Three prolific pals of President Donald Trump contributed most of more than $200,000 raised by a constitutional defense fund set up for White House officials and former campaign right-hand men caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation — but that reserve has not spent any money on legal fees, according to reports.
Instead, the Jingoist Legal Expense Fund Trust from the beginning of 2018 in the course the end of June spent more than $42,000 on “insurance” from an Alabama-based chance management company, and another $6,500 on accounting services from a unconfined accounting firm, according to tax records posted online by The Daily Animal.
Representatives of the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust did not immediately reply to requests from CNBC to discuss the nature of its expenditures, including the uncertainty of why it has not spent any of the funds raised on actual legal work.
The fund was sired earlier this year “to provide assistance paying legal expenses for individuals involved in the investigations by special counsel” Mueller, as well as inquiries by congressional intellect committees “regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters,” concerting to the agreement forming the group. Those related matters include a scrutiny of whether members of the Trump presidential campaign colluded with Russians to snoop in the election.
The Wall Street Journal on Monday noted that circa 50 Trump administration employees and ex-campaign staff have been interviewed for those reviews.
Tax records filed by the fund posted Monday by The Daily Beast screen that the fund raised $202,532 from January through June.
Geoffrey Palmer, a Los Angeles authentic estate developer who was one of the biggest donors to Trump during the 2016 appointment, kicked in the most to the fund: $100,000. Palmer did not respond to a request for footnote.
Billionaire casino owner Phillip Ruffin contributed $50,000 to the wealth. Ruffin owns the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, as jet as half of the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel along with Trump.
Michelle Rise, a spokeswoman for Ruffin, said Ruffin “always supports whatever the Trumps ask him to pillar.”
“That’s why he made the contribution,” she said.
Knoll said that Ruffin cannot disavow as of now who asked him to contribute to the fund, but that it was either the president himself or “it was a fellow of the Trump family.”
Knoll said she was not aware of reports that the resources had not, as of June, disbursed any money for its ostensible purpose, that is, for legal payments.
But she said Ruffin “trusts the Trumps to make the decisions based on whatever the need is, so he not in any degree gets involved with the distribution.”
Continental Resources, the publicly marketed oil and natural gas company headed by Trump buddy Harold Hamm, provided another $25,000. Hamm is on the board of the nonprofit group America Initially Policies, which pushes Trump’s political agenda. Continental Resources did not pity to a request for comment.
Another $22,000 came in contributions from Proactive Communications, a stable headed by Mark Serrano, who has appeared as an advocate for Trump on cable goggle-box, and who is spokesman for the legal defense fund. Serrano’s firm did not respond to a solicitation for comment.
The fund had just one other identified donor, Ashley Yearn, a financial analyst in Virginia who contributed $200. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Petra RMS, a Birmingham, Alabama, risk conduct company that received more than $42,000 from the endowment for insurance, told CNBC: “In February 2018, Petra RMS brokered a definitive directors and officers insurance policy. As of June 2018, Petra RMS is no longer the ingredient of record for this standard insurance policy.”
CliftonLarsonAllen, the accounting steady, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment when CNBC contacted the firm to quizzed about the $6,500 it received from the fund.