Documents obtained by Mother Jones, investigative material released by the January 6 committee, and accounts of people with knowledge of the events reveal a slew of previously unreported financial information about the rallies.
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Meet the Operatives Who Profited From January 6
New evidence shows how political professionals made big money organizing the rallies that preceded the riot.
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At 4:17 p.m. on January 6, 2021, while rioters battled police inside the Capitol, Kimberly Guilfoyle emailed her banker. Guilfoyle—who was a top official on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—wanted to know if a $60,000 payment for short speeches that she and Donald Trump Jr., her fiance, gave at the rally preceding the attack had hit her account yet, according to interviews conducted by the congressional January 6 committee.
About 1,300 Americans have been charged with crimes for actions related to January 6. 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 like Guilfoyle 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.
- Those actions were legal, and there is no evidence that Guilfoyle or the other operatives and donors discussed in this story planned, advocated, or took part in the attack on Congress that followed.
- And the extent to which financial incentives motivated many of those who facilitated Trump’s Big Lie remains underappreciated.
- Together, they illustrate how January 6 was enabled by political professionals, activists, and conspiracy theorists who made money—for themselves or their organizations—from the work.
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