Turning Point Action, a pro-Trump organization, reportedly funded Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $60,000 fee to introduce her fiancé Donald Trump Jr. in a speech that lasted under three minutes at the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, multiple people familiar with Guilfoyle’s compensation told CNN.
CNN’s report comes a day after the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s second public hearing, in which the panel dissected Trump and his allies’ boost of the Big Lie following the 2020 election, despite how the then-President’s campaign staff knew that the election results were legitimate. Towards the end of the hearing, the panel focused on Trump’s fundraising and found that the then-President pushed the Big Lie as a tactic to raise millions of dollars. That money, the committee found, was used for Trump’s crusade to subvert the election results.
The committee’s hearing on Monday highlighted $250 million raised by the Save America PAC and Trump campaign. Neither of those entities, however, paid Guilfoyle’s fee for her speech at the Jan. 6 rally, people familiar with the payment told CNN. Guilfoyle’s payment reportedly came from Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA, that was founded by conservative pundit and Trump Jr. ally Charlie Kirk.
Shortly after the panel’s second hearing ended, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a member of the committee, told CNN that it has evidence that Trump’s family financially benefited from pushing election fraud falsehoods.
Lofgen cited the payment to Guilfoyle for her “Stop the Steal” appearance as an example of “grift.”
“For example, we know that Guilfoyle was paid for the introduction she gave at the speech on January 6. She received compensation for that,” Lofgren said during an appearance on CNN on Monday, following the committee’s second public hearing. “I’m not saying it’s a crime, but I’m saying it’s grift.”
Pressed again by CNN later Monday about whether Guilfoyle was paid with “Stop the Steal” funds, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) denied saying that.
“It was strictly paid out of expenditures that came from people who came to the Stop the Steal rally,” Thompson told CNN.
Thompson clarified that the payment to Guilfoyle is something that the public was not previously aware of.
“First of all, we think the majority of the public would be concerned that if the girlfriend of Donald Trump (Jr.) made $60,000 for a few minutes speech, that they had no idea,” Thompson told CNN. “She had to get paid to speak at something everybody else was coming to because they thought it was the right thing to do.”
Correction: This article referenced the wrong entity that funded Guilfoyle’s speech and has been updated based on CNN’s correction. TPM regrets this error.
