Revealed: The Trump allies who reportedly raked in millions from Jan. 6 behind the scenes
A network of pro-Trump operatives made money off the election conspiracy theory rallies that led up to and inflamed passions of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, according to a new analysis by Mother Jones released on Friday.
"About 1,300 Americans have been charged with crimes for actions related to January 6," wrote Dan Friedman. "That includes Trump, whose false allegations of election fraud were the main cause of the attack. But the insurrection was made possible by another group of people — a web of political operatives ... who personally profited by helping to assemble and mislead the mob that subsequently attacked the Capitol. These operatives raised funds, rented buses, paid for porta-potties, and gave speeches at the January 5 and 6 rallies in Washington, where tens of thousands of Trump supporters demanded that the election results be thrown out."
There is no evidence that any of these operatives broke the law or deliberately contributed to the attack, and the funding they did for these rallies was legal, the report noted.
Among those who benefited was Kimberley Guilfoyle, the partner of Donald Trump Jr. Significant benefactors included Julie Fancelli, heiress to the fortune of the Publix supermarket chain in the southeastern U.S. who was reportedly a "superfan" of InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Trump fundraiser Caroline Wren. Jones himself made the list, as well.
ALSO READ: How Trump's campaign visits cost local police departments
"Having announced her wish to give $3 million to support the effort, Fancelli relied on Wren to identify organizations to use the money," said the report. "Wren quickly contacted various right-wing groups already organizing events in Washington for January 5 and 6, along with others with limited or no connections to the rallies, but with which she had prior relationships. Wren was 'dangling money,' as she put it in a late December text, to organizations that could help fulfill Fancelli’s wish to ensure the large Washington crowd that Jones said Trump needed to overturn the election." Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA group were reportedly recipients of much of this money.
Meanwhile, according to the report, longtime Trump strategist Roger Stone raised $42,000 in security and logistics fees, without any clear accounting of where that money went, and a contractor called Event Strategies made hundreds of thousands of dollars doing work for Women for America First, another group involved in the planning that was coordinating with the White House.