Why Trump Donors Dont Mind Paying for Trump Family Legal Fees

Self-proclaimed billionaire President Donald Trump is turning to rich Republican political party donors to assist cover the costs of some of his hefty legal fees related to investigations into his campaign's alleged ties to Russia. Government watchdog advocates say that move breaks political norms and escalates the power wealthy people have over politics. Finer, the big donors tin showtime Trump's personal costs by donating to the legal fund, lining his pockets without directly handing over money.

Early in his campaign, Trump promised voters he would not have outside money from anyone, including from the Republican National Commission, boasting that his personal wealth made him immune from political influence past individuals and the establishment. "I don't need anybody's money," he said in June 2015, kicking off his entrada. "I'yard using my ain money. I'm non using the lobbyists. I'yard not using donors. I don't intendance. I'thousand really rich."

Merely past mid-July this yr, he was reportedly hungry for RNC funds. People close to Trump were reportedly pestering the party to cover the increasingly hefty legal fees incurred as the investigations kept probing allegations of bunco with Russia. The RNC has since answered those calls, sending money from the political party'south legal fund coffers — an account largely funded by billionaires such as investor Charles Schwab, Dwelling Depot founder Bernard Marcus, Breitbart founder Robert Mercer, and Houston Texans owner Robert McNair, according to FEC filings.

Those funds are typically used to cover the cost of ballot access disputes, compliance requirements and other routine legal matters, so using them to help a sitting president defend himself during an investigation breaks from political norms. It also provides new avenues for donors to requite directly to Trump and thereby wield an even larger influence over Washington politics, according to Aaron Scherb, director of legislative diplomacy for the authorities watchdog group, Common Crusade.

"It doesn't appear to be illegal what the RNC is doing merely it certainly looks bad and smells bad and I think some donors might question how their resource are being used," Scherb told ThinkProgress. "This empowers the ultra-wealthy and gives them more influence than they had earlier."

The RNC gave Trump the legal fees amid an investigation existence conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to help sway the 2016 presidential election. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Mueller asked the White House for documents related to several questionable deportment by Trump, including a meeting he had with Russian officials the day after F.B.I. Managing director James Comey was fired.

The RNC in August, through that legal fund, paid more than $230,000 to cover the cost of some high-contour firms and attorneys representing Trump during the investigations, co-ordinate to reports past CNN and Reuters. That reportedly includes $100,000 to the president's atomic number 82 chaser John Dowd and $131,250 to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, where another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, is a partner. The RNC has also paid almost $200,000 for Trump Jr.'s lawyers.

While individuals are limited to donating $33,900 per twelvemonth to the political parties, they are allowed to exceed that amount by donating upward to $101,700 to each of three dissever party accounts: one that funds the presidential nominating convention, another that pays for items related to the national party headquarters building, and an account that pays for legal fees and contesting election results.

Those accounts and the alter in rules were created in 2014 without public debate and introduced while Congress was finalizing a 1,603-page spending neb, according to the Washington Post.

Using political party funds to assistance in the criminal investigation of a president is not normal, according to Paul Due south. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause. President Bill Clinton helped pay his legal fees during the Whitewater investigation using his own insurance, having supporters start legal defense funds, and paying off millions of dollars in personal debt through speaking fees once he left office, according to Reuters.

"I cannot remember whatever other case in which a president has utilized RNC funds for whatsoever legal defense expenses," Ryan said.

Donors in July and August donated $one,088,729 to the legal fund, surpassing the $781,400 that poured into those coffers throughout the first six months of the year.

Who'southward giving the most and what do they want from the administration?

Warren A. Stephens has historically donated to both parties, favoring the GOP, but looked like a never-Trump partisan: He was an early supporter of the Terminate Trump motion, and donated millions to the anti-Trump fund.

But since the election, it appears he's had something of a change of center, expressing cautious optimism about the Trump administration's potential. "I certainly think the Trump assistants could be doing a improve job of keeping things focused on healthcare, and tax reform, and Dodd-Frank," he told an Arkansas news site concluding spring.

In April, he gave the maximum amount to the RNC legal fund. So did the trust bearing his name.

In belatedly May, his oped for WSJ pleaded against the stultifying effects of Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Protection Human action, and claimed the 2012 JOBS Act doesn't become far enough to allow companies to "issue equity in the public markets." He blames regulation and government for income inequality. Forbes puts his 2016 net worth at $ii.4 billion.

In short, he doesn't appear to be a Trump fanboy as much as a fanboy for capitalism (and deregulation of financial markets).

ThinkProgress reached out to Stephens for annotate on how his RNC donations are being spent, but have not received a response as of press fourth dimension.

Diane Hendricks is a mainstay of Trump's circumvolve of deep-pocketed loyalists. She threw her cash backside Scott Walker's initial bid for the nomination, and then got in line behind Trump. After candidate Trump faced backfire for announcing an economic advisory council composed largely of men named Steve , he added Hendricks, among others.

