Former President Donald Trump’s campaign used “dark money” and “shell companies” to funnel funds to the people involved in the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol riot, during which Trump told a crowd of supporters, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.” His campaign disclosed in Federal Elections Commission filings that it had paid $2.7 million in total to the organizers of the event, specifically the people on the National Park Service permits, many of who list their occupations as Trump campaign staffers and receive six-figure salaries. According to experts interviewed by OpenSecrets.org, the use of shell companies obfuscates who was involved in the planning of the rally because the federal disclosures only require the campaign to enumerate who was paid, not an entire list of the people involved.
