Lofgren: Trump's 'Election Defense Fund' paid Kimberly Guilfoyle $60,000 for a 2.5-minute speech

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former presidential adviser and fiancée to Donald Trump Jr., was paid $60,000 for an appearance at a rally just before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol using money raised for an "Election Defense Fund," according to a member of the House committee investigating the attack.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview Monday the committee had discovered that Guilfoyle was paid for the 2.5-minute speech using money Trump raised as he aired the conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen.

Former President Donald Trump's fundraising after losing the election was among the targets of the committee's second public hearing on Monday.

"So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off," Lofgren said Monday. “Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did."

Takeaways from Monday's hearing: Trump ignored aides and evidence he lost, panel says he ripped off donors

Lofgren told Tapper on Monday: “I’m not saying it’s a crime, but I think it’s a grift.”

A nonexistent "Election Defense Fund"

In Monday’s second public hearing, the January 6 committee argued Trump raised millions of dollars off of false claims of election fraud for a purported “Election Defense Fund.” Hanna Allred, a former Trump campaign staffer, told the committee she did not know of any “Election Defense Fund.”

“I don't believe there was actually a fund called the Election Defense Fund,” Allred said.

Gary Coby, another former Trump campaign staffer, said it was fair to call the “Election Defense Fund,” a marketing tactic.

The fund, Coby said, was “just the topic matter where money could potentially go to be — how money could potentially be used." The committee claimed the Trump campaign team raised $250 million after the election, most of which went to an entity called the Save America PAC.

Lofgren said during Monday's hearing the committee “found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for.”

Miss Day 2 of the Jan. 6 hearing?: Bill Barr returns, election lies debunked and more

She told Tapper that $60,000 of those fundswent to a 2.5-minute speech from Guilfoyle.

“People were conned by the former president. They were conned into believing that the election had been stolen.” Lofgren told Tapper. “And that they should go to the Capitol as the president asked them to.”

Lofgren said the contributions that the Trump campaign relied on “weren’t rich people. They were conned by the president.”

“It wasn’t what he said to his donors, this is to defend the election. It was an entirely different purpose. I think that was deceptive and not right,” said Lofgren.

The committee's next hearing is scheduled for Thursday at 1:00 p.m. ET.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jan. 6: Guilfoyle paid $60,000 for speech from 'Election Defense Fund'