Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraiser for former President Donald Trump and the fiancée of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke for less than three minutes at a rally on January 6, 2021, which preceded the Capitol Uprising. For her appearance, she received $ 60,000 in compensation from Turning Point Action, a conservative non-profit organization led by Charlie Kirk, according to two people with knowledge of her compensation who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The two men said the sponsor was Julie Fancelli, the 72-year-old daughter of the founder of the grocery chain Publix. Eight days before the January 6 rally, Fancelli sent $ 650,000 to various organizations that helped organize and promote the event. The Washington Post previously reported that these groups included Women for America First, a nonprofit that helped organize the rally, and $ 150,000 to the nonprofit Republican Attorney General’s branch, which paid for a robotic call that was chanting. to “call on Congress to stop the theft.” He also recruited the youth organization led by Kirk, a 28-year-old activist and friend of Donald Trump Jr. A Turning Point Action spokesman declined to comment. Neither Guilfoyle nor Fancelli responded to requests for comment. Guillefill’s speech fee for commenting on her fiancé’s presentation was revealed on Monday on CNN by MP Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), A member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Lofgren cited the payment as an example of what she described as a misleading marketing effort by the Trump campaign, which raised about $ 250 million in the weeks following the Nov. 3 election, promising a huge legal effort to uncover it. But the payment did not come from the campaign or affiliated political committees. CNN reported for the first time on Tuesday that the Turning Point Action covered the cost of speaking. “I’m not saying it’s a crime, but it’s a shame,” Lofgren told CNN’s Jake Tapper after the committee’s second hearing. At the hearing, committee members used video testimonies from former White House and campaign advisers to tell the story of Trump’s claim that he was robbed of the 2020 election. people around him, who encouraged supporters to travel to DC on January 6th. Among the groups that encouraged people to attend the White House rally in Ellipse were Turning Point Action, a 501 (c) (4) organization, and a subsidiary of the more famous Turning Point USA, 501 (c) (3). The difference is that the Turning Point Action has more room to engage in political activity, but it is still forbidden to focus on politics. Kirk leads both nonprofits, which are exempt from paying federal income taxes and disclosing their donors. Representatives of the Turning Point Action said earlier that the group’s participation in the rally included sending seven buses with about 350 students to Washington. Kirk wrote on Twitter, but later deleted a promise that his organization would send 80 buses to “fight for this president.” An Instagram post on December 30 by Students for Trump, a Turning Point Action project, advertised buses leaving Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Hoboken, NJ, Richmond and Greensboro, NC, and arriving in DC in morning of January 6th. On the morning of January 3, A rally website listed Turning Point Action as a “coalition partner,” along with nine other organizations, including Attorney Generals, Stop the Steal, Tea Party Patriots, and Women for America First. The Internet Record shows that the site was later updated to refer to groups such as Turning Point as “participating” organizations. In addition to promoting the rally, the website noted: “At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the US Capitol building to protest the Electoral College certification.” Kirk was the main supporter of Trump’s false allegations of electoral fraud in the run-up to the January 6 rally. On the eve of the event, he used his radio show to describe January 6 as “the most important day that will determine the future of democracy.” On the afternoon of January 6, as the mob pushed its way to the Capitol, Kirk condemned the violence on Twitter. Fancelli did not attend the rally and has also denounced the violence. Fancelli, who splits her time between homes in Florida and Italy, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and party organizations over the past two decades. But he did not become a top donor until Trump moved to the White House, records show. Some relatives and other associates, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, expressed support for the rally in their enthusiasm for Infowars founder Alex Jones. In the weeks leading up to the rally, Fancelli emailed relatives and friends with links to Jones’ talk show, according to two people familiar with the messages. Jones was a staunch supporter of the baseless allegations that Trump’s re-election was overthrown by systematic fraud and that Congress could refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory.
