Couple Dubbed MAGA's 'Bonnie and Clyde' Denounce Violence and Trump's Disloyalty Before Jan. 6 Testimony
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A pair of conservative activists involved in planning and promoting pro-Trump events in Washington on Jan. 6 are coming forward to share their story ahead of scheduled testimony before the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol next week.
Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, who were both subpoenaed by lawmakers in November, have now been identified as sources quoted anonymously in reports about working alongside members of Congress and with the former president's team to plan the rally where Trump spoke and encouraged his followers to "fight much harder" and to "stop the steal."
The couple, who met on Herman Cain's 2012 presidential campaign and have spent years engaged in rightwing political activity, told Rolling Stone in October they had conversations with Reps. Majorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs and Louie Gohmert or members of their staffs about planning events in support of overturning the results of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won.
"We would talk to Boebert's team, Cawthorn's team, Gosar's team like back to back to back to back," one of the two said without being named.
RELATED: Former White House Official Allegedly Said National Guard Would 'Protect Pro Trump People' on Jan. 6
Now, Stockton and Lawrence had dropped their requests for anonymity and are speaking out about their role in the Jan. 6 events and their disgust at the violence that occurred.
"We're turning it all over and we'll let the cards fall where they may," Stockton tells Rolling Stone in a new story published Tuesday.
"The people and the history books deserve a real account of what happened," he adds.
"Violent s--- happened," Lawrence says. "We want to get to the bottom of that."
Samuel Corum/Getty Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Jan. 6
The House Select committee would also like to get to the bottom of that, according to letters sent to Stockton and to Lawrence notifying them of subpoenas which compel them to produce documents and testify this week.
The couple say they intend to cooperate. "We've seen what's happened with Bannon, and we don't have the resources that a Steve Bannon has," Stockton says, referring to a federal indictment for a former top aide of Trump's. "Our options are, in a lot of ways, limited."
Stockton and Lawrence also say they've been living in fear since an August 2020 raid by federal agents on their RV in Mesquite, Nevada, in connection with an investigation into the use of funds raised for the We Build the Wall group, CNN reported at the time.
Bannon and others were arrested and indicted by New York prosecutors for allegedly using some of the reported $25 million raised for personal expenses. Neither Stockton nor Lawrence were charged with any crimes and Trump later pardoned Bannon in one of his final acts as president.
"It's still hanging over our heads," Stockton said of the brush with law enforcement. "We definitely didn't want to face another violent raid and we also wanted to avoid racking up even more legal fees and trouble."
The couple, who were dubbed "The Bonnie and Clyde of MAGA World" in a recent Politico profile, have a long history of right-wing activism, fundraising, consulting and staging media stunts that pre-dates Trump's political ascension. But the former president's populist-flavored policies and constant bluster appealed to Stockton and Lawrence, who became regulars on the red-hat circuit.
They also ardently believed in Trump's false claims of election fraud and crisscrossed the country holding and participating in events to support the lie.
But even before Jan. 6., the couple felt "let down by what they saw as a lack of gratitude from the Trump administration," Politico reported in November. "Their hoped-for administration jobs, possibly an overseas posting, never arrived … They wanted Fox News appearances, and social media clout, but had trouble locking down both."
"If you go work for Trump," Stockton said in the profile, "you eventually become the focus of the attack, and when you do, they just dump you."
The pair say they were in a hotel room at the Willard InterContinental when Trump supporters breached barricades outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and have expressed anger over what followed.
"As this was unfolding on the television, I was asking, 'Where is Trump? Why hasn't he come out and made a statement?' It was way too long before he came out and made a statement," Lawrence says in Tuesday's Rolling Stone report. "Like, why are we waiting? This is so opposite of what we represent. You should want to denounce this immediately."
Samuel Corum/Getty The attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
They also said they were not surprised that the day turned violent and had warned officials, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. "We had been like, since November … trying to raise the red flag that, hey, like not everybody on our side has the same outlook of, like, what this should look like," Lawrence also says.
In the wake of the attack, Stockton said he wanted to forcefully condemn it.
"I wanted to go nuclear. Like, I wanted to go full court press with it," Stockton tells Rolling Stone. "We were pushing hard and put a plan together to hold a press conference … to fully denounce and take all questions from everybody."
They say their cooperation with the House investigation — as well as their coming out in the pages of Rolling Stone — is about setting the record straight.
Dustin Stockton/Instagram
"It's important to us that, not even just the committee, that the political actors on both sides — that includes Trump — that they don't get to whitewash and cherry pick what parts of the story are told," Stockton says.
"We need to get to the bottom of it," Lawrence adds, "so that it doesn't happen again."
Their motivations for "turning it all over" and letting the "cards fall where they may" could also stem from sour feelings towards Trump and what they say is his lack of loyalty for those arrested and facing consequences for actions to support him on Jan. 6.
"This guy's sitting on giant gold buildings all over the world with his name on it and we've done more to help those people than he has," Stockton tells Rolling Stone of the former president. "It's f---ing disgusting."
"Other people had warned us," Stockton also says. "It's not like we didn't see him cast people aside before selfishly, but we always kind of just said, 'Oh, that's just disgruntled former employees, right?' You know, we bought the bulls---."
