Jan. 6 Committee Goes After Mother/Daughter Jan 6 Duo For Testimony

0
1655

Among the individuals who the House committee investigating the Capitol riot is going after are Amy and Kylie Jane Kremer, a mother and daughter who have spent years advocating for right-wing causes and were part of the planning for the January 6 rally in D.C. that devolved into the violence at the Capitol. The Kremers helped put on that rally through their organization Women for America First, and former President Trump himself made an appearance — so they’re clearly in a position to provide high-level knowledge about what went on in the lead-up to January 6, in addition to on the day itself. Both Kremers have been subpoenaed by the riot investigation committee, which is demanding testimony from the pair this week.

As summarized by USA Today, the Kremers’ testimony “could help Congress understand how much organizers knew about impending violence and who funded the group’s postelection events that helped to amplify Trump’s false claims of election fraud.” Women for America First is a so-called dark money group, meaning that it’s not required under federal regulations to disclose the identities of the people who give money to it. But the money had to come from somewhere — Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told USA Today that investigators must “get to the bottom of the organizing, the funding, the coordination of the violent elements with the inside political coup, and then all of the cover-up operations that took place.”

The Kremers have been involved in right-wing activism since at least the era of the emergence of the so-called Tea Party, which coincided with the beginning of Barack Obama’s tenure as president. More recently, Amy Kremer posted a photo taken with then-President Trump himself in the Oval Office in 2020. Besides their later involvement in putting on the rally in D.C. on January 6, the Kremers also launched a bus tour in November, which they said would unfold as “we continue to fight for President Trump against the socialist attack to steal the election.” (The election was not stolen.)

After the Capitol violence, the Kremers’ organization (Women for America First) issued a statement signed by Amy that condemned what took place. Troublingly, USA Today notes that “Filings indicating how much [Women for America First] has raised and spent are not yet available on the IRS website,” so the question of the scope of the money that funded the rally that provided the springboard for the riot remains open. As of this weekend, there’s no apparent indication that the Kremers intend to try and resist their subpoenas from the riot investigation committee. Amy already said in July that she “would gladly testify before any commission.”