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Donors to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that helped organize the January 6 rally preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, include the Jewish Community Federation and late billionaire Republican donor Sanford Diller, according to a 990 form submitted to the IRS by the tax-exempt nonprofit in 2019.

The right-wing organization was listed on the March to Save America website alongside groups like Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action (an affiliate of Turning Point USA), and Women for America First, according to a report last week from Documented, a watchdog group that investigates corporate influence. The March to Save America website is down, but archived versions list several participating organizations. Supporters of President Donald Trump gathered for a mass event outside the Capitol last week, aiming to coincide with challenges to Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. The rally culminated in a mob attack on the Capitol that left five people dead.

The Tea Party Patriots tax filing was obtained by Eli Clifton, the a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who shared it with The Intercept.

A screenshot of a tax filing showing donations to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, one of the groups that organized the March to Save America rally that led to the Capitol insurrection.

Screenshot: Obtained by Eli Clifton

In a statement, Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin said her group did not fund the rally and denounced the violence that followed it.NeitherTea Party Patriots Foundation,Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, nor Tea Party Patriots Action spent any money on the rally, Martin said. We condemn the violence. We are shocked, outraged, and saddened at the turn of events on January 6. One of the reasons we revere our Constitution is that it created a framework that allows for the resolution of political conflict in a peaceful manner.

TheInterceptsought to reach out to people listed on the form. The form lists a person named Lewis Stahl anda man by that name is in prison for tax evasion. There was no available contact information for theWill Moose Fund or the John 3:16 FDN.

DonorsTrust, a little-known organization that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing causes over the years and given wealthy contributors the ability to do so anonymously, donated to the Tea Party Patriots a total of $103,000, according to the filing. DonorsTrust has bankrolled a range of causes in the conservative movement, from climate change denial to the rights attacks on organized labor. Wealthy conservatives use these tax-exempt charities and similar organizations known as donor-advised funds as a go-between to pump money into controversial groups and causes since they can direct their donations without legal obligations to name their donors. (DonorsTrust did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund was among the biggest donors on the Tea Party Patriots list, giving the group a total of $100,000. The Jewish Community Federation, which also functions as a donor-advised fund, previously contributed $15,000 to Turning Point USA. In a now-deleted tweet, Charlie Kirk, leader and founder of Turning Point USA, claimed that Turning Point Action would be sending more than 80 buses full of patriots to the Washington rally.

Of the Tea Party Patriots donation, the Federation said in a statement, This was a grant made in 2017 by the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund to support a donors philanthropy. We conducted due diligence prior to approving the grant to ensure the grantee was a qualified 501(c)(3). We have not received a grant request for this organization since 2017.

While the donations from these funds arent direct, donor-advised funds still have the power to vet contributions. Donors can only make non-binding recommendations from their fund, according to JCFs fund policies, and they cannot control when and how the Federation will make grants nor control decisions about which grantees will receive funding.

The formsaid a person named Tad Taube donated $70,000 to the Tea Party Patriots, and a philanthropist from the San Francisco Bay area with that name did not respond to requests for comment. John Binkley is listed as giving $29,000. John Binkley from Alaska, a Republican former state senator who launched a failed gubernatorial run and served as one of the states three electors to the Electoral College, denied that he had made any donations to any Tea Party groups. And Sanford Diller, a billionaire Republican donor who died in February 2018, made the second-biggest contribution on the list at $150,000.

Martin, the Tea Party Patriots co-founder,tweetedlate last year that she would be speaking at the Stop the Steal rally and promoted the event in the weeks leading up to it. She called for peaceful protest as the rally became violent. A few hours earlier, Martin had tweeted, We will not allow them to steal this election! though the tweet did not name the perpetrators.

The Tea Party Patriots, which was formed in 2009 and describes itself as the nations largest grassroots Tea Party organization, is fundedby two nonprofits and a political action committee.

Update; January 13, 2021, 11:45 a.m. ETThis story has been updated to include a statement from Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin that was made after the pieces publication.

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Here Are the Donors to Tea Party Group That Helped Organize Pre-Riot Rally - The Intercept

Bob Inglis, Opinion contributor Published 5:00 a.m. ET Jan. 10, 2021

Republicans and Democrats share firsthand accounts as pro-Trump supports stormed the U.S. Capitol. USA TODAY

I could have joined my colleagues and survived, even thrived, in the Tea Party era. But instead I lost an election rather than fan the flames.

