Report: Publix heiress gave $150K to group to promote Jan. 6 rally

A report by the Washington Post says that Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the founder of Publix Super Markets, who helped finance the rally in Washington on Jan. 6 also gave $150,000 to an organization to promote the rally.

Fancelli gave $150,000 to the nonprofit arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association on Dec. 29, and the organization paid for a robocall that afternoon promoting the march on the U.S. Capitol to “call on Congress to stop the steal,” according to the Post.

And on the same day Fancelli gave $300,000 to Women for America First, the “Stop the Steal” group that obtained a permit for the rally that featured former President Donald Trump, the report said.

This comes as a congressional committee is investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

The committee has moved aggressively against Trump adviser Steve Bannon, scheduling a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against the former White House aide after he defied a subpoena.

The panel will vote Tuesday to recommend charges against Bannon, an adviser to Trump for years who was in touch with the president ahead of the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries. And late Friday, President Joe Biden said he thinks his Justice Department should prosecute.

If approved by the Democratic-majority committee, the recommendation of criminal charges would go to the full House. Approval there would send them to the Justice Department, which has final say on prosecution.

Asked if the Justice Department should prosecute those who refuse to testify, Biden said yes.

“I hope that the committee goes after them and holds them accountable,” Biden told reporters Friday at the White House.

The showdown with Bannon is just one facet of a broad and escalating congressional inquiry, with 19 subpoenas issued so far and thousands of pages of documents flowing to the committee and its staff.

The committee had scheduled a Thursday deposition with Bannon, but his lawyer said Trump had directed him not to produce any information protected by executive privileges afforded to a president, and Bannon wouldn’t comply “until these issues are resolved.” Bannon, who was not a White House staffer on Jan. 6, also failed to provide documents to the panel by a deadline last week.

While Bannon has outright defied the Jan. 6 committee, other Trump aides who have been subpoenaed appear to be negotiating. And other witnesses are cooperating, including some who organized or staffed the Trump rally on the Ellipse behind the White House that preceded the riot.

Many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 marched up the National Mall after attending at least part of Trump’s rally, where he repeated his meritless claims of election fraud and implored the crowd to “fight like hell.” Dozens of police officers were injured as the Trump supporters overwhelmed them and broke through windows and doors to interrupt the certification of Biden’s victory.

The rioters repeated Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud as they marched through the Capitol, even though the results of the election were confirmed by state officials, upheld by courts and even rejected by Trump’s own attorney general.

Information from Associated Press contributed to this story.