Trump spoke at fundraiser on behalf of January 6 defendants

By Alayna Treene, CNN

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump spoke Thursday at a fundraiser on behalf of defendants charged for their participation in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, a Trump campaign official told CNN.

The fundraiser was hosted at Trump’s private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on behalf of the Patriot Freedom Project, a group that assists families of those charged in the riot. At least one defendant was in attendance, along with some family members of others charged in the insurrection. Trump’s remarks come as prosecutors at both the state and federal level continue to investigate his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

NBC News first reported on Trump’s remarks at the event.

A Trump campaign official verified the authenticity of a video posted on Twitter of the former president’s remarks, during which Trump said he planned to make a contribution to the group.

“I’m gonna make a contribution,” Trump told the crowd at his club. “There have been few people that have been treated in the history of our country like the people that you love, like the people that have gone through so much.”

“You have police officers, you have firemen, you have teachers, you have electricians, you have great people, and they’ve been made to pay a price – in many cases, not all cases,” Trump added.

Trump has frequently lauded people charged in the January 6 attack throughout his presidential campaign, and told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the network’s town hall in May that he is “inclined to pardon many of them,” if he wins the 2024 election.

More than 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 attack. About 620 defendants have already been convicted of crimes including seditious conspiracy, assaulting police, obstructing the Electoral College certification, destroying government property, and unlawfully protesting at the Capitol.

Trump has previously voiced support and attended events on behalf of the Patriot Freedom Project – such as calling into the group’s Christmas event last December. He also participated in a recent single released by a choir of men who are in prison for participating in the January 6 insurrection, which features a recording of Trump as the backtrack.

The song, “Justice for All,” features the incarcerated men, referred to as the “J6 Prison Choir,” singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” from a jail in Washington, DC, mixed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Trump has since played the song at a series of campaign rallies and events.

Former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump sought to install as acting attorney general in the days before the Capitol riot as top officials refused to go along with his election fraud claims, also spoke at the event. Cynthia Hughes, founder of the Patriot Freedom Project and the aunt of a January 6 defendant, as well as former West Virginia state legislator Derrick Evans, who was sentenced last year for his role in the riot, both attended the fundraiser.

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CNN’s Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.