A House Republican colleague returned to Washington circa 2009 to tell us how he was going to survive the Tea Party. He was just back from holding a series of Obamacare town halls in his deep red part of Georgia. He said that he had learned how to handle the rabble-rousing crowd from ameeting that had gotten off to a bad start. The people were mad at him and mad at the world. Halfway into the meeting he found a pivot. He toldthe crowd thathegot itthat they just want him to go to Washington and 'raise some hell."

The crowd roared their approval. He became an active Tea Partier that day and, subsequently, a full-throated Trumper.

Perhaps I should have learned from my friends example. It might have saved my seat in the United StatesCongress. I had had one of those raucous meetings. A man had risen in great anger to tell me that, President Barack Obama is so unpatriotic, he doesnt put his hand over his heart when the national anthem is played or the Pledge of Allegiance is recited.(Apparently, hed been surfing on some isolated internet island.)

Standing there in front of that crowd, I knew what I could have said, What do you expect from a secret Muslim ...non-American ... socialist? Any one of those responses would have done just fine at that moment.

Thats our Bob! the deep red crowd would have said.

I couldnt do it. I thought of my five kids and wouldnt do it. I have been with President Obama, I said to the man, I have seen him put his hand over his heart. What youve just said is simply not true.

Sensing the importance of the teachable moment, I continued, President Obama is a loyal, patriotic American who loves this country, loves his wife, loves his children. I just disagree with him on most every thing.

USA TODAY editorial board: Sacking of U.S. Capitol adds to rare national security failures. Police the police.

Afterwards, a Republican operative came up to me with advice: Dont give him that.

Had I taken that advice, I suppose I might have joined my House colleague from Georgia in surviving, even thriving, in the Tea Party. As it was, I was uninvited to the party. The Tea Party didnt want to hear civility, and they sure as hell didnt want to hear my message about climate change in the 2010 cycle.(Thankfully, that latter part has changed. As thesea level rises and septic tanks stop working, even the most ardent disputer of science realizes that he or she has a problem!)

I lost an election in 2010, but I didnt lose my soul. And I didnt fan the flames that blew up into an insurrection at the U.S.Capitol on Wednesday.

That insurrection could have happened earlier.

It could have happened when there was a mob a huge mob nearthe Capitol in 2009, angrily protesting against Obamacare. Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill! they thundered. From the members porch on the second floor of the Capitol, House Republicans egged them on, calling back to them, amping them up.

Republicans and Democrats shared firsthand accounts of pro-Trump supporters storming the Capitol.(Photo: Getty)

It could have happened on another occasion when the astroturf had been rolled out for a huge Tea Party rally on the West Front steps the steps that the Trump mob stormed on Wednesday. Our leadership had encouraged us to go out to speak to that crowd rev em up.

Trump mob attack on the Capitol: 10 urgent security questions that need answers

I remember feeling ill as I walked out toward that crowd through one of the doors that the Trump mob smashed on Wednesday. I cant remember whether I spoke and bombed with civility or whether I shrunk back into the Capitol, speechless. I remember being sick to my stomach, listening to a House colleague (now asenator) who did a particularly good job of revving up that crowd.

Either of those crowds could have stormed the Capitol. All they needed was an inciter in chief to light the fire. That inciter in chief struck the match on Wednesday, and the mob did what mobs do.

The fire rages, and as Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said so powerfully on the Senate floor on Wednesday night, only truth can extinguish it. Speaking truth, he said, is the burden, and the duty, of leadership.

Oh, that my party had taken a path illuminated by truth rather than one darkened by useless conspiracy theories. Oh, that my party had chosen more leaders of character willing to speak truth to our own people. Oh, that we might learn from our mistakes and bear the fruit of repentance.

Bob Inglis, a Republican, represented the Fourth District of South Carolina from 1993-1999 and again from 2005-2011.

