Kimberly Guilfoyle was paid $60,000 speaking fee for Ellipse rally intro, Jan. 6 committee member says

By Zachary Cohen, CNN

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former member of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, was paid a $60,000 speaking fee for introducing Donald Trump Jr., her fiancé, at the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse that acted as a precursor to the US Capitol riot, a member of the House select committee that’s investigating January 6 told CNN on Monday.

Turning Point Action, a conservative pro-Trump organization, paid Guilfoyle for the speech, which lasted less than three minutes on January 6, 2021, according to multiple people familiar with the payment. Turning Point Action is an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the youth organization started by Charlie Kirk, who is a close friend of Trump Jr.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who played a key role in Monday’s committee hearing, said the panel has evidence that members of the Trump family and inner circle — including Guilfoyle — personally benefited from money that was raised based on the former President’s false election claims.

The California Democrat, though, would not say whether she believed that a financial crime had been committed.

“I don’t know,” she told Tapper. “You know, we’re a legislative committee. So that’s, that’s for somebody else to decide. But for example, we know that Guilfoyle was paid for the introduction she gave at the speech. I mean, on January 6, she received compensation for that.”

“I’m not saying it’s a crime, but I think it’s a grift,” Lofgren continued.

CNN has reached out to Guilfoyle for comment. Turning Point also declined to comment.

Guilfoyle met with the committee in April. She is viewed as a key witness to the events leading up to the January 6, 2021, insurrection, as she was with then-President Donald Trump the morning of the riot and was backstage with him and other members of the family during the rally preceding it.

In addition to her role on the campaign and during the rally, Guilfoyle helped raise money for rally organizers leading up to the event.

The committee had subpoenaed Guilfoyle for testimony after she abruptly ended an interview with investigators in February. Guilfoyle had agreed to be interviewed voluntarily in February, but became upset when her appearance was reported in the media and when she learned that members of the committee were allowed to participate in the interview — which is a routine occurrence in congressional inquiries.

Lofgren told Tapper on Monday that the panel’s presentation is “not the end of it.”

“We interviewed more than 1,000 people. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of documents, and obviously you can’t present everything in a two-hour hearing, so this is not the end of it… but we’ll have detailed information as time goes on,” she said.

The House committee is holding a series of hearings this month that are designed to show Trump was at the center of a conspiracy to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election results and the peaceful transfer of power. It has held two public hearings so far in June, featuring never-before-seen video and testimony.

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the name of the organization that paid Guilfoyle for her January 6, 2021 speech.

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CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.