ABC News: How Trump, RNC raised hundreds of millions pushing baseless election fraud claims

Pro-Trump forces have amassed bulging post-election campaign accounts by exploiting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to solicit money for former President Donald Trump’s “Election Defense Fund” — but despite the stated purpose, Trump’s team has spent a relatively small amount actually fighting the election results.

In fact, more than $100 million has instead gone toward various fundraising expenses and advertising efforts aimed at raising even more money, records show.

In the three weeks after the November election, Trump’s team and the Republican National Committee together raised $207 million by claiming election fraud and seeking support to fight the 2020 results, in which Democrat Joe Biden prevailed over Trump by more than 7 million votes. And even as Trump’s election challenges faltered, an additional $80 million poured into their accounts, according to the latest campaign disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The fundraising numbers signal just how potent the election fraud argument became with Trump’s most loyal supporters, experts told ABC News. Paul S. Ryan, a vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a Washington-based good-government group, called the fundraising effort deceptive.

“It was based entirely on fraud … by Team Trump alleging that there were problems in the election, that Trump needed money to hire lawyers to fight and that he won the election,” Ryan said. “And in my experience watchdogging money in politics closely for more than 20 years, this is unprecedented.”