Topline
Former President Donald Trump’s advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle—also the fiancée of his son, Donald Trump Jr.—was paid $60,000 for a brief speech at a Trump rally on the morning of January 6, 2021, according to a member of the House panel investigating the Capitol riot, part of what the committee cast as a scheme by Trump’s campaign to raise money off false voter fraud claims.
Donald Trump Jr. arrives on stage as Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks on January 6, 2021.
Key Facts
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who helped lead the January 6 committee’s Monday hearing, told a CNN reporter the committee has evidence Trump’s family benefitted from donations taken in by Trump-affiliated groups following the 2020 election—a fundraising push Trump’s campaign had marketed as a way of financing post-election legal battles.
She later specified on CNN that Guilfoyle was paid $60,000 to give a three-minute speech near the White House the morning before the Capitol riot, appearing over an hour before Trump took the stage, and told his supporters to “fight like hell.”
Lofgren didn’t explain how the committee found out about the apparent payment to Guilfoyle or under what circumstances it was made.
Forbes has reached out to Guilfoyle’s attorney for comment.
Key Background
The January 6 committee used Monday’s hearing to offer evidence on how Trump denied his 2020 reelection loss and promoted baseless voter fraud claims, despite advice to the contrary from his lawyers and aides. Lofgren argued during the hearing that Trump “used the lies he told to raise millions of dollars from the American people.” After the election, Trump’s campaign aggressively lobbied supporters to donate to an “election defense fund,” an entity that didn’t actually exist, according to committee investigator Amanda Wick. In reality, much of the $250 million raised by Trump and his allies after the election went to Save America PAC, which later doled out over $200,000 to the Trump Hotel Collection and made seven-figure payments to several organizations linked to Trump Administration staffers, Wick said.
Tangent
In her interview with CNN, Lofgren declined to weigh in on whether the campaign’s fundraising or spending practices broke any laws, noting “that’s for somebody else to decide.”
Crucial Quote
“I’m not saying it’s a crime, but I think it’s a grift,” Lofgren said of the $60,000 payment ostensibly made to Guilfoyle.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/06/13/60000-to-kimberly-guilfoyle-jan-6-lawmaker-claims-trumps-family-benefitted-from-voter-fraud-fundraising/