CHICAGO — Donald Trump’s recent presidential campaign staff shakeup includes hiring a political consultant deeply involved in the “Stop the Steal” campaign that sought to overturn the 2020 election — and culminated with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Alex Bruesewitz, the CEO of the political consulting firm X Strategies, was named an adviser to the Trump campaign — part of a hiring spree last week as Trump struggled to maintain momentum with new Democratic opponent in Vice President Kamala Harris entering the race.
Bruesewitz’s new role in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign underscores how Trump is embracing people instrumental in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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Raw Story’s review of U.S. House Select January 6 Committee investigation records indicate Bruesewitz helped organize an effort to mobilize Trump supporters to rally at state capitols — and eventually at the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 election.
Bruesewitz also coordinated with members of Congress to encourage them to object when Congress convened to certify the election on Jan. 6, 2021, according to texts and other source materials obtained by the now-defunct January 6 committee.
Bruesewitz appeared before the January 6 committee for a deposition in 2022, but repeatedly declined to answer questions while invoking the Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to avoid self-incrimination.
Included among the questions Bruesewitz refused to answer: “Did you have any role or knowledge beforehand about violence that would occur on January 6th?”
Prior to testifying before the January 6 committee, Bruesewitz spoke to “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where he complained that the committee was harassing “conservative activists, innocent people for doing nothing but standing with President Trump until the finish line.”
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He added that he planned to “go on the offense… because at the end of the day the American people deserve to know the truth about what happened on January 6th.”
To date, 1,488 defendants have been charged with offenses related to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, including 547 charged with assaulting law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
At least seven people died on or shortly after Jan. 6, either from injuries or suicide and 140 officers were injured. The siege of the Capitol resulted in damages totaling $2.8 million.
Trump supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Sebastian Portillo/Shutterstock)
Since refusing to answer questions from the January 6 committee, Bruesewitz has not spoken publicly about his involvement in the Stop the Steal campaign or his activities on Jan. 6, 2021.
Reached by phone by Raw Story on Aug. 17, Bruesewitz, who now lists himself as a "Trump Campaign Advisor" on his X social media account, said he was at an event and was unavailable to talk, and then suggested reaching 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 website. Voicemail message have also gone unanswered.
The Trump campaign could not be reached for comment for this story.
Others recent Trump campaign hires include Corey Lewandowski, a former campaign manager who will serve as senior adviser; Tim Murtaugh, who served as communications director for Trump’s campaign in 2020; former Trump aide Taylor Budowich; and former Fox News producer Alex Pfeiffer.
Bruesewitz, who has this week used his X social media account to amplify Trump campaign messages to his more than 439,000 followers during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, has not been charged with a crime.
Bruesewitz has also publicly denied going to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
But private texts obtained by the January 6 committee indicate otherwise.
A congressional investigator cited an interview Bruesewitz gave to “Super Talk Mississippi” after learning that he had been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee.
In that interview, according to the investigator, Bruesewitz claimed he didn’t go to the Capitol on Jan. 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.
Later, the investigator confronted Bruesewitz with the fact that, on Jan. 6, 2021, he had tweeted: “See you at the Capitol in a few minutes.”
Text messages obtained by the committee from another Stop the Steal leader, Ali Alexander, also strongly suggest Bruesewitz was at the Capitol.
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In one text on Jan. 6, Alexander wrote to Mike Coudrey, another Stop the Steal organizer who was attempting to start a rally at a permitted space on the Capitol grounds: “We are about to send over 50,000 people over there. We are on the front side of the Capitol trying to D escalate.”
Coudrey wrote in response: “They broke the barriers they’re going inside.”
Alexander replied: “I know we are now two minutes away.
“Alex and I are talking to the police,” he added, apparently referring to Bruesewitz.
Bruesewitz appears to have also personally directed Trump supporters to come to the Capitol to attend the rally organized by Alexander.
