If you've donated to President Donald Trump's campaign to re-elect, there's a chance those funds have been used to pay for the first family's legal defense team. Federal Election Commission records show that the president's re-election campaign made a $50,000 payment last month to the attorney representing Donald Trump Jr., Reuters reported Saturday.
The payment came almost two weeks before Trump Jr. revealed that he met with a Russian lawyer in order to discuss damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
The payment, dated June 27, was made to the Law Offices of Alan Futerfas, according to Reuters, and was disclosed in the most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission. "Legal consulting" was the purported reasoning for the payment.
Futerfas was announced as Trump Jr.'s lawyer earlier this week after The New York Times first reported the shady encounter between Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Four other individuals reportedly attended the meeting.
FEC records show that Trump's re-election campaign also paid the law firm of Jones Day, which represented Trump's campaign during the 2016 presidential election. The FEC allows candidates and federal office holders to use campaign funds to pay off legal fees that are connected to the election.
In the second quarter of 2017, Trump's re-election campaign spent $4.4 million of the $8 million it raised.
While it may seem odd that President Donald Trump has already formed a re-election campaign, it is less surprising that his re-election campaign has given a great deal of his fundraising money to the president’s own interests.
Of the $6.3 million spent by President Trump during the first three months of 2017, nearly $500,000 went to hotels, golf clubs, and restaurants owned by the Trump business empire, according to campaign finance disclosures reported by The Wall Street Journal. This included $274,013 to rent in Trump Tower, $58,685 for lodging at the Trump International Golf Course in Florida, and $13,828 for facility rental and catering at the Trump International Hotel in Nevada.
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