Trumpworld Pleads Ignorance on New Rally for Capitol Rioters

D.C. police are on high alert ahead of a planned September rally in support of imprisoned Jan. 6 riot suspects, but those close to the ringleader of the original rally want nothing to do with it.

Playing on popular pro-Trump talking points, the rally scheduled for Sept. 18 calls for the release of alleged Capitol rioters currently held in a Washington, D.C., jail, whom it characterizes as “political prisoners.” The event has the city’s police planning a “full activation,” with all officers ready to respond.

But despite its popularity with Proud Boys, and its origin with a former Trump campaign official, in the upper ranks of Trumpworld the event isn’t even on the radar. Of the eight individuals—close associates of the ex-president, as well as former Trump White House officials and 2020 campaign brass—most of them hadn’t even heard of the Sept. 18 rally until The Daily Beast contacted them this week. Almost all of them said they wanted nothing to do with it. “I hadn’t heard [about it],” said a former senior aide on the Trump re-election campaign. “I think Jan. 6 defendants are being massively abused, for sure. But doubt I’d partake in any event.”

Furthermore, two people familiar with the matter say they aren’t aware of former President Donald Trump—who since leaving office has defended Jan. 6 rioters—even receiving an invitation to the Sept. 18 demonstration.

Matt Braynard, the event’s organizer, used to have an official link to Trump, acting as director of data and strategy during the early months of Trump’s first presidential campaign. He was canned five months in. (In an interview with BuzzFeed, Braynard attributed the firing to his requests for a raise. Other voices from Trump’s first campaign confirmed the pay dispute but told BuzzFeed that Braynard “wasn’t really qualified” for the job.)

Still, Braynard remained a vocal Trump advocate, and joined the crusade of conservatives hoping to prove the baseless theory that massive voter fraud cost Trump the 2020 election. Although his attempts to contact the Trump campaign about “illegal ballots” were unsuccessful, he managed to catch Trump’s sons’ attention on Twitter, and he was invited to Trump’s campaign headquarters, where he was refused entry and sent home, he told BuzzFeed.

Reached for comment about the Sept. 18 rally, Braynard declined to say whether he had any support from Trumpworld.

“I think that those types of conversations, if you understand, we keep those confidential for a good reason,” Braynard told The Daily Beast. “Any kind of conference, any kind of conversation, anything of prominent individuals we’ve had, we’re not going to comment on that.”

Asked about Trump associates’ disinterest in the rally,…