Trump’s ‘slush fund’: Experts say money for legal battle could go to president

‘Trump may just continue to string out this meritless litigation in order to fleece his own supporters of their money,’ says campaign finance attorney Paul S Ryan

A longtime campaign finance attorney has called Donald Trump’s election defence fundraising campaign a “slush fund.”

Last week, as Mr Trump’s chances of reelection dwindled when President-elect Joe Biden pulled ahead in several swing states, his campaign sent out emails and text messages that led to a website raising money for an “election defense fund” to contest the outcome.

His campaign has repeatedly falsely claimed that there was widespread fraud in last week's election, and the emails promised that money donated would go to Mr Trump contesting Mr Biden’s victory in court.

However, the fine print of the communication suggests that much of the money donated to support that effort since 3 November’s election day has instead paid down campaign debt and replenished the Republican National Committee (RNC).

The money has also been spent helping Save America, a new political action committee Mr Trump founded, get started.

Paul S Ryan, a campaign finance attorney with the good government group Common Cause, criticised the move by Mr Trump.

“This is a slush fund. That’s the bottom line,” he said. “Trump may just continue to string out this meritless litigation in order to fleece his own supporters of their money and use it in the coming years to pad his own lifestyle while teasing a 2024 candidacy,” Mr Ryan added.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Biden campaign are also raising money for the likely legal fight over the election result.

Mr Biden was declared the winner of the election on Saturday, and there is no evidence to back up claims from the Trump campaign of voter fraud.

A majority of the money donated so far has gone into the DNC’s legal account, but some of it has been redirected to its general fund, which could be used for ads to aid the fight against the Trump campaign’s claims.

On Monday, Mr Trump launched Save America, his new Political action committee, which is set to get a majority of the money from future donations.

The committee has a higher contribution limit of $5,000 (£3,780) a year, and can spend donations on personal expenses.

Save America will receive 60 per cent of future donations to the defence fund, while the next 40 per cent will go to the RNC.

Once a donor reaches the $5,000 limit for the committee and the $35,000 (£26,472) for the RNC, then future donations from that person or group will go to legal accounts for Mr Trump and the RNC.

In a recent statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh did not address questions about how the incoming donations are split up.

“The President always planned to do this, win or lose, so he can support candidates and issues he cares about, such as combating voter fraud,” Mr Murtaugh said.

A spokesperson for the RNC did not respond to a request for comment.

While, Mr Biden’s spokesperson Andrew Bates said President Trump’s fundraising scheme was not surprising.

“Given the rate at which these lawsuits are being thrown out of court one after another, it’s fitting to learn that they were never engineered to succeed in the first place and are instead the dismal basis for a dog and pony show,” he said.

Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Centre, said that these sort of committees are often abused for personal finances.

“They could pay (Trump) children consulting fees. They could pay the children’s significant others consulting fees. They could buy Don Jr’s book, which the campaign can’t do,” he said about Save America.

“They could do anything with it. There’s no personal use restriction,” he added.

Mr Trump has still not conceded the election, and has repeatedly falsely claimed that there was widespread voter fraud in multiple swing states.

The Trump campaign issued lawsuits in several states, but there is no evidence to back up the claims of voter fraud.

Speaking about Mr Trump’s refusal to concede the election on Tuesday, Mr Biden said: “I just think it’s an embarrassment, quite frankly.”

Additional reporting by the Associated Press