WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is hosting a fundraiser for domestic terrorists convicted of assaulting police officers, and some defendants still facing those charges, as part of his Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt to remain in power.
The event is to take place on Sept. 5 at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and is being staged by The America Project, a pro-Trump nonprofit based in Florida that is calling the reception and dinner “the J6 Awards Gala.”
A video promoting the event features clips of Trump praising those who are being prosecuted for taking part in the Capitol assault. “They ought to release the J6 hostages. They’ve suffered enough,” Trump says in the video from one of his campaign speeches. “I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages.”
Michael Fanone, a former Washington, D.C., police officer who suffered a heart attack after being repeatedly tasered by one of Trump’s followers on Jan. 6, said Americans cannot afford to forget what happened that day. “Wake the fuck up, America,” he told HuffPost. “This is who Donald Trump is, a sick motherfucker who fetishizes violence committed on his behalf.”
Trump is listed as an invited speaker on The America Project’s website, but it is unclear if he will attend the event. The reception is the same day that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is scheduled to hold a hearing on the federal prosecution against Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election he lost.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to HuffPost’s queries about the fundraiser. A receptionist at Bedminster, however, confirmed that the event was scheduled but would not provide any further details to HuffPost.
It is also unclear what “awards” are to be handed out at the affair. The America Project did not respond to a query about the dinner. General admission tickets are listed at $1,500 on the group’s website, with “VIP” tickets for sale at $2,500, while $50,000 buys a “VIP Platinum table of 12,” which includes hors d’oeuvres and a photo opportunity with actual “J6ers.”
Also unknown is whether Trump is donating the use of his golf club to the group or if America Project is paying rent and catering costs, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. When Trump’s “Save America” political committee, which he uses to pay his legal bills, staged an event at Bedminster in May, for example, it paid $80,533.74 to the country club — the profits from which go directly into Trump’s pocket.
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Trump, himself now a convicted felon from an unrelated case, has not made a secret of his support for the accused and convicted criminals who attacked the Capitol to coerce lawmakers into giving him a second term.
He participated in the release of a recording made by 20 of the most violent of the accused and convicted participants of the assault. Their rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” recorded by one of them in the District of Columbia jail, was interspliced with Trump’s reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Trump began playing the recording at his rallies in 2023, standing at attention as it came over the loudspeakers. At times, he has saluted during its playing.
The America Project is featuring the song at the fundraiser, even giving away a plaque memorializing the song’s “#1” status as a door prize. “Join us for an unforgettable evening as we honor and celebrate the twenty defendants who contributed to the powerful ‘Justice For All’ song, which quickly went Platinum on the Billboard Charts upon its release on March 3, 2023,” the website states.
The Sept. 5 event was first reported by the MeidasTouch Network.
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