Jan. 6 rally organizer says government is seeking information from her in grand jury investigation
Federal investigators are seeking information from Women for America First, which hosted the “Save America Rally,” as part of a wide-ranging probe into fundraising by the Trump campaign after the election, the alternate electors scheme and the Jan. 6 rally headlined by President Trump, which set the stage for the attack on the US Capitol.
Attorney Harmeet Dhillon tweeted on Friday night that Women for America First was among clients that had been “served w/ extremely broad subpoenas, or warrants for phone/device.”
Amy Kremer, the organization’s chair, retweeted Dhillon on Saturday morning, writing, “I can confirm this.”
The New York Times and Washington Post have previously reported that the federal grand jury investigation is focusing on political fundraising by Trump through a political action committee set up after the 2020 election that promoted baseless election fraud claims. The Post also reported that at least one of the subpoenas sought information “about the plan to submit slates of phony electors claiming Trump won pivotal states.
The two outlets reported that the subpoenas were sent to former White House and Trump campaign staffers, with the Times naming William B. Harrison, a former White House aide who now works for Trump’s personal office; Julie Radford, chief of staff to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka; Nicholas Luna, another personal aide to Trump; and Sean Dollman, the chief financial officer of the 2020 campaign. The Times and Post reported that the subpoenas are seeking communications with lawyers involved in the fake electors scheme.
The revelation that Women for America First is among the entities that have received subpoenas, search warrants or a combination of the two adds a new dimension to the grand jury investigation. Dhillon told Carlson during an appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Friday that three of her law firm’s clients received search warrants or subpoenas from what she called “the ‘Capitol siege’ section of the United States Department of Justice’s DC office.”
“They ask for all communications dating from a month before the election ’til two months after the election,” Dhillon said. “And they ask for all communications regarding dozens of people. And the categories are alternate electors, fundraising around irregularities around the election, and also a rally that happened before the January 6th situation at the Capitol — the Save America Rally.”
The news sent a ripple through the far-right media ecosystem. After turning himself in to authorities in Manhattan on charges of defrauding donors to a scheme to build a border wall, former White House strategist Steve Bannon appeared on Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s show on Friday, and claimed “there were 35 senior members of MAGA, Republican supporters of Donald Trump — the FBI rolled in on ’em.” In her interview with Carlson later on Friday, Dhillon placed the figure at “50 approximately.”
Kirk characterized Bannon’s statement as a “bombshell” and said that his guest “broke news” in a clip tweeted out to promote the interview.
Trump allies have framed the grand jury investigation as part of a persecution campaign by Democrats and the FBI against conservatives.
Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor and a figurehead in the election denier movement, amplified the persecution theme in an interview with Bannon on Saturday.
“Really, what this latest thing, too, Steve is, I think you broke yesterday — really what it is, it’s basically, when they put out all these subpoenas, when they do all these things to all these different people, they’re basically telling you to sit down and shut up,” he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who was reportedly part of a group of Republican lawmakers who met with Trump in December 2020 to discuss a dubious legal theory positing that Vice President Mike Pence could single-handedly reject Biden electors and preemptively sought a pardon, told Bannon she had spoken to some of the individuals who received subpoenas on Friday.
“They’re building a conspiracy theory, a spider web,” Greene said. “They’re trying to lie about all of us and say that we were doing something on January 6th that we absolutely were not. Everything that we did was legal.” Greene went on to complain that the government is “trying to create a conspiracy that we were waging an insurrection — and we absolutely were not.”
Speaking with Greene, Bannon fumed, “This is all intimidation tactics. They think they’re going to scare people. And they’re not scaring people. They’re making our resolve — we’ve got steely resolve now. You’re not going to scare anybody. You’re not going to intimidate anybody. We’re going to break you. We’re going to break you. The FBI, we’re going to break you. We’re going to win a sweeping victory on November the 8th, and then we’re going to cut off your money.”