Flickr Creative Commons / Gage Skidmore
U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, an East Texas Republican, has been an outspoken Trump defender.
Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert was among a group of Republican lawmakers whose offices held multiple meetings with organizers of the pro-Trump rally that devolved into the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack,
Rolling Stone reports.
In a story based on interviews with two people involved in planning the protest, the magazine lays out allegations that East Texas firebrand Gohmert and other pro-Trump members of Congress — including Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, and Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado — were "intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent."
Rolling Stone declined to name either of the two sources, describing them only as a "rally organizer" and a "planner." Both of those people are now talking to the U.S. House select committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, according to the piece, which went online Sunday evening.
The pair told
Rolling Stone that, beyond Gohmert, Greene and Boebert, other members of Congress who met with the organizers or had staff engage in talks included Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona; Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama; Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R.-N.C.; and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona.
“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” said one of the two organizers quoted in the article.
Both people also told
Rolling Stone that Mark Meadows, then the Trump White House chief of staff, was also involved in planning talks and was warned that the rally could turn violent.
Gohmert has been a staunch Trump defender, repeatedly promoting the former president's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen and downplaying the dangers of COVID-19.
During an appearance this summer at a Dallas meeting of high-profile QAnon conspiracy theorists, Gohmert also
repeated debunked claims that the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was perpetrated by left-wing groups.
While at the convention, Gohmert snapped a photo with a QAnon-promoting podcaster who has claimed that he participated in the Capitol riot,
according to a tweet by Alex Kaplan, senior researcher for watchdog group Media Matters for America.
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.