John,
The Secret Service tracked in advance more than 80 separate events planned in DC around January 6th, all aiming to support Trump and contest the election, including one called a “Wild Protest” and a demonstration called “Occupy the Capitol.” However, the Secret Service ended up concluding repeatedly that there was no indication of civil disobedience.
How do we know?
CREW recently obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request that reveal the Secret Service’s failure to detect the threat of violence ahead of January 6th. For more, read our full investigation.
That’s not the only thing we’ve been up to lately—we also recently filed a complaint about the Trump Organization improperly using the presidential seal at a Trump property...again. Trump National Golf Club Bedminster appears to be using the seal on golf tee markers—a pretty clear violation of federal criminal law, which prohibits the use of the presidential seal to falsely convey government endorsement or approval of its commercial interests.
Of course, Donald Trump has repeatedly used the presidency for profit, so his business attempting to profit off the prestige of the presidency is nothing new. In fact, we previously filed a complaint in 2018 when one of his Florida golf clubs used the seal on tee markers, which were later removed. In this case the issue seems to go beyond just Trump’s repeated improper attempts to profit from the presidency, though, as it also seems to echo false claims that Trump won the 2020 election, which is dangerous for democracy.
It’s high time that Trump and the Trump Organization are held accountable for all the ways they have profited off and misused the presidency—starting with this. The DOJ must investigate.
Thank you,
Noah Bookbinder
President, CREW
