The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump’s Legal Defense Fund Issues DISASTROUS Report

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the very weak financial report filed by Donald Trump’s legal defense fund showing very little money raised and money being spent on Mar-A-Lago banquets. Go to https://PrizePicks.com/meidas and use code meidas for a first deposit match up to $100!Visit https://meidastouch.com for more!Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts:MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcastLegal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-afThe PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcastThe Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassanMea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohenThe Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-showBurn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boatsMajority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdownLights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-densonOn Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellmanUncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered

Duration: 18m
Broadcast on: 17 Dec 2023
Audio Format: other

Because Donald Trump was spending tens of millions of dollars from his political action committee called Save America Pack, not on politics, but on his legal bills and on the legal bills for witnesses, Donald Trump decided to open up a legal defense fund. But now new financials reveal that the legal defense fund has not raised a lot of money. When Donald Trump is actually having to disclose that money is going towards legal defense, he's not able to raise the money. However, when he says, hey, give him the money to the Save America Political Action Committee, there he's able to raise money, a new tax filing of Trump's legal defense fund states that the fund has only raised $1.6 million over the last month and spend and get this less than $30,000. This comes from a new report from Roger Solenberger over at the Daily Beast. And you take a look at the source document, like, let's do enough to read the article, we can look at the source documents. Here it is, political organization, report of contributions and expenditures, a form 8872 right here. And as you start going through this as well, you see that some of the biggest money just came from one donor as well. The Karen L. Hilden brand living trust, a million dollars of the $1.6 million. So it only raised about $600,000 when you don't include the Karen Hildenberger living trust. And that trust and its benefactors are associated with a very dangerous QAnon movement. And we'll talk about that more in just a bit. Let's go through this daily beast article as well. It's called Trump's legal defense funds biggest expense was Mar-a-Lago. So in addition to not raising a whole lot of money, where the money that went out did go to was not legal fees, but an event apparently at Mar-a-Lago according to this article. Here's what the article says, a legal defense fund for Donald Trump appears to have placed its spending priorities in a strange place. Not on legal bills, but on Mar-a-Lago new tax filing show. Trump's legal defense fund raised about $1.6 million over the last six months and spent less than $30,000. But more notable than how little the legal defense group has spent is what they didn't spend on. Namely legal services as well as what they did pay for a party at Mar-a-Lago and when you go through the expenditures, you can see right there the event at Mar-a-Lago goes on to say the group a political nonprofit called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund was created by the Trump campaign officials in July to help pay down the beleaguered former president's snowballing court costs. While the fund can accept unlimited donations from both individuals and corporations, its first periodic financial report submitted to the IRS last week indicates a very slow start with only about $1.6 million in receipts. Even more alarming from the group is that the majority of the money, $1 million, came from a single contribution given by a donor couple whose previous associations with QAnon conspiracy theories forced the campaign to cancel a fundraiser ahead of the 2020 election. So compare the legal defense fund what it raised $1 million from that one couple plus $600,000. Compare that to Donald Trump's leadership political action committee, which according to open secrets, if you add up all of the other groups, and we're not talking about the legal defense fund, but the leadership pack and other groups affiliated with Donald Trump, according to open secrets, the Trump political operation has steered about $130 million in donor money to cover legal fees. And one such example of that, we saw two weeks ago where Donald Trump had that expert Eli Bartov testify. And Bartov was asked, well, who's paying you all of this money? Bartov said, this is in the New York Attorney General civil fraud case. And Bartov said, I had received about $900,000 to give this testimony today. And I was paid by the Donald Trump political action committee called the Save America political action committee on

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