Publix heiress paid for rally preceding Capitol riots. She is a big Trump donor

Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli provided the “lion’s share” of funding for the Washington Ellipse rally preceding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Fancelli reached out to far right host Alex Jones about helping fund a Jan. 6 event and ultimately contributed $300,000 to the rally through a former fundraising representative for the Trump 2020 campaign. The money helped pay for the majority of the $500,000 rally where former president Donald Trump spoke, preceding the Capitol riots, the Journal found. Fancelli did not respond to the newspaper’s multiple requests for comment.

Fancelli is the daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, who died in 1996.

According to the Miami New Times, Fancelli and her two children contributed to federal maximum amount of money to Trump’s reelection campaign in 2019, contributing around $171,000 to Trump Victory. The Wall Street Journal reported she donated more than $980,000 to an account for both the Republican Party and Trump’s campaign in the 2020 election cycle.

A Publix spokesperson, Maria Brous, said Fancelli is not an employee of Publix Super Markets, “and is neither involved in our business operations, nor does she represent the company in any way. We cannot comment on Mrs. Fancelli’s actions. The violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a national tragedy. The deplorable actions that occurred that day do not represent the values, work or opinions of Publix Super Markets.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2021 at 1:19 PM.