A year after election, RNC still spending hundreds of thousands to cover Trump's legal bills - ABC News

[Gunnar Larson]

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/year-election-rnc-spending-hundreds-thousands-cover-trumps/story?id=82114367


More than a year after the 2020 presidential election, the GOP is still
covering numerous legal bills for the benefit of former President Donald
Trump -- and the price tag is ruffling the feathers of some longtime GOP
donors who are now critical of Trump.

In October and November alone, the Republican National Committee spent
nearly $720,000 of its donor money on paying law firms representing Trump
in various legal challenges, including criminal investigations into his
businesses in New York, according to campaign finance records.

Trump's legal bills have sent the Republican Party's total legal
expenditures soaring in recent months, resulting in $3 million spent just
between September and November. In contrast, the Democratic National
Committee has been gradually winding down its legal expenses over the last
few months.

Traditionally, national political parties have at times covered presidents
and their advisers' legal fees in matters related to their presidential
campaigns. And throughout his presidency, the Republican Party has footed
legal bills for Trump, his family members and his political allies, going
back to the days of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the
2016 election, through the impeachment proceedings following the Jan. 6
attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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accountable 'at any level'

But experts say the GOP's recent payments of Trump's attorney fees after he
left the White House, for investigations that are not relevant to the next
presidential campaign, is a very unusual move that's indicative of the
ongoing influence that the former president has over the party.

"Campaign finance law does not strictly prohibit a national party committee
from paying for private legal expenses, but it is very rare for a party
committee to use donor money in that way," said Brendan Fischer, federal
reforms director at nonpartisan government ethics group Campaign Legal
Center.

"And it is entirely unprecedented for a national party committee to cover a
former president's private legal bills, especially when those legal
expenses arise out of an investigation into activity that preceded Trump's
time in the White House, and when Trump is sitting on millions of his own
PAC funds," Fischer said.

RNC spokesperson Emma Vaughn told ABC News that the RNC's executive
committee approved paying for "certain legal expenses that related to
politically motivated legal proceedings waged against President Trump,"
while declining to comment on which specific cases are being paid for.

again clashed over the use of Trump's name in fundraising appeals, with the
GOP eventually reaching an agreement to use his name.

In addition to covering many of Trump's legal bills, the RNC has paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting lawsuits across the country "to
ensure the integrity of our elections," said RNC spokeswoman Danielle
Alvarez.

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out about Jan. 6

Gearing up for the 2022 election cycle, the RNC has been building an
aggressive nationwide "election integrity program," engaging in
election-related lawsuits in states like Georgia, Florida, Arizona and
Texas, stationing state-directors in battleground states, engaging hundreds
of attorneys at the state level and training thousands of poll watchers.

The party is engaged in 30 such "election integrity" lawsuits, Alvarez
said, with financial disclosures showing payments of $500,000 to the law
firm of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, more than $260,000 to McGuireWoods, and
$243,000 to Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.

Even with all the legal expenditures, the RNC has continued to build a huge
war chest over the past year. Backed by megadonors that include Blackstone
Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman and casino mogul Steve Wynn, the RNC ended
November with more than $65 million in cash on hand.
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