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3:50 pm – Republicans are trying to raise at least $ 60 million to fund legal challenges filed by President Donald Trump over the results of the U.S. presidential election, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in multiple states during Tuesday’s election as Democratic challenger Joe Biden moved closer to winning the White House, expanding his advantages in battle states.
“They want $ 60 million,” said a Republican donor who received requests from the campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Two other sources said the campaign wanted as much as $ 100 million for the joint fundraising committee it maintains with the RNC, a sign of the scale of the legal fight the campaign hopes to mount.
All three sources spoke to Reuters about the money requests on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The Trump campaign and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The request for funds comes as the Trump and Biden campaigns gear up for a potentially lengthy legal battle.
Since voting ended Tuesday, the Trump campaign has sent email and text requests alleging foul play and seeking donations, although the fine print indicates that more than half of the money raised would go to pay off the debts of the Bell.
Trump, who started the race with a strong financial advantage, ended his campaign struggling to keep up with fundraising giant Biden.
A Trump adviser described the campaign’s litigation strategy thus far as chaotic, disorganized and a “disservice to the president.”
The adviser, who also requested anonymity, said Trump’s team appeared to have been caught off guard by the election results and was not prepared to mount a legal fight.
The campaign has already lost court rulings in hotly contested states, including Georgia and Nevada, but scored a victory in Pennsylvania on Friday when a court ordered election officials to set aside provisional ballots cast on Election Day by voters. whose absent or mailed ballots were received on time.
“There must be patience as the process continues to unfold,” said Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff. “You have to make sure all legal votes are counted,” he said.
Trump wrote on Twitter Friday night that he had a “huge lead” in the states until late on election night, which “miraculously” disappeared as the days passed.
“Perhaps these clues will come back as our legal proceedings progress!” he wrote.
Trump’s senior campaign adviser David Bossie, a prominent conservative activist who runs the advocacy group Citizens United, has been chosen to lead post-election legal challenges, according to a source familiar with Trump’s campaign strategy.
Bossie was among a group of Trump loyalists who were in Las Vegas this week challenging the count in Nevada and is a fixture in Trump’s inner circle.
As Biden expanded his narrow leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia on Friday, a Republican official said it was doubtful that the strategy of challenging vote counting in multiple states would produce a victory for Trump.
“The math is what it is. You look at what it would take for a recount to reverse a result and we are way out of those numbers,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Biden’s campaign launched a new “Biden Fight Fund” on Wednesday to help raise money for the legal battle, according to emails reviewed by Reuters.
A spokesperson for Biden’s campaign did not immediately comment on whether they had set a fundraising goal.
“The president threatened to go to court to prevent the proper tabulation of votes,” Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in an email, adding that the battle could drag on for weeks.
The Republican official said it was time for the president to “move on.”
“This race is over and the only person who doesn’t see it is Donald Trump,” the official said.
– Reuters
