Why it matters that Trump's 'Election Defense Fund' didn't exist

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Rachel Maddow MSNBC
@maddow
"It created a perverse set of incentives: The moment he stopped lying was the moment donors stopped sending him money, which not surprisingly encouraged him to keep the con going."

msnbc.com
Why it matters that Trump’s ‘Election Defense Fund’ didn’t exist
After his defeat, Donald Trump urged his supporters to contribute to an Election Defense Fund. The trouble is, there was no actual Election Defense Fund.
12:31 PM · Jun 14, 2022

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/matters-trumps-election-defense-fund-didnt-exist-rcna33326


Among Donald Trump’s worst qualities is the frequency with which the former president has tried to rip off those who’ve put their trust in him. Indeed, the Republican developed some expertise in this area, running both a fraudulent charitable foundation and a fraudulent “university” that was designed to rip off its “students.”

All of this came to mind this morning, as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack held its second hearing, which covered a lot of ground, including a review of how Trump and his team used their election lies to separate the then-president’s followers from their money. NBC News reported:

Committee investigators also traced the money Trump and his allies raised from small donors by stoking election fraud fears, which they said totaled more than $250 million. And while the money was billed as going to “The Official Election Defense Fund,” two Trump campaign staffers testified that the fund did not actually exist and was just a “marketing” tactic.

As one former Trump campaign staffer told the bipartisan congressional committee, “I don’t believe there is actually a fund called the 'Election Defense Fund.'"

And where, pray tell, did this quarter of a billion dollars go? Some of the money helped pay for Trump’s pre-riot rally just south of the White House on Jan. 6, but the bulk of the money went to the former president’s new super PAC.

*snip*

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. If he's not prosecuted or successfully sued over it, due to our lax laws

then this observation, in fact, doesn't matter.

And 'Election Defense Fund' is a non-specific nomenclature, could mean anything. The GQP enacting hundreds of measures in a dozen+ states that make it harder to vote in the future, could easily be argued to fall under an 'Election Defense Fund' purview.

[Cha]

2. Of course! Rt💖TY

💙💛