IMPACT OF THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN’S FALSE CLAIMS

IMPACT OF THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN’S FALSE CLAIMS

¶Between the election and January 6th, the Trump Campaign sent out hundreds of emails urging President Trump’s supporters to “fight the Liberal MOB” and “join the Trump army.” Users on the same extreme social media platforms used to plan the attack on the Capitol, repeatedly shared the “Official Election Defense Fund” donation links in the week following election day.²¹⁸²¹⁸ Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Aug. 21, 2022, Memorandum regarding Fundraising communication rhetoric’s influence on social media). Links to donate were often accompanied by mentions of voter fraud and calls to save the country, mirroring the language of the fundraising emails and the countless discussions being held by the President’s supporters of coming to Washington, DC, on January 6th to “Stop the steal.”²¹⁹²¹⁹ Documents on file with the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Aug. 21, 2022, Memorandum regarding Fundraising communication rhetoric’s influence on social media).

¶On January 6th, while President Trump was speaking at the Ellipse rally and directing his supporters to march to the Capitol, his Campaign was also sending fundraising emails inflaming people to “fight back.” One email stated, “100 Members of Congress . . . Join them in the FIGHT to DEFEND the Election . . . This is our last line of defense.”²²⁰²²⁰ Trump Fundraising Emails (@TrumpEmail), Twitter, Jan. 6, 2021, 12:20 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/TrumpEmail/status/1346794824591093763. Another email stated, “TODAY will be a historic day in our Nation’s history. Congress will either certify, or object to, the Election results. Every single Patriot from across the Country must step up RIGHT NOW if we’re going to successfully DEFEND the integrity of this Election.”²²¹²²¹ Trump Fundraising Emails, (@TrumpEmail), Twitter, Jan. 6, 2021, 1:31 p.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/TrumpEmail/status/1346887173438636032. A third email stated, “TODAY. This is our LAST CHANCE . . . The stakes have NEVER been higher. President Trump needs YOU to make a statement and publicly stand with him and FIGHT BACK.”²²²²²² Trump Fundraising Emails (@TrumpEmail), Twitter, Jan. 6, 2021, 11:29 a.m. ET, available at https://twitter.com/TrumpEmail/status/1346856536338030601.

¶Thirty minutes after the last fundraising email was sent, the Capitol was breached. It was then and only then that TMAGAC fundraisers decided to stop sending emails containing baseless claims of election fraud.²²³²²³ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Austin Boedigheimer, (Apr. 20, 2022), p. 42 (noting “yes, we stopped sending emails on January 6”); Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Hanna Allred, (Mar. 30, 2022), p. 128 (“I believe we got some sort of message, either on Microsoft Teams or Signal from Austin, saying pause everything.”).Show full note Boedigheimer explained, “And at some point during that time, I don’t know if it was right then, if it was a little after, maybe a little before, but either Gary or Kevin kind of directed us to stop sending fundraising messages out.”²²⁴²²⁴ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Austin Boedigheimer, (Apr. 20, 2022), p. 140. Cannon stated, “[O]n January 6th, Gary called me and said, [‘]are you seeing what’s happening? I’m obviously turning everything off.[’]”²²⁵²²⁵ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Transcribed Interview of Alexander Cannon, (Apr. 13, 2022), p. 124.

¶After raising $250 million dollars on false voter fraud claims, mostly from small-dollar donors, President Trump did not spend it on fighting an election he knew he lost. Instead, a significant portion of the money was deposited into the Save America account and not used for the purposes the Campaign claimed it would be. President Trump got a war chest with millions of dollars, and the American people were left with the U.S. Capitol under attack.

¶There is evidence suggesting that numerous defendants charged with violations related to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and others present on the Capitol grounds that day were motivated by false claims about the election.²²⁶²²⁶ See Criminal Complaint, United States v. Grayson, No. 1:21-mj-00163 (D.D.C. Jan. 25, 2021); Criminal Complaint, United States v. Fitzsimmons, No. 1:21-cr-00158-RC (D.D.C. Feb. 1, 2021); (noting that the defendant in that case “believed voter fraud occurred” and that “[c]onvinced that the election results had been fraudulently reported, he was moved by the words of then-President Trump to travel to the District of Columbia for the ‘Save America Rally.’”).Show full note

¶Further, J. Doe, the Salesforce employee interviewed by the Select Committee, provided insight into the action that Salesforce took after the attack. Doe explained that after they became aware of the ongoing attack, they (Doe) took unilateral action to block the RNC’s ability to send emails through Salesforce’s platform.²²⁷²²⁷ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of J. Doe, (May 20, 2022), pp. 64-65. Doe noted that the shutdown lasted until January 11, 2021, when senior Salesforce leadership directed Doe to remove the block from RNC’s Salesforce account.²²⁸²²⁸ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of J. Doe, (May 20, 2022), pp. 68-69. Doe stated that Salesforce leadership told Doe that Salesforce would now begin reviewing RNC’s email campaigns to “make sure this doesn’t happen again.”²²⁹²²⁹ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Deposition of J. Doe, (May 20, 2022), p. 72.

Conclusion

¶In the weeks after the 2020 election leading up to January 6, 2021, President Trump’s Campaign and his allies sent his supporters a barrage of emails and text messages pushing lies about a stolen election and asking for contributions to challenge the outcome of the election. In reality, the funds raised went primarily towards paying down the Trump Campaign’s outstanding 2020 debt, financing President Trump’s newly created Save America PAC, and raising money for the RNC.

¶Overall, only a small amount of the contributions ever went to President Trump’s recount account or were otherwise obviously used in connection with post-election recounts or litigation. As President Trump used the Big Lie as a weapon to attack the legitimacy of the 2020 election, his Campaign used that same Big Lie to raise millions of dollars based on false claims and unkept promises.

¶Not only did President Trump lie to his supporters about the election, but he also ripped them off.