The group was founded in July 2016 and publicly launched on November 11 after Trump won the 2016 United States presidential election.

[3] Steven Nelson of the U.S. News & World Report, after interviews with organizers and representatives, described it in December 2016 as the "more radical protest-organizing network DisruptJ20, which has more than 1,700 Facebook group members.

[8]According to Nelson of the U.S. News & World Report, the DisruptJ20s website in December 2016 associated the organisation with the "DC Welcoming Committee [DCWC] collective" (describing it as "being assisted by" the DCWC) and Nelson reports that DisruptJ20, at this time, involved individuals from an array of progressive groups (as individuals, rather than representing their groups).

"[4] Regarding intent, Carrefour stated to Nelson, We are planning to shut down the inauguration, that's the short of it ... We're pretty literal about that, we are trying to create citywide paralysis on a level that I don't think has been seen in D.C. before.

[7][12] Carrefour described their plans for inauguration week, beginning the weekend of January 14–15, 2017 ("MLK weekend"), indicating that DisruptJ20 was: After the January 14 meetings, James O'Keefe of Project Veritas posted a video shot at pizzeria Comet Ping Pong in the capital showing members of the DC Antifascist Coalition, a part of DisruptJ20, planning to disrupt the DeploraBall at the National Press Building on January 19—through use of stink bombs (of butyric acid) and activation of the building's sprinkler system.

[18][19] DisruptJ20's efforts in Washington, D.C., were a part of a wider array of nationwide protests, that included nationwide rallies such as Our First Stand: Save Our Health Care (organized by congressional Democrats and health care activists) and Poets Protest Against Trump (by such artists, on local city hall steps), both the weekend before the inauguration; the celebrity Love-a-thon (a Facebook-broadcast fund-raiser for liberal causes, featuring a number of film actors) on inauguration day, and the Women's March on Washington, D.C., and hundreds of sister marches nationwide, the day following the inauguration.

[21][verification needed] A post-event press release from DisuruptJ20, reported on by The Washington Post, state that "climate justice activists" numbering ca.

The presentation from The Huffington Post took the form of an information article directing interested readers to the DisruptJ20 web page, and to various protests in which they could participate.

"[30][31] On 17 July 2017, the US Department of Justice served DreamHost, the company hosting the DisruptJ20 website, with a search warrant[32] for all information held about the site.

[34] DreamHost challenged the warrant in court, arguing that it was a "highly untargeted demand" that chilled its users' constitutional rights.

[33] On October 10, 2017, Chief Judge Robert Morin of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued an order significantly narrowing the warrant's scope.