About
Caroline Wren is a fundraiser and event planner who was listed as a “VIP Advisor” in a National Park Service permit for the Jan. 6, 2021 March to Save America rally at the Ellipse that fired up the crowd just before the violent attack on the Capitol. She is a founder of Bluebonnet Fundraising LLC, which, according to one of its two (.net and .com) websites is “a full-service fundraising and event planning firm.”
Wren served as national finance advisor for the Trump Victory Finance Committee (TVFC) and national finance consultant for the Trump Victory Fund and was a close collaborator and aide to Trump operative and fundraiser Kimberly Guilfoyle when Guilfoyle was national chair of TVFC. Together, the two women raised funds for the Jan. 6 rally that energized the crowd before the attack on the Capitol.
According to ProPublica, “Since April 2017, Wren and her Texas-based firm, Bluebonnet Fundraising, have received more than $890,000 from the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee, FEC records show.”
In September 2021, the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol issued a subpoena to Wren to turn documents and testify about her role in planning the rally that helped spark the violence in D.C. that day.
January 6, 2021
- According to ProPublica, Wren “played an extensive role” in managing operations for events on Jan. 6, managing “logistics, budgeting, funding and messaging for the Jan. 6 rally that featured President Donald Trump.”
- According to ProPublica, “A guidance memo provided to VIP attendees of the Jan. 6 rally further establishes Wren’s centrality to the event. She is listed, along with three other people, as one of the primary points of contact for the demonstration.”
- ProPublica reports that Wren worked with Kimberly Guilfoyle and Publix supermarket heir Julie Fancelli to allegedly raise $3 million for the event, although it is unclear whether that full amount was ever actually collected.
- Wren reportedly “parked” some of the funds for the rally with Republican dark-money organizations such as the Republican Attorneys General Association, the Tea Party Express, and Turning Point USA.
- Wren also reportedly pushed rally staff to include speaking roles for far-right figures Ali Alexander, Roger Stone, and Alex Jones. According to ProPublica, “On the morning of Jan. 6, [Wren] arrived at the Ellipse before dawn and began arranging the seats.” After they finished speaking, she personally escorted Jones and Alexander from the rally to their positions at the front of the march to the Capitol.
- Wren has since claimed that Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 played no role in the attack on the Capitol.