[SIZE=7]Jan. 6 Rally Funded by Top Trump Donor, Helped by Alex Jones, Organizers Say[/SIZE]
[SIZE=6]Publix Super Markets heiress donated about $300,000 to the Ellipse event; far-right show host pledged seed money, organizers say[/SIZE]
By Shalini Ramachandran ,
Alexandra Berzon and
Rebecca Ballhaus
Updated Jan. 30, 2021 1:28 pm ET
The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host Alex Jones.
Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed “top speaking slot of his choice,” according to a funding document outlining a deal between his company and an early organizer for the event.
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Julie Jenkins Fancelli, shown in 2019, donated more than $980,000 in the 2020 election cycle to a joint account
for the Trump campaign and Republican Party, records show.
Mr. Jones also helped arrange for Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, to commit about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to organizers. Her money paid for the lion’s share of the roughly $500,000 rally at the Ellipse where Mr. Trump spoke.
Another far-right activist and leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement, Ali Alexander, helped coordinate planning with Caroline Wren, a fundraising official who was paid by the Trump campaign for much of 2020 and who was tapped by Ms. Fancelli to organize and fund an event on her behalf, organizers said. On social media, Mr. Alexander had targeted Jan. 6 as a key date for supporters to gather in Washington to contest the 2020-election certification results. The week of the rally, he tweeted a flyer for the event saying: “DC becomes FORT TRUMP starting tomorrow on my orders!”
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The Ellipse setup cost roughly $500,000, with a concert stage, a $100,000 grass covering and thousands of feet of security structures.
Ms. Wren played a central role in bringing together the disparate group of activists planning events on Jan. 6. She suggested to Mr. Alexander that he reschedule his Capitol rally to 1 p.m. and put into place a list of about 30 potential speakers, including Messrs. Alexander and Jones, who had been listed on websites as associated with the day’s events, according to organizers.
In a statement, Ms. Wren said her role for the event “was to assist many others in providing and arranging for a professionally produced event at the Ellipse.”
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Alex Jones addressed protesters on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
The involvement of Messrs. Jones and Alexander triggered debate among the organizers. Amy Kremer, chairwoman of Women for America First, said in a statement: “We were concerned because there was an aggressive push to have fringe participation in our event.”
In-text messages Ms. Wren sent to another organizer and reviewed by the Journal, Ms. Wren defended Mr. Jones. “I promise he’s actually WAY nicer than he comes off…I’m hoping you’ll [sic] can become besties,” Ms. Wren wrote.
Ms. Wren’s spokesman said the message is “evidence of Ms. Wren assisting in executing an event while also having to diplomatically get people with different agendas on the same page.”
None of the groups obtained a march permit, though Women for America First called the event “March to Save America Rally” and Mr. Alexander’s Stop the Steal promoted a march to the Capitol online.
The Women for America First Ellipse permit said the group wouldn’t conduct a march but noted: “Some participants may leave to attend rallies at the United States Capitol to hear the results of Congressional certification of the Electoral College count.”
Kylie Kremer, a co-founder of Women for America First, said the group didn’t file for a march permit because it went against Covid-19 guidelines and a march wasn’t in its plans.
When Mr. Trump met on Jan. 4 with former campaign adviser Katrina Pierson, who had begun working with rally organizers, he said he wanted to be joined primarily by lawmakers assisting his efforts to block electoral votes from being counted and members of his own family, aides said.
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Ali Alexander, activist and leader of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, helped coordinate planning of the Ellipse rally.
Messrs. Alexander and Jones spoke instead at a Jan. 5 rally organized by the Eighty Percent Coalition, a group founded by Cindy Chafian, an early organizer of the Jan. 6 event who struck the initial deal with Mr. Jones.
She said she was willing to work with Mr. Jones because “it’s unreasonable to expect to agree with everything a group or person does.”
Mr. Jones’s seed money, in the end, was used for that Jan. 5 rally, for which he ultimately paid about $96,000, an organizer said. In his speech at that event, Mr. Jones said: “I don’t know how all this is going to end but if they want to fight, they better believe they’ve got one.”
The next day, Ms. Wren personally escorted Mr. Jones and Mr. Alexander off the Ellipse grounds before the two men marched to the U.S. Capitol, according to organizers. She had provided them and many others VIP passes that morning for Mr. Trump’s speech.
Messrs. Alexander and Jones were at the Capitol grounds together on Jan. 6, and Mr. Jones supported protesters with a bullhorn, video footage shows. He urged them to be peaceful and proceed to the area on the Capitol grounds where Mr. Alexander had secured a demonstration permit, according to Mr. Alexander and the footage.
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at [email protected], Alexandra Berzon at [email protected] and Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected]
