Group that helped plan January 6 event awarded $13 million in no-bid contracts from Trump team: report
The events company that helped plan Donald Trump’s rally on January 6, 2021, where his supporters rioted and marched on the Capitol, has been handed $13 million in no-bid contracts from the administration since he resumed office, according to a report.
The Trump administration bypassed normal procedures, where other firms typically bid on the contracts to get the best value for the taxpayer, to award the contracts to Event Strategies, a company that has had ties to the president since his first presidential campaign in 2015, The New York Times reports.
On January 6, 2021, the company was responsible for the logistics of Trump’s rally on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., where the then-defeated president gave a speech and encouraged his supporters to protest against the result of the 2020 election, according to the newspaper.
No one at the firm was charged with wrongdoing in connection with the events of January 6.
Event Strategies has done business with Trump and his political campaigns since they organized his 2015 presidential bid at Trump Tower. And since then, the company has netted more than $67 million from political committees supporting Trump, according to the newspaper, citing public filings.
The company was responsible for planning publicity events during Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, including when he worked the McDonald’s fryer and drive-through, and drove a garbage truck.
Of the no-bid contracts handed to the company during Trump’s second administration, four were awarded by the Navy to mark the service’s 250th birthday, exceeding more than $10 million in total, and one was given by the Treasury Department for an event to promote the “Trump Accounts,” according to the Times, citing federal contracting data.
In a statement to The Independent, a Navy spokesperson defended awarding the contracts to the firm due to a “compressed timeline” to deliver the events.
But the way in which Event Strategies was awarded the contracts signals the firm’s “special treatment” due to its close ties to Trumpworld, the Times reported.
The company has received $22 million in federal contracts during the second Trump administration, with the majority awarded through no-bid, according to the newspaper, which noted that federal agencies are required to award the contracts “with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none.”
Tim Unes, president of Event Strategies, told the newspaper that the company was “honored to play a role in bringing our nation’s 250th celebrations to life,” and did not respond to questions about the contracts.
The Independent has contacted the firm for further comment.
The White House said it was not involved in awarding the contracts and that “there is a standard federal process” that it expects agencies to comply with.
In total, the Navy awarded Event Strategies $12.6 million in contracts for events tied to the 250th celebrations, which were offered to them “alone” and in a “departure from standard practice,” according to the Times.
