CHICAGO — The recent shakeup of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign includes the hiring of a political consultant closely involved in the “Stop the Steal” campaign aimed at overturning the 2020 election that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Alex Bruesewitz, the CEO of political consulting firm X Strategies, was named an adviser to Trump’s campaign, part of a hiring spree last week as Trump struggled to maintain momentum after his new Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, entered the race.

Bruesewitz’s new role in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign underscores how Trump is embracing people who played key roles in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Raw Story’s investigation of the Jan. 6 U.S. House Select Committee investigation records show that Bruesewitz helped organize an effort to mobilize Trump supporters to demonstrate at state capitols — and ultimately at the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election.

Bruesewitz also worked with members of Congress to encourage them to object when Congress met to certify the election on Jan. 6, 2021, according to texts and other source material obtained by the now-defunct Jan. 6 Committee.

Bruesewitz appeared before the committee on January 6 for a deposition in 2022, but repeatedly refused to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right not to incriminate oneself.

Among the questions Bruesewitz refused to answer was: “Did you have any role or prior knowledge of the violence that would occur on January 6?”

Before Bruesewitz testified before the January 6 commission, spoke with “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” in which he complained that the committee was harassing “conservative activists, innocent people who did nothing but stand with President Trump to the finish line.”

He added that he planned to “go on the offensive… because ultimately the American people deserve the truth about what happened on January 6.”

To date, 1,488 suspects have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 events at the Capitol, including 547 charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, the US Department of Justice.

At least seven people died on or shortly after Jan. 6, either from injury or suicide, and 140 officers were injured. The siege of the Capitol resulted in total damages of $2.8 million.

Since refusing to answer questions from the January 6 committee, Bruesewitz has not spoken publicly about his involvement with the Stop the Steal campaign or his activities on January 6, 2021.

Bruesewitz, who now lists himself on his social media account X as a “Trump Campaign Advisor,” was contacted by Raw Story by phone on August 17. He said he was at an event and unavailable to speak. He then suggested they reach out to him by email.

Since then, Bruesewitz has not responded to Raw Story’s emails and messages left through the contact form on his company’s website. Voicemail messages have also gone unanswered.

Trump’s campaign team could not be reached for comment for this story.

Other recent hires for Trump’s campaign include Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager who will serve as senior advisor; Tim Murtaugh, who served as communications director for Trump’s 2020 campaign; former Trump adviser Taylor Budowich; and former Fox News producer Alex Pfeiffer.

Avoiding Questions About January 6

Bruesewitz, who used his X social media account to spread Trump campaign messages to his more than 439,000 followers at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, has not been charged with a crime.

Bruesewitz has also publicly denied going to the Capitol on January 6.

But private texts obtained by the committee on January 6 reveal otherwise.

A congressional investigator cited an interview Bruesewitz gave to “Super Talk Mississippi” after learning he had been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee.

In that interview, Bruesewitz claimed, according to the investigator, that he did not go to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and did not organize any of the events that day. The investigator noted that Bruesewitz was not under oath when he gave the interview.

The investigator later confronted Bruesewitz with the fact that on January 6, 2021, he had tweeted, “See you at the Capitol in a few minutes.”

Text messages the committee received from another Stop the Steal leader, Ali Alexander, also strongly indicate that Bruesewitz was in the Capitol.

In a January 6 text, Alexander wrote to Mike Coudrey, another Stop the Steal organizer who was attempting to start a rally in a permitted spot on Capitol grounds: “We are about to send over 50,000 people there. We are standing in front of the Capitol trying to de-escalate.”

Coudrey wrote in response: “They have broken through the barriers where they enter.”

Alexander replied: “I know we are two minutes away now.

“Alex and I are talking to the police,” he added, apparently referring to Bruesewitz.

Bruesewitz also appears to have personally ordered Trump supporters to come to the Capitol to attend the rally organized by Alexander.

“I call on EVERY patriot in Washington DC to march to the Capitol Building and join @StopTheStealUS on the South Side!” he wrote in a tweet that was archived by independent researchers into the January 6 attack before Bruesewitz deleted it.

