Money to support Trump court fight could flow to president

 As President Donald Trump’s chances of reelection dwindled last week, his campaign began blasting out a nstop stream of emails and text messs that led to a website raising money for an “election defense fund” to contest outcome.

Like many hallmarks of Trump presidency, messs contained all-caps lettering and blatant mistruths about voter fraud during v. 3 election. y also misle supporters about where money would go.

Trump has promised to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s win in court. But fine print indicates much of money donated to support that effort since Election Day has inste paid down campaign debt, replenished Republican National Committee and, more recently, helped get Save America, a new political action committee Trump founded, off ground.

unusual way Trump campaign is divvying up contributions has drawn scrutiny from election watchdogs, who say Trump and his family are poised to financially benefit from arrangement.

“This is a slush fund. That’s bottom line,” said Paul S. Ryan, a longtime campaign finance attorney with good government group Common Cause. “Trump may just continue to string out this meritless litigation in order to fleece his own supporters of ir money and use it in coming years to p his own lifestyle while teasing a 2024 candidacy.”

Democratic National Committee and Biden's campaign are also raising money for a legal fight over outcome of election. Most of money is for DNC's legal account, though some of it will be routed to party's general fund, which doesn't face same spending restrictions. It could n be used to pay for s, for example, if Republicans try to get ballots tossed out with mir — and correctible — errors, according to a DNC official.

Trump's approach is far different.

first few days after election, money that was purportedly for legal fight primarily went to Trump’s campaign for debt payment, as well as RNC, as first reported by Wall Street Journal. But on Monday, Trump launched Save America, his new PAC, which is w poised to get largest share in many cases.

Save America is a of campaign committee that is often referred to as a “leership PAC,” which has higher contribution limits — $5,000 per year — and faces fewer restrictions on how money is spent. Unlike candidate campaign accounts, leership PACs can also be tapped to pay for personal expenses.

A detailed breakdown of how contributions are split up shows that 60% of any donation w goes to Save America PAC. next 40% goes to an RNC account. It’s only once a dor reaches maximum contribution limit for each group — $5,000 for Trump’s PAC and $35,000 for RNC — that money will spill into legal accounts for Trump and RNC, according to campaign finance attorneys who have reviewed details of arrangement.

In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh did t dress questions about how incoming donations are split up.

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

A spokesperson for RNC did t respond to a request for comment.

Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said Trump’s fundraising effort was exploitative but t surprising.

“Given rate at which se lawsuits are being thrown out of court one after ar, it’s fitting to learn that y were never engineered to succeed in first place and are inste dismal basis for a dog and pony show,” Bates said.

Leership PACs have long been abused. While y are intended to be used for raising money that can later be donated to or candidates, y can legally be used to pay for lavish — and questionable — expenses.

“y could pay (Trump) children consulting fees. y could pay children’s significant ors consulting fees. y could buy Don Jr.’s book, which campaign can’t do,” said av ti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who w works for npartisan Campaign Legal Center. “y could do anything with it. re’s personal use restriction.”

( RNC, t Trump campaign, did spend almost $100,000 buying copies of Donald Trump Jr.’s book, “Triggered,” last year.)

Trump has refused to ackwledge Biden’s victory and has argued without proof that re was widespre voter fraud that has benefited Biden. He has also vowed to fight results in court. His fundraising messs sought to capitalize on that mess.

“ DEMOCRATS WANT TO STEAL THIS ELECTION! re will be FRAUD like you’ve never seen, plain and simple!” Trump's fundraising homep res. “We Need YOUR HELP to ensure we have resources to protect results and keep fighting even after Election Day. Don’t wait, step up W to DEFEND integrity of our Election!”

re is evidence of widespre fraud in 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that election went well, and international observers confirmed re were serious irregularities.

issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election: problems with signatures, secrecy envelopes and postal marks on mail-in ballots, as well as potential for a small number of ballots miscast or lost. With Biden leing Trump by wide margins in key battleground states, ne of those issues would have any impact on outcome of election.

Legal challenges filed by Trump campaign have complained that ir poll watchers were unable to scrutinize voting process. Many of those challenges have been tossed out by judges, some within hours of ir filing; and again, ne of complaints show any evidence that outcome of election was affected.