Prominent figures at GOP convention were in mob that marched on Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

A number of people who played a role in efforts to keep former President Donald Trump in the White House despite having lost the 2020 presidential election played key parts in the 2024 Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, including helping draft the Republican Party platform and formally nominating Trump to lead the GOP ticket.

Ed Martin, the former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, served as deputy policy director of the RNC’s platform committee. Martin gave a speech to Trump supporters on Jan. 5, 2021, and urged them to work until their “last breath” to “stop the steal” and who posted on social media that he was on the Capitol grounds during the riot the next day, 

Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, who was indicted in Nevada in December on felony charges of serving as a fake Electoral College elector in a scheme to keep Trump in the White House, seconded Trump’s nomination for president at the convention on July 15. A judge dismissed McDonald’s indictment, but the Nevada attorney general is appealing that ruling. 

Debbie K. Kraulidis, a GOP activist from Illinois who was at a rally at the U.S. Capitol the day before the insurrection at which election deniers protested the upcoming certification of Joe Biden’s victory, led the Pledge of Allegiance on the first day of the RNC on July 15. 

The Washington Post reported that at least eight other people who either were on the Capitol grounds during the insurrection or served as fake electors to try to keep Trump in the White House served as delegates who voted to nominate Trump.

They include Arizona state Sen. Anthony Kern, a GOP congressional hopeful who was indicted on charges of serving as a fake elector in Arizona; Jim DeGraffenreid, a Nevada delegate who was indicted alongside McDonald on charges of serving as a fake elector in 2021; and Meshawn Maddock, former Michigan Republican Party chair who was indicted in Michigan on charges of serving as a fake elector. Maddock organized buses from Michigan to Washington, D.C., to carry people to attend the rally Trump held on Jan. 6.  

Texas delegate Trisha Hope told the Washington Post that she was coming to the RNC wearing a “J6 prisoners of war” jacket to try to convince Trump to give a blanket pardon to the hundreds of people who either pleaded guilty to or were convicted on charges related to their roles in the insurrection. The Post reported that Hope herself was at the rally on Jan. 6 during which Trump urged his supporters to go to the Capitol to stop the certification of Biden’s win, but that she did not go to the Capitol.

Trump has long been sympathetic to his supporters who now face legal consequences for their participation in the insurrection. He’s called them hostages and political prisoners and told Time magazine in April that he is considering pardoning them.

“We’ll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons,” Trump told a right-wing broadcaster in 2022. “And I mean full pardons. To many, an apology. They’ve been so badly treated.”