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Trump Group To Host Dinner, Benefit Honoring Jan. 6 Domestic Terrorists

Phil Garber

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The law enforcement officers, including many who were injured and died while defending against the violent hordes of trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, should be honored and not dishonored.

The panderer in chief, ex-president and Republican candidate for reelection has chosen not to honor those who risked their lives defending the Capitol. Instead a “J6 Awards Gala” benefit is planned at his golf club in Bedminster on Sept. 5 to honor and raise money for the legal defense of those who trump calls “patriots,” the domestic terrorists who were arrested as part of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.

Two weeks ago, trump, the self-professed, law and order candidate, repeated his vow to pardon the Jan. 6 rioters if he wins the election. He continued to lie about what happened during the violence which he encouraged and which injured more than 140 police officers. Trump has referred to the rioters as warriors, “unbelievable patriots,” political prisoners and “hostages.” Trump has been federally indicted on election interference charges that allege he played a part in inciting the violent mob.

“Oh, absolutely, I would (pardon the rioters). If they’re innocent, I would pardon them,” Trump said during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists. “They were convicted by a very tough system.”

“You went after the J6 people with a vengeance,” Trump said last Wednesday before repeating a debunked conspiracy theory that officers were “ushering everybody into the Capitol.” In reality, officers at the Capitol were overwhelmed by the hostile mob.

Trump claimed that there were “two systems of justice” and that he is facing criminal charges related to Jan. 6 and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election because he was being targeted owing to politics. Trump also has referred to Ashli Babbit, a protester who was shot and killed by police after she jumped through a broken window leading into the House Speaker’s Lobby as members of Congress were fleeing the mob that was trying to break into the House chamber.

“They shot a young lady in the face who was protesting,” trump said.

Lt. Michael Byrd, the African American officer who shot and killed Babbitt, has come under racist attacks and threats. He said he shot Babbitt only “as a last resort” after law enforcement barricaded the doors with every piece of furniture they could find to stop the marauders from getting to lawmakers.

Last year, trump also insulted the law enforcement community when he spoke at a fundraiser held at his golf course in support of the insurrectionists.

Trump has called the Biden administration weak on crime, despite federal reports showing crime in general and violent crime in particular have dropped around the U.S. under Biden. Trump has promised to end the Biden administration’s efforts to curb abusive policing and has vowed if he returns to the White House to rein in federal oversight of local law enforcement.

Trump also has vowed to empower officers to aggressively “clean up” American cities by bringing back such discredited and counterproductive actions like stop-and-frisk, rescinding a Biden administration ban on the transfer of military equipment to local police departments, deputizing local officers to enforce immigration laws, and deploying the National Guard to fight crime.

After the 2020 police killing of George Floyd and the resulting, mass social justice protests, the Biden administration imposed use-of-force restrictions on federal officers and began implementing a presidential executive order on police accountability.

Trump also wants to bolster qualified immunity which shields officers from civil liability for their actions. Opponents of qualified immunity say the practice has helped protect abusive police from prosecution and lawsuits.

In the weird trump world, last week a major police union threw its support behind trump, despite trump’s anti-police comments, support of the Jan. 6 rioters and convictions on 34 felony counts in a New York hush money case.

Michael McHale, president of the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), said in a statement on July 24 that he was “very pleased” to announce the union endorsement and praised trump’s “steadfast and very public support for men and women in blue.” McHale made no mention of the Jan. 6 riot but praised trump as a president who “directed the Attorney General to aggressively prosecute those who attack our officers.”

NAPO represents more than 2,000 police units and associations, 241,000 officers, 11,000 retired officers and more than 100,000 others not directly associated with the police.

Shortly after the Jan. 6 attack, NAPO had a different message when the union expressed support for the officers who responded to the failed insurrection. The violence injured more than 140 police officers, including one death and four who later took their own lives. Four trump supporters died in the melee.

More than 1,400 people have been charged in connection with the attack and prosecutors have secured more than 1,000 convictions on charges ranging from unlawful parading to seditious conspiracy. Hundreds of cases remain pending, and more arrests are expected before the five-year statute of limitations runs out in early 2026.

Jan. 6 defendants were caught on tape brandishing or using firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device during the brutal attack.

“On behalf of the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO), I want to recognize the dedication and service of the U.S. Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police Department and the other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies who responded to the riot and violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” said a 2021 statement from McHale.

McHale said in 2021 that the officers of the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department “put their own safety at risk and did their duty to protect the U.S. Capitol regardless of politics. It was what they are sworn to do: serve and protect. They served with valor and integrity, and continue to do so, and must be recognized for their service to their country.”

The Sept. 5 fundraiser will specifically “honor and celebrate the twenty defendants who contributed to the powerful ‘Justice For All’ song” and celebrate “all J6 defendants who have shown incredible courage and sacrifice,” according to the J6 website.

The “Justice for All” song is played at trump rallies and features trump and the J6 Prison Choir, an ensemble of about 20 men imprisoned for their involvement in the capitol attack. The song consists of trump reciting the pledge of allegiance interspersed with the J6 Prison Choir singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The song ends with the choir chanting “U-S-A!” six times. The profits from the song are dedicated to the legal aid of people incarcerated for the attack.

The J6 benefit was organized by music executive LJ Fino and conservative commentator and former Fox News host Ed Henry. Henry was the co-host of America’s Newsroom on the Fox News Channel, On July 1, 2020, he was fired after an investigation by the network into allegations of sexual misconduct, which Henry contests.