C. Boyden Greyness, old diplomat and White Business firm counsel for President George H. Due west. Bush,maxed out a donation to the legal fund in June. He's a member of the Federalist Society, and in the primaries, supported Jeb Bush-league before switching teams to Ted Cruz. He's advocated for Trump to sell his visitor to his kids to avoid ethical conflicts. Gray also wrote an oped in WSJ calling for a swift resolution of the Russian federation investigation, urging Mueller to avoid letting the inquiry range likewise broadly, lest it elevate out too long. He's spoken before on the importance of Washington experience in helping run the White House. Gray is not a dyed-in-the-wool Trump loyalist or fringe laic equally much as he is a D.C. swamp native—Don Graham hosted a party at his house and his girl is a journalist, and plainly they had a pet sus scrofa in the nineties , when it was trendy in Washington circles to exist a bit of an eccentric, every bit long every bit you were rich or influential.

ThinkProgress reached out to Greyness for comment on how his RNC donations are being spent, but have not received a response as of printing time.

Bernie Marcus is the (at present retired) co-founder of Habitation Depot. He's from New Bailiwick of jersey and his parents are Russian Jewish immigrants. Together with his married woman Wilma, they take a broad portfolio of philanthropic efforts. He's been a meaning Trump donor only claims to desire piffling from the president: "I'grand one of the very few people that wants absolutely goose egg from him. At that place's nothing that he can do for me. Nothing. Nil. I'chiliad living my own life. I don't have time for this kind of politics." In 2016, his op-ed for Real Articulate Politics chosen " Why I Stand with Donald Trump " emphasized deregulation of business interests: "I have never seen our authorities as hostile to free enterprise, especially small concern, every bit it is today. Information technology is driving over-regulation, over-taxation, over-litigation, and over-spending." He has a lot of money to give abroad, and because he is sticking to his rhetoric near Trump being good for pocket-sized businesses, information technology appears he'due south paying minimal attending to where he'southward spending it. He donated the maximum allowed to the legal fund in July.

Charles Schwab maxed out his legal fund donation in July. In an odds-defying coincidence, his 21-twelvemonth-old granddaughter Samantha had a "volunteer" job in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs as of spring. The elder Schwab also gave bigly to the inauguration, and given his fiscal industry ties, he is likely bigly interested in rolling dorsum fiscal regulations.

Richard and Suzanne Kayne are big donors to UCLA. Richard founded Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, which deals heavily in oil and gas and free energy infrastructure—pipelines. He's donated to various other Republican campaigns.

Joseph Hardy , of 84 Lumber fame, maxed out his legal fund contribution, and so did the trust bearing his family's name. Remember the edifice material supply visitor'southward Super Bowl advert virtually an unspecified wall? Hardy'due south daughter, at present the company's CEO, has reiterated she'south a big proponent of Trump'southward wall on the edge with United mexican states. "The wall, I think it represents, to me, security. I like security," she said in an interview with People magazine . The family has partnered with Habitat for Humanity on building projects, then peradventure this is only a pro-construction stance they're taking. Either fashion, look for the Hardys to be keenly pushing for the wall to get up—it would be a vision in wood—and the contracts to start rolling out.

Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein , founders of Uline Corp., backed Scott Walker in the principal, then took leadership roles on the Trump fundraising committee when the winds changed in 2016. They've historically backed conservative Republicans at state and federal levels via PACs, committees, and direct contributions to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. They're keenly interested in limited government and corporate tax breaks. The Ed Uihlein Family Foundation has also given tens of millions over the years to country and federal conservative efforts.

The Uihleins aren't shy about spending on candidates when they have a specific ask in listen to make of the authorities: A meandering bog was pestering their Wisconsin dwelling and they leaned hard on land officials (they had donated to Walker) to get help wrangling the errant state mass by bolting it to the lake flooring. The bog fiasco landed them in hot h2o with ethics watchdogs, sporting groups, environmental advocates, and others, but the feel didn't put a damper on their political contributions.

Robert and Diana Mercer both gave well-nigh $100k each to the legal fund in August—later it had been reported that the funds could shortly be used to assist ease the Russia scandal's brunt on Trump's personal lesser line. No surprise here: The Mercers are awash in influence with the Trump administration, and the family unit backed him early and heavily. They're Breitbart funders; daughter Rebekah Mercer was on the transition team.

They've donated tens of millions to bourgeois campaigns, and Richard was widely reported to exist the single biggest donor of the entire campaign. Just equally several thoughtful features have noted , we're not entirely certain what they're later. Still, information technology's eminently clear that if they knock, White House doors will swing right open. Only don't merits they're "quietly" influencing policy because they're media-shy: If coin talks in D.C., they've forked over enough cash to this administration to tune upward the volume to a deafening roar.

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Source: https://archive.thinkprogress.org/trump-rnc-legal-fund-de045351554c/

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