“I urge EVERY patriot in Washington DC to march to the Capitol building and join @StopTheStealUS on the southside!” he wrote in a tweet that was archived by independent Jan. 6 attack researchers before Bruesewitz deleted it.
The post is part of a series of tweets reviewed by Raw Story that have not been previously reported.
The time stamp for the tweet is 2:10 p.m. By 1 p.m., Trump supporters had broken through the barriers and moved on the Capitol grounds. At 2:13 p.m., they would break out windows and stream into the building.
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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) that cares about them! I don’t support ANY violence. But this isn’t surprising!”
In another tweet at 2:50 p.m. that appears to reference the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt, Bruesewitz wrote: “First they rig and steal an election? Now they’re tear gassing and possibly even shooting @realDonaldTrump supporters? What the hell is happening to our country! Be peaceful! Stay safe!”
An archive of Alex Bruesewitz's tweets on Jan. 6, 2021 shows him calling on Trump's supporters to come to the Capitol.Courtesy J6 Capitol Insurrection database
Then, at 3:36 p.m., Bruesewitz signaled that the mob should stand down.
“My friends @StopTheStealUS have left the Capitol grounds,” he wrote. “We don’t support ANY violence. Never have. Never will. A group of bad apples have hijacked such an important fight! Shameful!”
While Alexander, for his part, played a prominent role in marshaling right-wing social media influencers to help overturn the 2020 election, he has largely faded from the public eye following a revelation in 2023 that he had asked teenage boys to send him nude pictures.
Among the questions congressional investigators were keen to answer: why Bruesewitz visited the White House on Jan. 5, the day before the Capitol siege.
White House logs show that Bruesewitz visited Camryn Kinsey, an external relations director for the Presidential Personnel Office between August 2020 and January 2021, according to her LinkedIn page.
Bruesewitz wouldn’t say why — he pleaded the Fifth when asked about the visit.
Bruesewitz also declined to talk about members of Congress with whom he spoke immediately before Jan. 6.
The congressional investigators then showed Bruesewitz a Twitter direct message chat named “Stop the Steal leadership,” which included Bruesewitz and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ).
Bruesewitz asked Gosar if he coordinated with other House members committed to objecting to the certification, according to a transcript of Bruesewitz’s deposition.
“As best as possible,” Gosar replied.
Later, at 5:15 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, Gosar reported in the “Stop the Steal leadership” chat: “We’re still on lockdown in the congressional office.”
Bruesewitz’s deposition also indicates that he talked about his efforts to secure 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 remarks during a speech outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 5 suggest he was on a phone call with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other lawmakers to discuss the plan to object to certification the election.
Bruesewitz said he had “been working with a few brave patriots” that work in the Capitol, adding that “dozens” of House members and “a couple of the senators that I work with are objecting tomorrow.”
But he singled out Graham as a holdout.
“I was sitting on a phone call with one of the senators — I’m not gonna say names — I’ll spare Lindsey and this person the embarrassment,” Bruesewitz said. “But I hear Lindsey Graham’s voice — his stupid voice. He goes, ‘You guys are going to cause a civil war if you object.’
Then, Bruesewitz exhorted the crowd.
“You’re not starting a civil war,” he said. “We’re going to end it.”
In the same speech, Bruesewitz recounted how Alexander had enlisted his help to mobilize Trump supporters across the country to protest supposed election fraud one day after the election — when votes were still being counted in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.
“On November 4th, I got a text from my good friend Ali Alexander, and he said, ‘Something terrible’s happening. They’re gonna steal this thing. We must stop it,’” Bruesewitz recalled. “And so what we did is we put together a coalition of patriots and we started flying them across the country. Within hours, we had thousands and thousands of people in Arizona, hundreds of people across different state capitals across the country. And we said, ‘We are not going to let the Democrats steal our country.’”
Since 2018, Bruesewitz’s political consulting firm has performed work for several other pro-MAGA political candidates and committees, 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, per 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).
