A consultant whose companies were paid almost $10 million by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and associated political action committee appeared to be part of the mob that moved into restricted areas of the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.
The consultancy firm, operated by Trent Pool and his brother, worked to get Kennedy on the ballot in several states.
In photos and videos from January 6, a man resembling Pool can be repeatedly seen wearing a knit beanie from Pool’s alma mater, Southern Methodist University. In one video, he responds to the name “Trent.”
The man in the SMU hat spent hours on what the FBI later called restricted ground during the melee and was involved in carrying a barricade away from a police line after others had seized it. The man can be seen asking another demonstrator to take a photo of him, telling an associate to join him near a standoff with police, and waving a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.
The man spent hours on what the FBI later called restricted ground and was involved in carrying a barricade away from a police line after others had seized it.
“My client was in Washington, D.C., with a documentary film crew to record portions of the rally that day,” said Pool’s lawyer, Jacques Catafago, in response to an inquiry from The Intercept.
“My client condemns the actions of the January 6 rioters, and any insinuation that he participated in that violence would be false and defamatory,” Catafago said. “In fact, while rioters were storming the Capitol, my client was outside helping a disabled friend get to safety and helping protect a police officer who was being attacked.”
Catafago did not respond to specific questions about the photos and videos of the man waving a flag and holding a police barricade aloft, but made a general statement that Pool disputed the accuracy of the materials reviewed by The Intercept. There is no evidence Pool entered the Capitol building, and he has not been charged with any crimes related to the January 6 riots.
When Kennedy was still actively campaigning for the presidency — a 10-month effort to get on all 50 ballots — Kennedy’s campaign and an affiliated super PAC paid companies associated with Pool’s firm $9,367,343, according to federal filings.
Though Kennedy suspended his campaign, Pool’s effort may still be felt in the presidential race. Kennedy has sued to be removed from ballots in order to benefit Donald Trump, including critical Midwestern swing states.
Photo illustration: Ali Gharib
The man wearing the SMU beanie in the January 6 photos and videos reviewed by The Intercept can be seen in restricted areas right outside the Capitol building, around the southwest staircase and the western terrace.
One photograph of the man in the SMU beanie was posted on a far-right blog in January 2021. A former Kennedy campaign staffer and two of Pool’s former political associates, all of whom requested anonymity to for employment reasons, said the man in the beanie was Pool.
In the videos and photographs, the man with the SMU beanie can also be seen observing as rioters scaled scaffolds and fought their way into entrance tunnels to the Capitol.
Pool is among a group of Kennedy campaign consultants and staffers who have ties to right-wing figures. Zach Henry, a social media influencer hired in March by Kennedy, appeared to be on restricted Capitol grounds on January 6, according to NBC News.
With sometime Trump supporters in his orbit, Kennedy struck a deal to drop out of the race and throw his weight to the former Republican president. In exchange, Kennedy would, as the Trump campaign put it, be part of a transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government.”
“We Got Trent”
In a video viewed by The Intercept, the man with the SMU beanie who resembled Pool can be seen on the southwest staircase heading to the upper west terrace of the Capitol waving a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag.
A person holding the camera calls to him: “We got Trent.” The man in the SMU beanie then waves back. A third man, who is also in the frame and whose relationship to Pool, if any, is unknown, says, “We are taking the Capitol back!”
Like other photos and videos, the flag-waving takes place on what authorities have said in court was restricted ground. Much of the Capitol grounds were closed on January 6 in preparation for the upcoming inauguration, with officers, barriers, and signage around the perimeter. The initial police cordon was quickly broken when Trump supporters arrived.
In a series of photographs taken just before 3 p.m., the man in the SMU beanie is visible at the back of a crowd. At the front of the group, rioters were attempting to break through the police lines guarding the Capitol’s upper terrace.
The rioters seized a bike rack barricade being used by Metropolitan Police Department officers. After others passed the barricade back, the man in the SMU hat, along with another man, is seen in the photographs carrying a bike rack toward the staircase wall. In a subsequent photo, the barrier is gone and the men are seen peering over the edge of the staircase wall.
A live-feed video posted online shows the man in the SMU beanie standing at the back of the crowd that removed and passed a barricade back; the video ends approximately two minutes before a barricade is handed to the area where the man in the SMU beanie is standing.
In the photo posted on the far-right blog, the man in the SMU beanie is leaning against a concrete wall. A separate video shows him standing at the same spot, against a wall adjacent to one of the Capitol entrance tunnels that saw some of the day’s worst violence.
The man in the SMU hat can be seen in other publicly available archived videos of that day. In security footage, around a 4:45 p.m. timestamp, more than two hours after first being captured on the Capitol grounds, he passes a group of police in riot gear and appears to interact with the officers.
Kennedy January 6 Skepticism
Several Kennedy staffers have expressed skepticism that the attack on the Capitol on January 6 was violent or an attempt to overturn the election.
Kennedy himself has equivocated on the riots, questioning whether the January 6 prosecutions were politically motivated.
In a fundraising email, the Kennedy campaign referred to January 6 rioters as “activists” who were “stripped of their constitutional liberties,” but later said the email came from a contractor who the campaign cut ties with.
Last week, in an interview on the Tucker Carlson Live Show Tour, Kennedy downplayed the January 6 riot. “If you broke the law you should be punished, but was the republic threatened on January 6?” he said. “Even if a building was burned down, it’s not the end of the republic.” (Kennedy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)
Pool’s two ballot access companies earned a combined $9,367,343 from Kennedy’s campaign and affiliated super PAC American Values 2024 between November 2023 and July 2024. He runs those two ballot access firms, Accelevate 2020 and Public Appeal LLC, with his brother Trey Pool.
Trent Pool, who was recently arrested for violating a restraining order in connection with an alleged April assault of a woman in New York City, is the grandson of former Democratic Texas Rep. Joe Richard Pool. His father is a Texas district judge who raised eyebrows by running as a Democrat in 2022 after years of being a Libertarian-leaning Republican.
Pool has said he started doing work for third parties and candidates in 2010, going on to do petition collecting and ballot work for Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard, and Brock Pierce, among others. Pool’s company Accelevate 2020 was also paid $212,098 by Nikki Haley’s campaign in 2024, among other clients.
Kennedy is seeking to remove his name from ballots in 10 swing states to help Trump but will remain on the ballot in several states, including Wisconsin, where the deadline for removing his name has passed, and Michigan, where a judge recently ruled Kennedy should stay on the ballot.