One of the singers on the record was Texan, Ryan Nichols, who pleaded guilty to two felonies, including assaulting law enforcement officers. He wore body armor as he “delivered two streams” of pepper spray “hitting multiple law enforcement officers.” Nichols also urged attackers to enter the Capitol with him, and yelled, “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!” He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Another of the singers was Shane Jenkins, also from Texas, who asked on social media whether he should bring to the riot his military style, “Sog” brand, tomahawks and tactical blades. Prosecutors say Jenkins used the tomahawk to break windows at the siege. Prosecutors say Jenkins “hurled nine different objects at the officers” protecting Congress that day. He was convicted of eight felony charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Julia Khater, another of the J6 singers, pepper sprayed Officer Brian Sicknick during the attack. Sicknick died the next day and Khater pleaded guilty to “assaulting law enforcement officers with pepper spray, causing bodily injury to the officers.”

The J6 Awards gala is organized by Sarah McAbee, the wife of Ronald Colton McAbee, a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for assaulting police officers with “reinforced knuckle gloves.” McAbee held down a police officer who’d been “knocked to the ground, kicked and stripped of his baton by other rioters,” enabling the crowd to beat him, according to reports.

Trump has been invited to speak by the event sponsors, the Stand the Gap Foundation, but after the negative publicity reached a crescendo, he said he probably won’t attend.

Even without trump, the gala will feature the usual sycophantic, ne’er-do-wells, former trump advisor Peter Navarro and from trump confidant, Rudy Giuliani.

Navarro recently completed a three month visit to jail for refusing to comply with the House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation.

Giuliani, the disgraced “America’s Mayor,” was disbarred in New York after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about trump’s 2020 election loss. He also filed for bankruptcy last year after being ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers over lies he spread about them that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment. Giuliani also is facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Another scheduled featured speaker is professional mixed martial artist Colby Covington, an outspoken trump supporter and a trump favorite. Trump phoned to congratulate Covington after he defeated Tyron Woodley on Sept. 20, 2020. Covington dedicated his win over Woodley to first responders and the military and criticized Black Lives Matter and LeBron James.

Also listed as a speaker is 17-year-old Bo Loudon, a political influencer and close friend of trump’s son, Barron. Loudon’s mother, Gina, is co-chairwoman of Women for Trump. Loudon’s mother and father, former Missouri Republican state senator John William Loudon, appeared on the show “Wife Swap” when they swapped with a polyamorous and bisexual family.

In her 2018 book “Mad Politics: Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy,” Loudon wrote that she has scientific evidence showing trump to be “the most sound-minded person to ever occupy the White House.” Loudon has neither a psychology degree nor a license to practice clinical psychology. Trump endorsed her book in September 2018, tweeting “Gina is Great!”

General admission tickets to the benefit are only $1,500. But $2,500 will cover a VIP ticket, open bar and photo ops with speakers. A VIP table for 12 runs $30,000 and includes all of the above. And for those truly supportive of the Jan. 6 terrorists, a VIP table for 12 goes for $30,000.

Fino, who helped McAbee coordinate the fundraiser, has joined with Alex Fahmy, a far right candidate for the Montgomery County, Ala., school board, to form a political action committee, NEW GEN 47 PAC. The committee’s aim is “to fuse the power of music and culture with the message of the MAGA movement.”

In May, NEW GEN 47 PAC sponsored a concert on trump’s birthday in Miami, Fla., featuring hip hop singer, Juaquin James Malphurs who goes by the name of Waka Flocka Flame. In 2021, the trump Administration awarded Malphurs a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the Chicago-based non-profit, Daughter of Destiny.

The Lifetime Achievement Award grew out of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation created in 2003 by President George W. Bush.

“This award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too,” said the awards website.

The 2024 recipients range from combat veterans to longtime civil rights lawyers.

The Daughter of Destiny Outreach website says the organization is “dedicated to helping women who have been victims of substance abuse, trauma and mental illness by providing employment, food, housing and community.” A Guide Star report says the organization was created “TO HELP BATTER WOMEN AND HOMELESS.”

The latest available IRS report from 2016 showed the organization had three employees, total assets of $373 and listed total giving as zero.

The dinner for the Jan. 6 terrorists is part of a trump tradition of honoring the far right wing of MAGA.

For example, a trump campaign rally was held on July 19, in Grand Rapids, Mich., trump’s first since an assassination attempt on July 13 near Butler, Pa. Grand Rapids is not far from Howell, an notorious, historic hotspot for neo-Nazi and white supremacist activities. Earlier in the same day as the July 19 trump rally, white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Howell.

Trump’s advisors had to know the terrible history of Howell when they scheduled a speech there on Aug. 20. That day, trump spoke at a Livingston County Sheriff’s Office facility on his plans relating largely to crime and safety issues. The rally was organized by Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy, who is now being investigated over complaints that the event violated the state’s campaign finance law.

The day of trump’s Grand Rapids rally, about a dozen masked white supremacists marched through downtown Howell, chanting “Heil Hitler” and carrying signs with messages like “White Lives Matter” and “End the War on White Children.” Howell, which lies between Lansing and Detroit, became known as a mecca for Ku Klux Klan (KKK) activities in the 1970s and 1980s when infamous Michigan KKK Grand Dragon Robert Miles held hate rallies and cross burnings at his Cohoctah Township property north of Howell until his death in 1992.

A second demonstration also was held on Saturday on I-96, with participants waving flags with a swastika, the term “KKK” and other anti-Semitic messaging. A video showed the demonstrators chanting, “We love Hitler. We love Trump.”

Trump also spoke on Wednesday in Asheboro, North Carolina and coincidentally, Asheboro was where members of a pro-Trump chapter of the KKK sought to hold a cross-burning in 2017.

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Phil Garber
Phil Garber

Written by Phil Garber

Journalist for 40 years and now a creative writer

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