Republican operative sat down for interview with Jan. 6 committee
Dustin Stockton, a longtime associate of former President Donald Trump’s lapdog Steve Bannon, was reportedly willing to sit down for questioning about the attack on the Capitol with members of the January 6th committee.
Stockton was not among the individuals subpoenaed by the congressional committee over the last month as they have continued their probe. There is no evidence that Stockton has been charged with a crime. According to Politico, he sat down with investigators for a quiet Q&A on Monday.
Stockton could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
His interview comes fresh on the heels of the House of Representatives finding Bannon in contempt of Congress for failing to remit a litany of records, including correspondence he had with Trump or other administration and campaign officials leading up to the violent attack.
A spokesman for the committee declined to comment on the reporting by Politico.
This would not be Stockton’s first time in the hot seat.
Much attention was heaped on him last August when he and Jennifer Lawrence, a fellow associate for the shadowy crowdfunding campaign We Build the Wall, were slapped with warrants for their cellphones as well as subpoenas to appear before a grand jury.
We Build the Wall purported itself as a nonprofit built to rake in donations to construct a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. The group amassed over $25 million only to build what amounted to shoddily constructed fencing in an erosion-prone area stretching roughly 3 miles.
In Nevada, Stockton’s RV was raided last summer as prosecutors went public with a previously sealed indictment against Bannon and a trio of men associated with We Build the Wall. They included founder and U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, a member of Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government extremist network, and Timothy Shea, a Colorado realtor who moonlighted as chief of Winning Energy, a soft drink company hawking beverages featuring Trump on its label, replete with the 45th president donning a superhero outfit.
Bannon, Kolfage, Badolato, and Shea were ultimately charged with bilking donors and using millions for personal expenses. Bannon was eventually pardoned by Trump.
As for Stockton, the Republican ally may be of interest to the committee because of his ties to groups like Women for America First. In a ProPublica report on Oct. 18, Stockton said he met with Caroline Wren, a onetime fundraiser for the Trump campaign and close associate of Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, on Jan. 5. During their meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., Wren bragged to Stockton about raising $3 million for the impending rally.
“She also described how she had ‘parked’ unspecified amounts of money for Jan. 6 at an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, at the Tea Party Express, and at Turning Point, a collection of affiliated nonprofits that serve young Republicans,” ProPublica reported.
Wren is one of more than a dozen individuals subpoenaed by the committee as lawmakers have begun knitting together information about the funding behind pro-Trump rallies.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Bannon et al. were convicted of bilking donors.