December 5, 2020 12:37:29 pm
President of the United States Donald Trump (Photo by Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
President Donald Trump’s campaign spent $ 8.8 million on legal challenges for the Nov. 3 election in various states, including $ 2.7 million in legal fees, according to the latest documents filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The largest outlay was a $ 3 million payment to the Wisconsin Elections Commission for a partial recount in two populous counties. The stories did not change the outcome.
More than 30 of the legal payments were dated on or before Election Day, the earliest October 26. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The spending was a fraction of the $ 207.5 million that Trump and his allied committees have raised since the Nov. 3 election, fueled in part by their insistence that the vote was marred by widespread fraud.
A $ 30,000 payment to Jenna Ellis is the only outlay indicated for her highest-profile legal advocates, the self-described “strike force team.” Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump advocate Sidney Powell, who have filed multiple lawsuits on Trump’s behalf, are not listed as paid by the campaign.
Trump spent money to make money, including $ 2.2 million on his own media company to launch fundraising text messages.
The campaign made two payments to American Made Media Consultants, its internal firm that acts as a clearinghouse for advertising expenses, on November 12 for a total of $ 2.2 million and was called “Count: SMS Advertising”, a reference to the text messages. Campaigns must disclose the purpose of the expenses, as well as the date and dollar amount.
The Kasowitz law firm, Benson, Torres LLP, which also represented Trump during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election led by special counsel Robert Mueller, received $ 600,000. Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP, which had been the leading firm representing the Trump campaign in its challenges in Pennsylvania courts until it retired on November 13, received $ 302,688. Statecraft PLLC, a Phoenix law firm that led unsuccessful litigation in Arizona, was awarded $ 190,859.
Trump paid the Philadelphia firm Marks & Sokolov LLC $ 161,842. Founder Bruce Marks, a Republican, was the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit that overturned a 1993 special election for a state Senate seat after a federal judge ruled that fraudulent absentee ballots had tipped the election toward rival Marks Democrat.
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