The Jan. 6 select committee released the testimonies of Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle in its latest batch of transcripts published Thursday morning.
Former President Donald Trump‘s son and his fiancee were questioned about the riot at the U.S. Capitol building in 2021. They held prominent advisory roles for the former president and were active on the campaign trail. The interviews were held in April and May of 2022.
According to the transcript, Trump Jr. reached out to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, urging him to get the president to “condemn this s***” at around 3 p.m., when the riot was near its worst. When asked why he didn’t contact the elder Trump directly, he said it was because his father “doesn’t text.”
Trump Jr. said he wasn’t sure if the mob was entirely supporters of the president and that he wouldn’t be surprised if there were “agitators” in the crowd.
“I had watched, you know, violence for the prior 18 months all over the country, all of these things done by the other side,” he said, likely referencing the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted into violence in some cities in spring 2020. “So it wouldn’t surprise me if there were people in this group functioning as agitators, you know, et cetera. You know, again, when you’ve been through what I’ve been through, you can be a cynic on some of these things.”
Guilfoyle’s 320-page testimony is one of the longer sessions the committee has released. In it, she said she never solicited her $60,000 fee for speaking at the “Save America” rally that preceded the riot but that the fee was customary for events she did associated with Turning Point Action. She added that the mood in Trump’s orbit was tense and accusations were flying in the aftermath of Jan. 6, making the whole thing feel like the Mean Girls movie.
“Think of it like, you know, turf wars and two girls arguing over who’s running this. I’m running this. So here’s the list. I bet you, you leaked the list. You did this and that,” she said. “And it was just not pleasant for anybody to deal with.”
In texts released Tuesday, Guilfoyle told Trump campaign deputy Caroline Wren in a text message, “You will pay us that’s the deal so don’t even think about it. You will send the funds as promised,” about her fee for three to four minutes speaking at the rally.
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Trump Jr. offered his testimony to the committee voluntarily, while Guilfoyle did so under a subpoena. She at first offered testimony voluntarily until her lawyers shut down the interview over dissatisfaction with the format. The subpoena compelled the rest of her testimony two months later.
The committee released its final report last week after 18 months of investigating.