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A foreseeable fire: A steady diet of red meat turned the Tea Party into Trumpism - USA TODAY

It's messy, rowdy, bloody, irrational, and bewildering. Yet, it happens, and can happen anywhere when the ruler and the ruled start considering each other enemies. It happened a few days ago in the US. But isn't the US a democracy? Isn't an orderly transfer of power the norm in the so called most, democratic, powerful, and exceptional country in the world? It seems not. How to explain this anomaly? Is it a wayward incident in the otherwise peaceful, adorable, God's chosen country? That's what the political leadership across the partisan divide would want the world to believe. But they and the world were horrified and rightly abhorred by the silly but dangerous act of a disillusioned president and some of his equally crazy followers to have struck the citadel of American democracy. I am sure the French and the Russian monarchs were equally shaken and baffled to see the mob storm the Bastille and the Winter Palace. While the American rulers got away with just a few feathers ruffled, the other two were not so lucky.

But that's no comparison, while the other two were absolute monarchies America is a democracy or supposed to be. Well here comes the tricky part. While a democratically elected president is awaiting his inauguration nearly half of America believes the election was rigged in spite of no evidence at all. But perception in politics and faith is far more important than evidence. The Christians believe Christ was God's son; how can one contest with blind faith? Same goes for half of the American electorate. Well, that says a lot about them; no wonder a crude philanderer, and a known con man like Trump gets elected in the first place. Were they so desperate to replace the old order? Well it seems so! The question is why?

Here is where the story gets murky. No matter what the written constitution says or claims, America was established on the unwritten understanding of white supremacy by the Anglo-Saxon, Christian slave owning oligarchs right from day one. Even if they themselves suffered the colonial yoke, they had no qualm in following the moral and cultural dictum of the European's infamous "white man's burden" for pursuing the colonial project. This justified the mass slaughter of the natives and confiscation of their lands. Guns and duplicity were the two main weapons. But the lands needed to be farmed; slavery was the answer, and all in the name of God, democracy and the self-righteous high moral supremacy. These two crimes against humanity committed between 17-19 centuries were the two most basic foundational stones of the future wealthy America. So, the dirty faces of racism and expansionism became part of America's DNA.

But fortunately this is not the whole story. With gradual advances in material condition, growth of social consciousness and the ideas of human dignity, decency, education, and other civilizational attributes, the crudity and aggressiveness of white settler mentality slowly receded alright but didn't vanish. So long as the ruling elite could provide full employment, housing, and other basic necessities for the majority, not much grumbling was heard. In fact, most Americans went along with the governments narrative of the necessity to control/police the world to keep America safe. But what they didn't realise or couldn't care less about was that it was only an excuse, exerting global influence by waging endless wars across the world became the most lucrative enterprise. Pursuing this policy over nearly half a century became the key priority of a collective of elites in Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and Wall Street, cryptically called the military-industrial complex. They enforced a policy of neoliberalism at home and abroad that enabled massive income and wealth gains for a few at the top, but regular economic stagnation and deprivation for all else.

Rank of the middle class kept on dwindling, joblessness increased; medical care and education for the common people became unaffordable, while at the same time the endless cost for the endless wars kept on increasing by leaps and bounds as did national debt. Right after the market crash in 2008, people were disgusted with the established order and put great trust in Obama to change course, but he proved a disappointment. He gave in to the pressure of the three power centres that hold the levers of actual power in Washington. When Trump pointed out these failures and anomalies and promised to clean the mess, and stop the endless wars the disgruntled sections of the populace jumped on his bandwagon. Trump is no aberration; he is the cumulative result of long years of neglect of ordinary Americans by the elites. It will be a grave mistake to paint them all white supremacists. In the last four years constant vilification of Trump by the liberals and calling his supporters "deplorables" or "white trash" helped him to galvanise them into an organised grassroot fighting machine. America got polarised into two hostile camps boiling at the seams just beneath the surface of constitutional norms. And finally it burst open on January 6.

It delivered a stark message. No amount of civilities, constitutional talks, and empty rhetoric of healing by the elites will work. The hypocrisies, outright lies, and the widening wealth gap needs to be addressed. If America chooses it can be a wealthy, democratic, and a socially equitable welfare country like a few others in western Europe, the anger will slowly dissipate. Or it can go on acting like an imperial oligarchy dictating to the world, which can only imperil its own and the world's future. One thing is for sure; it can no longer be both. And it cannot pretend that nothing has happened and get back to business as usual. If a serious dialogue and accommodation across the divide cannot be worked out, Trumpism is here to stay with or without Trump. America needs to search for its soul.

