Ms. Grisham told the panel Mrs. Trump believed Mr. Meadows was “letting a lot of people who were maybe being harmful to the president, giving him bad advice.”
She added, “He was clearing them into the residence or getting them into the Oval. And Mrs. Trump never liked it when people would tell Trump what he wanted to hear rather than the truth or the reality of the situation.”
Rally organizers worried about the involvement of fringe activists.
Multiple people involved with planning the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse expressed qualms about some of the fringe activists who had been brought into the fold, according to testimony, text messages and emails produced to the committee.
Amy and Kylie Kremer, the mother and daughter who lead Women for America First and helped plan the rally, said they had repeatedly expressed apprehension that Alex Jones, the Infowars fabulist, and Ali Alexander, a Stop the Steal organizer, were allowed to participate in the planning of the rally and the event itself. Kylie Kremer told investigators that she was particularly fearful of Mr. Jones, who she said had stormed a stage and shoved Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, at one of their earlier events.
Neither man ultimately spoke from the stage, but others did, including Mr. Giuliani, who called for “trial by combat,” and Mr. Trump, who told the crowd to “fight like hell.”
On Jan. 6 at 2:18 p.m., as the riot at the Capitol was raging, Katrina Pierson, a former Trump aide who had helped organize the rally, texted Max Miller, a former Trump adviser who was recently elected to represent Ohio in Congress: “And this is why I fought so hard to keep certain people off” the stage.
Ms. Pierson added, “I didn’t know what was going to happen at the Capitol. I knew it wouldn’t be good, and that’s why I could not be flexible at all on this one.”
