Jan. 6 rally organizer must pay $2K a day until she complies with subpoena, judge rules

Source: Politico

07/09/2025 01:15 PM EDT


NEW YORK — A federal judge has ordered one of the organizers of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally to pay a daily $2,000 fine, after weeks of skirting a civil court subpoena for records related to her role in the events.

Caroline Wren, a longtime Republican fundraiser, was a liaison between the Trump White House and participants in the Jan. 6 rally, helping arrange speakers, coordinate the timeline and boost attendance. She’s among the many witnesses subpoenaed by Capitol Police officers suing Trump, accusing him of fomenting the violence that occurred that day, in a lawsuit that has been pending for four years.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks issued the order Wednesday after Wren was a no-show at a last-ditch hearing to explain why she hasn’t complied with the subpoena. He said the daily fine — one he said needed to be “stiff enough to enforce compliance” — was his preferred course of action. “I don’t want to resort to incarceration if at all possible,” the judge said.

Wren did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She’s not the only witness facing scrutiny from a federal court over defiance of a subpoena in the lawsuit.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/09/january-6-rally-contempt-ruling-00444812