How is it legal to use campaign funds for personal legal costs?
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
564 points (96.8% liked)
politics
19089 readers
4076 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Because laws that are not enforced are nothing more than friendly suggestions.
Over ten years ago Colbert showed how PAC money could be legally transformed into a personal slush fund. It was a hilarious segment that he did over an entire season to show how the Citizens United law allows anonymous money to go right into politicians' pockets. He won a Peabody award for it.
The Emoluments Clause has entered the chat
Emoluments Clause: "I'm interested in that answer too"
It’s legal if you accurately specify where the funds will be going. Iirc, his website states that funds will go to legal challenges or whatever.
It's not
This is Donald J. Trump. Since when has something being illegal ever stopped him?
Republicans always turn a blind eye to their own.
They aren't campaign funds. They are funds donated to a Political Action Committee (PAC).
The funds are coming from a PAC. I'm hearing the rules are different from normal campaign contributions.
A PAC is a fancy name for Bribe Collection Fund.
It's not illegal if you run it through the correct laundering methods.
It's what happens when the rules are being made by the recipients of the bribes.
Anthony “my son gave Trump 250 Million dollars, also money is speech and corporations are people” Kennedy is laughing at us.
load more comments
(2 replies)
A white nationalist and their money are soon parted.
He could sell Mar-a-lago so we could all find out what it's really worth.
The secrets in the bathroom are worth at least a few mil
Close to $2B, as I recall, but they're already sold to the Saudis.
2 billion dollars and this MF is still a free man…America has gone to shit.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Fuck off, Pumpkin Tits - you broke-ass, loser motherfucker.
But do the costs really matter if you never pay your bills?
So sick of seeing this CUNT getting away with this shit
FUCK YOU
He has neither the warmth nor depth to be called a cunt. That's insulting to productive cunts.
How can Trump still be a presidential candidate? I've been asking myself that for years now. I just don't get it.
He's got an enormous base of support in the party with a majority in the parts of the country that get to decide who the President is.
How can anyone think Trump should get a second term? I realize, of course, that neither the interests of the people nor common sense are a factor in the States, but even the most unscrupulous businessmen should realize by now that Trump is not an option. I mean, someone who manages to squander even such an exorbitant inheritance without any significant returns can't be considered a smart businessman or any good for business. The only way I can explain the support for Trump is that many influential people backed the wrong horse and are now committed - just the way these people handle their share transactions. But hey, I am not a US-American and so I can't help but get the impression that you all have lost your minds (even for thinking that this is in any way acceptable). How such a ridiculous circus can be possible in a so-called constitutional state is simply beyond me.
Donald lowered their corporate taxes to nothing. They had three years of stock buybacks on the back of the strong economy Obama set up. Then in the pandemic, instead of being held accountable for raiding the coffers and needing to put money back in, they were given trillions more in handouts. And now they are recording record profits and blaming inflation on Biden.
The influential people make serious bank at the expense of the public every time a Repub gets power. Somehow the economy crashes, people lose their jobs and homes, but it is the wealthy receiving billions or trillions in handouts. So these influential people run propaganda networks to make sure low information voters can be tricked into voting for Repubs.
As for how it can happen, my opinion is because we have FPTP voting. If we had score voting, Donald never would have been selected. Dem voters and Independents all would have ranked every functioning adult higher than Donald.
Also the Electoral College means everyone's vote is valued less than a Wyoming vote. That violates the spirit of the 14th Amendment IMO. But Donald being able to run violates the letter of the 14th Amendment so what do I know.
load more comments
(2 replies)
This is a case of the inmates running the asylum. The Republicans in power who know he's an idiot are stuck with him because he has such a large base of hateful assholes (whose votes they have been courting for decades) who think he's the second coming. Their votes are the only chance they have at winning, and they have only themselves to blame.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
You ever get the feeling that Trump so desperately wants to win so he can change the laws in his favour? Because if he loses, in the polls, in the electoral college, in the courts, at that point there'll be a crater where he once stood.
And deservedly so. We can only hope.
It's not a feeling, it's literally what he said he'd do the first day in office as a dictator for a day. Literally. There's no hyperbole there.
It's basically his Get-out-of-Jail free card that he can use to try to wipe away all of his problems. His arguments for total presidential immunity are ludicrous when he's not in office, but I'm sure if he were to actually be in office again, they wouldn't be laughed off as much. He has to go all in on this or he's basically finished. Although I remember thinking this last election too and here we are again, so maybe if Trump loses we'll still see him running for the 2028 Presidential election (how somebody that unhealthy is still living is beyond me, better men than him have died so much earlier). Not to mention all of Russia's hopes in turning around their war against Ukraine are riding on this election as well, if they can get Trump back in, they can kick the legs out from under Ukraine in one fell swoop, as with every presidential election, there's a lot riding on this.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Maggie Haberman can bite my shiny metal ass. She did nothing but normalize and excuse every single thing he did for millions of people. Get her out.
Why is it even legal for them to spend political donations on legal expenses completely unrelated to politics. It's a stretch, but I can almost see it for the January 6th or maybe even the documents cases, because they're at least related to his political career.
But sexual assault, defamation, and fraud cases definitely shouldn't count. They're cases related to actions he took prior to entering politics.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump is broke and needs your money to stay out of prison.
load more comments
(10 replies)
My man is literally always begging for money. He brags about how successful he is at begging for money. And he's created an enormous cult of personality full of people who will just give him their money as soon as he asks for it.
Trump could have extorted billions out of Putin and/or the Saudis on Inauguration Day. He's such a manbaby that he can only take money from people who are much, much weaker than he is.
He's going to have to go blow daddy Putin again for funding.
view more: next ›