Washington Post: GOP agrees to pay up to $1.6 million of Trump’s legal bills in N.Y. probes
Washington Post: GOP agrees to pay up to $1.6 million of Trump’s legal bills in N.Y. probes
That means the GOP’s commitment to pay Trump’s personal legal expenses could be more than 10 times higher than previously known.
Last month, the GOP said in campaign-finance filings that it had paid Trump’s personal attorneys $121,670 in October. More payments have been made since then. A party official said Thursday that the RNC paid $578,000 in November to attorneys known to be representing both Trump and his businesses.
The payments are expected to continue over the coming months, and the executive committee could approve amounts beyond $1.6 million if it chooses, the people familiar with the decision said. …
Paul Seamus Ryan, a campaign-law expert at Common Cause, which advocates for accountable government, said that when Trump was a candidate, it would have been illegal for him to spend his own campaign funds on legal fees. That’s because federal law prohibits candidates from spending campaign funds on personal expenses, unrelated to politics.
But Ryan said no such ban applies to political parties.
So the RNC can pay Trump’s legal bills, even for an investigation unconnected to his time as president.
“This is an abuse of donor trust,” Ryan said. ‘I’ve been following money in politics closely for more than two decades, and I’m unaware of any similar past abuse of donor trust and donor money to pay personal legal bills of private citizens.”