(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
Don’t let anyone tell you America’s campaign finance laws are broken. They’re working exactly as intended — to funnel unlimited amounts of cash into candidates’ coffers to enrich everyone in their orbit.
Oh, sorry, not “cash.” That should be speech. Thanks to the Supreme Court, individuals and corporations are entitled to rain virtually unlimited amounts of “speech” down on political candidates, who are in turn free to use that “speech” to pay their friends and family lucrative consulting fees. Love the smell of the First Amendment in the morning!
Last week, the Wall Street Journal and NBC noted that the Trump campaign was plastering its donors with solicitations to contribute to the legal defense fund to overturn the election results. But instead of going to the “Official Election Defense Fund” dedicated to “make sure we have the resources to protect the integrity of the Election!” the fine print revealed that donations would be used to pay off campaign debt and shore up the RNC’s bottom line.
Contributions to TMAGAC made by an Individual/Federal Multicandidate Political Committee will be allocated according to the following formula:
60% to DJTP for deposit in DJTP’s 2020 General Election Account for the retirement of general election debt (up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000) or, if such debt has been retired or any portion of the contribution would exceed the limit to the 2020 General Election Account, for deposit in DJTP’s Recount Account (up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000); 40% to the RNC’s Operating account (up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000); and any additional funds to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account (up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000).
But the AP reports that the campaign has gone a step further. Now scrolling down reveals that the bulk of money is going straight into Trump’s Save America PAC.
Contributions to TMAGAC made by an Individual/Federal Multicandidate Political Committee will be allocated according to the following formula:
60% of each contribution first to Save America, up to $5,000/$5,000, then to DJTP’s Recount Account, up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000.
40% of each contribution to the RNC’s Operating account, up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000.
Any additional funds will go to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account, up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000.
So the first $45,500 from any individual donor is going to straight to Trump’s PAC and the RNC’s general account before a single nickel goes to the president’s Bullshit Time Waster Vexatious Litigation Jones Day Reputational Suicide Fund. Or, as they refer to it, the “Recount Account.”
And the cool thing about PAC money is that Uncle Sam doesn’t much care how it gets spent. As the AP notes, it can used for personal expenses. Or, say, to funnel $15,000/month to Lara Trump and Don Jr.’s ladyfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Remember when Omarosa Manigault-Newman said she’d been offered a $15,000/month gig with the Trump campaign if she’d sign a non-disclosure agreement barring her from speaking publicly about her time in the White House? If the Trump campaign is going offline for the moment, the PAC is ideally poised as a vehicle for Trump’s donors to use their speechbux to keep potential Trump critics (and daughters-in-law) on-side.
“This is a slush fund. That’s the bottom line,” Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance attorney with Common Cause told AP reporter Brian Slodysko. “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.”
“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,” Adav Noti, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center told the AP. “They could do anything with it. There’s no personal use restriction.”
Gosh, why would he mention Don Jr.’s book “Triggered?” Oh, right.
KA-CHING. KA-CHING. KA-CHING.
Money to support Trump court fight could flow to president [AP]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.