The post is part of a series of tweets reviewed by Raw Story that have not previously been reported.

The time stamp for the tweet is 2:10 pm. By 1 pm, Trump supporters had breached barriers and were on the Capitol grounds. By 2:13 pm, they were reportedly smashing windows and pouring into the building.

At 2:32 p.m., Bruesewitz tweeted, “What the hell did people expect? The Democrats took everything from these people! Now they’re stealing the election from the ONLY politician (@realDonaldTrump) who cares about them! I do NOT support violence. But this is not surprising!”

In another tweet at 2:50 p.m. that appeared to reference the fatal shooting of Ashli ​​Babbitt, Bruesewitz wrote: “First they rig & steal an election? Now they tear gas & possibly even shoot @realDonaldTrump supporters? What the hell is happening to our country! Be peaceful! Stay safe!”

At 3:36 p.m., Bruesewitz gave the signal for the crowd to withdraw.

“My friends @StopTheStealUS have left the Capitol,” he wrote. “We do NOT support violence of ANY kind. Never have. Never will. A group of bad apples hijacked such an important fight! Disgraceful!”

Although Alexander in turn played a prominent role in mobilizing right-wing social media influencers to overturn the 2020 election, he has largely disappeared from the public eye after a revelation in 2023 that he had asked teenage boys to send him nude photos.

A visit to the White House and coordination with members of Congress

One of the questions congressional investigators were eager to answer was why Bruesewitz visited the White House on January 5, the day before the siege of the Capitol.

White House records show that Bruesewitz visited Camryn Kinsey, a director of external affairs for the Presidential Personnel Office, between August 2020 and January 2021, according to her LinkedIn page.

Bruesewitz would not say why, citing the Fifth Amendment when asked about the visit.

Bruesewitz also declined to discuss the members of Congress he spoke with just before January 6.

The congressional investigators then showed Bruesewitz a Twitter direct message chat called “Stop the Steal Leadership,” which included Bruesewitz and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

Bruesewitz asked Gosar if he was working with other House members who would object to the certification, according to a transcript of Bruesewitz’s statement.

“As best as possible,” Gosar replied.

Later, at 5:15 p.m. on January 6, 2021, Gosar reported in the “Stop the Steal leadership” chat: “We are still locked in the congressional office.”

Bruesewitz’s statement also shows that he discussed his efforts to gain support for the objection from Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) and then-Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), who is now the junior U.S. senator from North Carolina.

Bruesewitz’s own comments during a speech outside the U.S. Supreme Court on January 5, suggesting that he was on a phone call with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other lawmakers to discuss the plan to object to the certification of the election.

Bruesewitz said he had been working with “some brave patriots” who work at the Capitol, adding that “dozens” of House members and “a few senators I work with will object tomorrow.”

But he named Graham as one of the few who had withdrawn.

“I was on the phone with one of the senators — I’m not going to name names — I’ll spare Lindsey and this person the embarrassment,” Bruesewitz said. “But I hear Lindsey Graham’s voice — his dumb voice. He says, ‘You’re going to start a civil war if you object.’

Bruesewitz then admonished the crowd.

“You don’t start a civil war,” he said. “We’re going to end it.”

In the same speech Bruesewitz said told how Alexander had enlisted his help to mobilize Trump supporters across the country to protest alleged election fraud, a day after the election — as votes were still being counted in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.

“On November 4th, I got a text from my good friend Ali Alexander, and he said, ‘Something terrible is happening. They’re going to steal this thing. We’ve got to stop it,’” Bruesewitz recalled. “And so we put together a coalition of patriots and started flying them all over the country. Within a few hours, we had thousands and thousands of people in Arizona, hundreds of people in different state capitols all over the country. And we said, ‘We’re not going to let the Democrats steal our country.’”

Bruesewitz’s political consulting firm has done work for several other pro-MAGA political candidates and committees since 2018, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The firm received $54,120 from a pro-Trump super PAC then known as the Committee to Defend the President. Other clients, according to federal records, include Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) and Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).