1340362336390004737. The video reportedly appeared on TheDonald.win two days earlier.³⁷⁰³⁷⁰ Justin Hendrix, “TheDonald.win and President Trumps Foreknowledge of the Attack on the Capitol,” Just Security, (Jan. 12, 2021), available at https://www.justsecurity.org/79813/thedonald-win-and-president-trumps-foreknowledge-of-the-attack-on-the-capitol/. As with so much else on TheDonald.win, this refrain featured prominently on the day of the attack on the Capitol. During his speech at the Ellipse south of the White House on January 6th, the crowd broke out into a chant of “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!” President Trump thanked those in attendance.³⁷¹³⁷¹ Lena V. Groeger, Jeff Kao, Al Shaw, Moiz Syed, and Maya Eliahou, “What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol,” Pro Publica, at 12:05 p.m. ET at 0:30, Jan. 17, 2021, available, https://projects.propublica.org/parler-capitol-videos/; Statement of Catherine A. Sanderson, Ph.D., (June 3, 2022), at 5.

¶In the two and a half weeks since he first announced the January 6th “protest,” extremists and conspiracy theorists plotted to make the unprecedented, presidentially announced protest against the peaceful transfer of power “wild” indeed. Meanwhile, event organizers and White House staffers prepared for the final rally of President Trump’s term.