QAnon Is Hosting A Conference At The Omni Dallas Hotel Headlined By Michael Flynn And Sidney Powell

It appears the QAnon conspiracy movement is getting into the conference business.

In this politically charged, hyperpartisan era, many hospitality brands would go out of their way to avoid being linked to a group that helped fuel the Capitol riot on January 6.

But this Memorial Day Weekend, the Omni Dallas Hotel is slated to host a QAnon conference, reports the Dallas Morning News. Attendees who stay at the upscale 1,001-room property in downtown Dallas for $149 a night can enjoy eight restaurants, a heated infinity pool, a full-service spa—and a stacked lineup of QAnon favorites.

The “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 28, with a private VIP meet-and-greet reception at the hotel’s Texas Spice restaurant. The hotel is connected by skybridge to the Dallas Convention Center, though event organizers have scheduled the bulk of the activities at Gilley’s Dallas, a seven-venue complex just down the road.

“Although this has been a time of uncertainty for many, it is also a time of excitement as we witness political history being made before our eyes,” says the event website. “What better time and place to get together to fellowship and celebrate with your Patriot family?!?”

Headlining the conference are two of the country’s best-known “deep state” conspiracy propagators—Michael T. Flynn and Sidney Powell. Flynn, who was President Trump’s national security advisor for 24 days, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador but was subsequently pardoned by Trump. Last year, Flynn made a public show of taking the QAnon “oath,” and has promoted an online store that sells QAnon merchandise.

Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s former attorneys, is currently being sued for $1.3 billion in damages in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over her repeated claims that the company was part of a far-reaching conspiracy to rid the White House of Trump by rigging voting machines. Part of her legal defense is that “no reasonable person” could have possibly believed her.

The QAnon Con in Dallas lists 14 other guest speakers, including George Papadopoulos, another former Trump advisor who also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Like Flynn, Papadopoulos was pardoned by the former president and is now another outspoken critic of the “deep state.”

This kind of organized conference, taking place at a hotel with keynote speakers, is not usual for QAnon, says Jason Blazakis, a domestic terrorism expert and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Soufan Center think tank. Last October, QAnon held a small conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Jake Angeli (the so-called QAnon Shaman) was in attendance along with Jim Watkins, who runs the QAnon conspiracy forum 8Kun. But most of the movement’s events are marches that are not even billed as QAnon events, masquerading instead as protests for a specific topic such as “save the children,” says Blazakis. “This way they can draw a diverse crowd and try to lure new individuals into the movement.”

The Dallas Morning News framed the Memorial Day Weekend event as a “political convention,” but the event organizer goes by the name “QAnon John” on the conservative social media platform Gab, where he has more than 32,000 followers.

“QAnon John” is almost certainly an alias for Rich Granville, a prolific QAnon promoter and the CEO of the Miami-based search engine Yippy. When Forbes tried calling the phone number listed on the Yippy website, it appeared to be disconnected.

There are striking similarities between the upcoming conference in Dallas and a previous event that Granville had organized.

The website for this year’s “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” tells attendees they will “have the opportunity to hear from some of your favorite Patriots and Digital Soldiers in both keynote speeches and panel forums.” 

The “For God and Country: Digital Soldiers” conference, held in Atlanta in September 2019, offered training to prepare “patriots” for the upcoming “digital civil war,” as reported in Business Insider. An ad for the 2019 event featured a design incorporating the stripes of the U.S. flag with a circle of colonial stars forming a “Q.” Both Flynn and Papadopoulos were also speakers at that event.

Two before Memorial Day Weekend, “QAnon John” appears to have run into a major logistical problem. Square, the payment processer company, deactivated the event’s account, which stopped many would-be attendees from purchasing tickets. (Square is one of several payment processing companies that stopped working with individuals and organizations connected with the Capitol riots.)

“Truth be told, I couldn’t make this up if I tried but the funds that we collected from everyone to go towards paying for the event were being held RANSOM,” wrote “QAnon John” on Gab, adding that the money was ultimately refunded to his account. “We are both working VERY diligently, as fast as we can to remedy the situation. We did find a company that is Patriot FRIENDLY. Thank God!”

Gilley’s appears unfazed by an association with the event. “As with all politically based events, we are simply the venue and have no political affiliation with any group or party,” Gilley’s general manager Jay Powell told the Dallas Morning News. Mr. Powell was not available to comment for this story.

It’s not known whether meeting planners at the Omni Dallas Hotel were aware that the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” was a QAnon event when they booked it. Neither the general manager of the hotel nor the corporate communications office at Omni Hotels headquarters responded to multiple requests for comment.

But the Omni Dallas is surely aware of the public relations disaster the Hyatt organization faced in February when the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), hosted its annual convention at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida with a stage design that resembled a Nazi symbol.

Hyatt issued a statements to address the controversy, noting that “had we initially recognized the potential connections to hate symbolism, we would have proactively addressed it prior to commencement of the event. Unfortunately, this became clear to us only after the event kicked off.”

The Omni Dallas will not be able to claim such ignorance.

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