Ali Ahmed Ziauddin is a researcher and activist. Email: aliahmedziauddin@gmail.com

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An insurrection is not a tea party - The Daily Star

A billionaire businessman from the Chicago area has been the primary source of political funding for an ultra-conservative group that participated in the March to Save America rally that preceded last weeks deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, documents show.

Dick Uihlein the Republican mega-donor who lives in north suburban Lake Forest and is CEO of the Uline business supplies company has contributed nearly $4.3 million in the past five years to the political action committee of the Tea Party Patriots, including $800,000 in October, according to Federal Election Commission records.

The funding sources for last Wednesdays rally against President Donald Trumps reelection loss are not publicly documented, and its unknown if the Tea Party Patriots used any money from Uihlein toward the event.

On the website for the rally, the Tea Party Patriots were among 11 groups listed as participating in the March to Save America as part of the #StopTheSteal coalition.

The marchtosaveamerica.com website was not working Monday, but archived images of the page show event organizers pressed debunked allegations of widespread voter fraud in Democrat Joe Bidens defeat of Trump.

And they urged a big show of force in Washington on Wednesday to let the establishment know we will fight back against this fraudulent election.

At 1 p.m., we will march to the U.S. Capitol building to protest the certification of the Electoral College, organizers wrote on the website, referring to the scheduled congressional vote to ratify the election results from the states.

The co-founder and leader of the Georgia-based Tea Party Patriots, Jenny Beth Martin, also heavily promoted the event. On her Twitter account, she wrote, I will be speaking at the #StopTheSteal rally in D.C. on Jan. 6. We must demand Congress to challenge the Electoral College votes and fight for President Trump!

Martin urged her followers to RSVP at WildProtest.com. That website was not working Monday.

Then, on Wednesday morning, Martin tweeted a photo of herself in what appeared to be a reserved, front-row seat at the rally, saying, We will not allow them to steal this election!

But within five hours, as the protests devolved into rioting, Martin was striking a more conciliatory tone, writing, Keep it peaceful.

After Trump spoke at the rally near the White House telling supporters he will never concede and urging them to fight and to march on the Capitol a pro-Trump mob overwhelmed security to storm into the Capitol. The insurrection temporarily suspended Congress and left five dead, including a police officer.

Federal and local prosecutors in Washington have charged dozens of Trump supporters from across the country with contributing to the unprecedented scenes on Capitol Hill. The alleged rioters who were arrested included Bradley Rukstales, a 52-year-old business executive and Trump campaign contributor from northwest suburban Inverness, who was detained Wednesday afternoon on the upper level of the Capitol, court records show.

Wednesdays violent unrest has sparked heated debates over the culpability of Trump and his backers who falsely alleged that he actually won the election.

The Tea Party Patriots did not return messages, and Uihlein did not reply to questions sent by WBEZ to a spokeswoman for his company.

The Uline shipping supplies company is based in Pleasant Prairie, a Wisconsin town just over the state line from Illinois. Uihlein and his wife, Liz, have been among the biggest political donors in the country and in Illinois campaigns for years.

Dick Uihlein has shelled out more than $136 million to federal candidates and campaign committees, according to FEC records. Hes also contributed about tens of millions more to campaign in Illinois, most of that to the now-defunct Liberty Principles PAC.

In April 2016, Uihlein began to heavily support the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a PAC started in 2013. Records show he gave it nearly $1.5 million in 2016, more than $1 million in 2017, $950,000 in 2018 and the single, $800,000 contribution last year.

Thats made Uihlein by far the single biggest donor to the Tea Party Patriots PAC in each of the last three two-year federal election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.

Records show the Tea Party Patriots had contributed in recent years to Trump and to Republican lawmakers, including members of Congress who sought to overturn Bidens victories in hotly contested states. They included Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Mo Brooks of Alabama, whom House Democrats want to censure for his remarks at the Trump rally.

The group lent its name to a rally that led to an insurrection, said Don Wiener, a researcher with the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy in Madison, Wis. Donors bear some responsibility for the activity of the groups they fund.

