GOP Attorneys General Group Disavows Staff Tie to Pre-Riot March

(Bloomberg) -- The leader of a Republican attorneys general group sought to distance his organization from Wednesday’s deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump, saying the decision by staffers to be involved in a demonstration before the riot wasn’t authorized by the group’s leadership.

The Rule of Law Defense Fund, a policy nonprofit tied to the Republican Attorneys General Association, was listed as a participant in the “March to Save America” gathering in Washington that turned into a violent raid on the Congress, according to an archived web link for organizers of the event which has since been taken down.

“I was unaware of unauthorized decisions made by RLDF staff with regard to this week’s rally,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who leads the Rule of Law Defense Fund, said in an emailed statement. “Despite currently transitioning into my role as the newly elected chairman of RLDF, it is unacceptable that I was neither consulted about nor informed of those decisions.”

The link between the group and the event was first reported by the watchdog group Documented on Jan. 7, saying RLDF helped organize the event. That claim was denied Friday by the group’s executive director, Adam Piper.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event,” Piper said in a statement. “No Republican AG authorized the staff’s decision to amplify a colleague speaking at the event. Organizationally and individually, we strongly condemn and disavow the events which occurred.”

‘Dangerous Lies’

The Democratic Attorneys General Association’s co-chairs, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey and Nevada AG Aaron Ford, blasted their GOP counterparts on Friday, accusing RAGA and the Rule of Law Defense Fund of contributing to the atmosphere that led to the riot by peddling conspiracy theories and “pandering to President Trump’s dangerous lies” about election fraud.

“Current and former Republican AGs have been directly involved with efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, and now the party of so-called ‘law and order’ played a role in recruiting the domestic terrorists who breached the U.S. Capitol,” Healey and Ford said in the statement.

RAGA news releases have blessed legal challenges to the election result and even warned Americans about the “dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok.” Trump spoke at the rally on Wednesday, repeating debunked claims of a rigged election. Mobs later stormed the Capitol building, resulting in five deaths.

RAGA condemned the Capitol raid the day it occurred.

Republican AGs “stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today,” the organization said in a statement on Jan. 6. “These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

The Democratic AGs said their Republican counterparts “paid for robocalls to recruit attendees” and “was listed as a sponsor of the event.” The RLDF was on a list of “Participating in the March to Save America” alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others, Documented reported. The March to Save America website no longer shows any information about the event or participants, but an archived version from Jan. 5 lists RLDF as a participating group.

Texas AG

The Democrats in particular criticized Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who took legal action to block Biden’s victory and spoke at the Washington event. Paxton joined Trump in telling agitated rally participants that the election had been stolen and that “we will not quit fighting,” the Houston Chronicle reported.

Paxton’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, elected last year as RAGA chairman, didn’t have any knowledge or involvement in the decision to fund the Wednesday event and is working to find out what happened, his office said in a statement. Notably, Carr’s office defended other Georgia officials in Trump’s failed lawsuits to reverse his election loss in the state.

“The stance of the protesters was not consistent with Attorney General Carr’s position on election fraud,” according to the statement. “And, as he has been saying since moments after seeing news break, the violence and destruction we saw at the U.S. Capitol is unacceptable and un-American.”