Donald Trump bombards his supporters with emails. In a statement on Friday, he accused prosecutor Fani Willis, who filed his fourth indictment this week, of going after him to gain popularity and raise money for his re-election campaign as a prosecutor. Interestingly, right after this criticism, Trump went over the top at the end of the same message. His email contained several links to receive donations, suggesting amounts ranging from $1 to $250. The billionaire former president is using the money he received from citizens in political donations to pay tens of millions of dollars in his legal expenses, according to documents registered with the election authorities.
Trump’s practice was the focus of the attention of members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Their thesis was that the former president solicited money from small donors to combat an alleged voting hole that he knew it was a scam and therefore could be a scam, even more so when you consider that the money was not used for the promised purposes. The appeal to alleged election fraud was a “marketing tactic,” as the digital advertising director of his election campaign admitted to the commission. “It wasn’t just the big lie, it was the big fraud,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a commission member.
Special Attorney Jack Smith, who charged Trump with four federal crimes over his attempt to undermine the election result, also investigated the origin and destination of the money and the messages used to attract funds, but ultimately did not include any of them in his indictment. reproach about it. It follows that Trump’s conduct, even if ethically questionable and on the fringes of the law, has not been able to produce a credible case of fundraising fraud to bring before a jury, at least not yet.
Trump’s refusal to concede defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election quickly became big business. Claiming that he needed money to prove alleged voter fraud, Republican voters seeking his re-election handed him tens of millions of dollars in the weeks following the vote. Trump kept up the swindle and continued to make money.
To get the money, the losing candidate formed a political action committee (PAC) called Save America, which has since raised more than $150 million. It is a “Leadership PAC” that offers greater latitude in the use of its funds, which do not necessarily have to be used for electoral spending. This loophole makes it difficult to prosecute Trump for diverting the funds for his personal purposes.
Trump used some of that money to support some of his favorite candidates in last November’s midterm elections, but also to sort out his legal woes. An analysis of reports registered with the electoral commission, cited by the AP, shows that Trump’s political bodies have paid at least $59 million to more than 100 attorneys and law firms since 2021. Other media assume around 40 million.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
subscribe to
In any case, the bill will continue to rise. The former president faces four complex criminal cases and several civil cases, many of which are still in their infancy. Trump committees have paid for the defense and legal counsel of several co-defendants and witnesses in the open cases, which also raises questions about potential conflicts of interest.
The former president has used his back-to-back allegations to speed up his fundraising campaign. With the first appearance before a New York court, the donations shot up. Around 120,000 supporters gave over four million dollars within 24 hours. They also recovered following the indictment of secret documents against Mar-a-Lago. There is no data yet on what happened after the two charges over the past month.
Still, Trump’s election finances are beginning to suffer from high legal spending. The former president has a joint fundraising committee, the aforementioned PAC Save America, the official campaign committee (Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc), and the Super PAC MAGA Inc, which have fewer fundraising restrictions. According to an analysis conducted by EL PAÍS of data these companies provided to the Federal Elections Commission, the combined cash balance increased from $79.1 million at the end of 2022 to $62.6 million at the end of the first half of the year. The Trump campaign spends more than it takes in.
The former president actually needs the money more for the courts than for the election campaign. In the primary polls, he has a comfortable lead of more than 35 points over his immediate rival Ron DeSantis, who has a box full of money but is going under in the campaign.
Trump is so sure of his victory that he wants to prevail over the rest of the Republican candidates in the first debate of the primary election scheduled for this Wednesday. According to US media, the former president wants to counter-program the debate with an interview with the controversial moderator Tucker Carlson. It’s quite an affront not only to the Republican National Committee that organized him and pressured Trump to attend, but also to FOX, which fired Carlson in April after a defamation lawsuit that cost the broadcaster nearly $800 million.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits