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Legal defense fund for Trump aides launches amid questions about donor transparency
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
NEW: Legal defense fund for Trump aides launches amid questions about donor transparency, via @myhlee
Link to tweet
Legal defense fund for Trump aides launches amid questions about donor transparency
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee February 28 at 3:35 PM Email the author
A new legal defense fund designed to help defray the costs faced by aides to President Trump drawn into the various Russia investigations has yet to answer key questions regarding how it will vet donors and provide transparency about the contributors who finance the effort.
The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust filed paperwork Tuesday with the Internal Revenue Service and the Delaware secretary of state, declaring it will operate as a political committee and help defray the legal costs of “eligible persons” involved in the investigations. ... The trust plans to allow both individuals and “entities” to make unlimited donations that will be pooled to defray the costs of multiple recipients, according to paperwork filed in January with the Office of Government Ethics.
But the filings offered little insight into how the fund will operate, raising concerns about its transparency and how it will comply with conflict of interest rules, ethics experts said. ... Attorneys from the Washington-based law firm Wiley Rein, who established the fund, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A news release announcing the launch of the trust offered few details, and a spokesman and the interim manager for the fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Questions about how the fund will raise and distribute money are building amid signs that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation is intensifying.
....
Alice Crites and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee is a reporter on The Washington Post's national political enterprise and accountability team, covering money and influence in politics. Follow @myhlee
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee February 28 at 3:35 PM Email the author
A new legal defense fund designed to help defray the costs faced by aides to President Trump drawn into the various Russia investigations has yet to answer key questions regarding how it will vet donors and provide transparency about the contributors who finance the effort.
The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust filed paperwork Tuesday with the Internal Revenue Service and the Delaware secretary of state, declaring it will operate as a political committee and help defray the legal costs of “eligible persons” involved in the investigations. ... The trust plans to allow both individuals and “entities” to make unlimited donations that will be pooled to defray the costs of multiple recipients, according to paperwork filed in January with the Office of Government Ethics.
But the filings offered little insight into how the fund will operate, raising concerns about its transparency and how it will comply with conflict of interest rules, ethics experts said. ... Attorneys from the Washington-based law firm Wiley Rein, who established the fund, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A news release announcing the launch of the trust offered few details, and a spokesman and the interim manager for the fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Questions about how the fund will raise and distribute money are building amid signs that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation is intensifying.
....
Alice Crites and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee is a reporter on The Washington Post's national political enterprise and accountability team, covering money and influence in politics. Follow @myhlee
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