Publix heiress gave millions more than previously known to organize Jan. 6 Trump rallies: report

The heir to the Publix Super Markets fortune gave millions more than previously known to fund the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a report.

Julia “Julie” Jenkins Fancelli, whose father founded the grocery store chain, gave at least $5 million of her roughly $9 billion fortune to "dark money" groups that challenged Donald Trump's election loss in 2020 and organized the rally that led up to the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, reported Open Secrets.

Fancelli is the sole funder and president of the tax-exempt George Jenkins Foundation, which in 2020 gave $1.3 million to rally sponsor Moms for America, and she had not previously reported that contribution or disclosed to the Jan. 6 select committee to which she gave testimony.

That and several other contributions are above and beyond the $3 million the House select committee estimated in its final report that Fancelli had given to groups involved in the rally.

Fancelli's money didn't necessarily go toward the rally itself, but also funded legal challenges to the 2020 election and multiple conservative nonprofit organizations, including $100,000 to Judicial Watch, and she also gave $100,000 to the law firm of Sidney Powell, the former federal prosecutor accused of attempting to overturn the election, Open Secrets reported.

Trump's political operation reported at least $2 million in donations from Fancelli since 2020, and her family members contributed the maximum amount to the former president's campaign during that election cycle.

She was a "guardian angel" donor that provided more than 90 percent of the funding in 2020 for a newly created super PAC called the Voter Accountability Project, which spent more than $240,000 on failed GOP congressional candidate Eric Esshaki in Michigan,

Fancelli gave at least $1 million to the group Turning Point Action "in relation to Jan. 6," according to the House select committee, which made up a substantial portion of the $11.2 million the conservative organization raised in the six months before and after the rally, according to the report.

She was also in frequent and direct contact with top Trump fundraiser Caroline Wren, who allegedly "parked funds" for the "Stop the Steal" rally and was listed as a "VIP advisor" on the permit for the event granted by the National Parks Service.

Fancelli paid $50,000 to retain Wren's services, according to the watchdog, and various entities associated with the heiress steered money toward groups involved in organizing the rally.