Internal Revenue Service filings show a questionable legal defense fund set up to cover the bills of former Trump campaign officials entangled in the Mueller investigation is taking in large sums of money from GOP megadonors and paying law firms without disclosing who, exactly, is benefitting from those payments.
CNN:
Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust doled out $122,529 to two law firms, according to the IRS filing, including an $8,438 payment to the firm representing Keith Schiller, the President's former longtime bodyguard and aide. The payments are listed only as "legal consulting" on the IRS form. The fund's spokesman declined to comment on the legal fund's payments.
That law firm, Schertler & Onorato LLP, also represents Sam Patten, a lobbyist who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist for illegally obtaining $50,000 in tickets to Trump's inauguration on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch.
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Another $114,091 went to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a large Washington law firm and lobbying outfit, which has ties to several witnesses involved in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
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In a document sent for review to the Office of Government Ethics earlier this year outlining its operations, the Patriot legal fund indicated it would draw clear boundaries between the Trump campaign and the fund. It said none of the fund's "members" -- individuals who can vote on the its activities -- nor its manager could be employed by the Trump campaign.
The Patriot legal fund has not publicly disclosed the identities of those "members," but the fund is deeply intertwined with the Trump campaign.
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The legal fund's custodian of records is the Trump campaign's treasurer Bradley Crate, whose firm Red Curve Solutions is listed as the mailing address for the legal fund. The fund's spokesman is Mark Serrano, who also serves as a Trump campaign spokesman.
Money going into the fund is coming from big Republican donors, the latest of which is $150,000 from Mar-a-Lago member and recycling mogul Anthony Lomangino.
... Lomangino, who had donated $125,000 to the Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee between the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, signed the latest big checks to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust, which was set up by President Donald Trump’s lawyers in February to provide financial support for legal expenses incurred by any former Trump campaign employees, consultants, fundraisers or volunteers (excluding Trump’s family members) questioned in the ongoing probe.
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This disclosure follows criticism of the fund for lack of transparency after previous filings indicated that the fund did not appear to have spent any money on legal defense despite receiving nearly $200,000 from a handful of Trump campaign donors, including longtime Trump associate Phil Ruffin, Congenital Resources CEO Harold Hamm and Beverly Hills real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer.
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According to Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government watchdog, the continued lack of clarity regarding who receives financial help from the Patriot Fund raises questions about potential conflicts of interest. Those in control of the fund could help only those Trump associates who refuse to cooperate with Mueller, he said, while refusing to help anyone who provided evidence against the campaign.
“There's just so many questions and not much transparency,” Libowitz said.
Pro-Trump legal fund making payments, but won't say who's benefiting (CNN)
Mar-a-Lago member gives $150K to legal defense fund for Trump allies questioned in Mueller probe (ABC News)