The Tea Party Patriots touts itself as the largest and most effective national umbrella group within the Tea Party movement.

In one of Martins tweets promoting the rally, she said she would appear in Washington to support Trump with Dr. Simone Gold, who has worked with the Tea Party Patriots to urge the swift reopening of the economy since early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Gold also heavily promoted the the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 sufferers. Trump repeatedly praised the drug, which medical experts say is ineffective in helping coronavirus patients.

Gold is in one of the photos taken at the Capitol that the FBI released Sunday, when the agency called on the public to help identify individuals who actively instigated violence on Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C.

She told the Washington Post she was in the Capitol for about 20 minutes on Wednesday and gave a speech in the buildings Rotunda, but she said she did not see any of the violence.

In addition to the Tea Party Patriots, the other 10 groups listed as participating in the rally before the Capitol riot included Women for America First, which applied for the permit for the event.

Another group that participated in the rally was Turning Point Action, a sister organization of the far-right Turning Point USA group. Between 2014 and 2016, Uihleins foundation donated $275,000 to Turning Point USA, which is led by Arlington Heights native Charlie Kirk, according to records.

In a tweet he later deleted, Kirk took credit for sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president last Wednesday. Kirk since has said the Trump supporters his group brought to the rally left after it and did not go to the Capitol.

He also said it was not wise for Trump supporters to enter the building, which was closed to the public. But Kirk quickly added, Not wise does not mean youre an insurrectionist, OK?

A group of Republican attorneys general also have come under strong criticism for funding robocalls promoting the Trump rally, despite the incumbent presidents long string of court defeats in his effort to challenge the November election results.

Democratic Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul lashed out at these GOP counterparts, saying, Those tasked with upholding the rule of law should be the last to engage in promoting an attack against our democracy through robocalls. Subsequently denouncing the predictable violence that grows from it does not clean hands!

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZs Government & Politics Team.

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Chicago-Area Billionaire Gave Millions To Patriots Group That Backed Pro-Trump Rally - WBEZ

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had lots to celebrate this weekend, as Kate Middleton turned 39 on January 9. This year, Prince William and Kate kept the festivities more low-key than usual, as due to the coronavirus pandemic, they marked the occasion as just a family of five, with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Prince William still planned a special fte for Kate, as he organized a tea party in honor of his wifes big day at the familys Norfolk country home, Anmer Hall, with their three children, per theDaily Mail. The Cambridges have been staying at Anmer Hall since December, as its where they celebrated the Christmas holidays this year. Now that England is under a new lockdown, it seems Prince William and Kate decided to stay put at their Sandringham estate for the time being.

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Kate usually celebrates her birthday by inviting a few close friends to spend a cozy weekend at Anmer Hall, but that was out of the question this year due to the COVID-19 crisis. Kates never been into elaborate parties, though, according to Vanity Fair, and prefers quiet birthday celebrations. Catherine isnt one for lots of fuss or big partiesbeing with William and the children is her favorite way of spending her birthday, a source told the outlet.

The Duchess of Cambridge was also unable to see her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, because of the lockdown, but Prince William organized video calls so that Kate could virtually celebrate with family and friends.

The royals also marked Kates big day with a few Instagram posts, as Queen Elizabeth as well as Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles shared photos of the Duchess on their accounts. Prince William and Kates KensingtonRoyal Instagram account posted a snap of the Duchess of Cambridge from the royal train tour in December, with Kate waving at the camera while wearing a protective face mask. Its a departure from the tradition of sharing a new picture of the Duchess on her birthday, but seems fitting for the somber time. The caption reads, Birthdays have been very different in recent months, and our thoughts continue to be with all those working on the front line at this hugely challenging time.

Prince William and Kate are expected to remain at Anmer Hall for the foreseeable future, and have taken over homeschooling duties once again. Theyre back to virtual events for the being, but they do have a big in-person celebration to look forward to. Queen Elizabeth is reportedly hoping to hold the annual Trooping the Colour parade in London this year, with all the royals in attendanceas long as the pandemic allows, that is.

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Kate Middleton Celebrated Her Birthday With a Low-Key Tea Party at Anmer Hall - Observer