Trump Bilked His Supporters Out of $250 MILLION With ‘Election Defense Fund’ That Did Not Exist, Jan. 6 Committee Says

On Monday, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee revealed that former President Donald Trump raised over $250 million in emails pushing debunked voter fraud allegations for an “official election defense fund” that the committee found did not exist.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) disclosed the revelation during her closing statement. “Now that we understand the litigation efforts by President Trump and his allies, I would like to present additional action taken by the Trump campaign during this time,” Lofgren began.

“President Trump continued to push the stolen election narrative even though he and his allies knew that their litigation efforts making the same claim had failed. It is worth pointing out that litigation generally does not continue past the safe harbor date of December 14th,” she continued.

“But the fact that this litigation went on, well that decision makes more sense when you consider the Trump campaign’s fund-raising tactics. Because if the litigation had stopped on December 14th, there would have been no fight to defend the election, and no clear path to continue to raise millions of dollars,” Lofgren added.

“Mr. Chairman, at this time I would ask for unanimous consent to include in the record a video presentation describing how President Trump used the lies he told to raise millions of dollars from the American people. These fund-raising schemes were also part of the effort to disseminate the false claims of election fraud,” Lofgren continued, before the committee played a clip.

“I am Amanda Wick, senior investigative counsel, at the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the United States capitol,” Began the clip.

“Between election day on January 6th, the Trump campaign sent millions of emails to Trump supporters, sometimes as many as 25 a day. The emails claimed the “left-wing mob” was undermining the election and implored supporters to “step up to protect the integrity of the election,” and encouraged them to “fight back,” continued Wick.

“As the Select Committee has demonstrated, the Trump campaign knew these claims of voter fraud were false and yet continue to barrage small-dollar donors in emails encouraging them to donate to something called ‘the official election defense fund,’” Wick added.

“The select committee discovered no such fund existed,” Wick said before playing clips from other depositions, in which Trump campaign insiders described the defense fund as “marketing tactics.”

“The claims the election was stolen were so successful that President Trump and his allies raise $250 million. Nearly $100 million in the first week after the election,” Wick continued.

“On November 9th, 2020, President Trump created a separate entity called the Save America PAC,” she added, explaining where the money has since gone.

“The select committee discovered that the Save America PAC made millions of dollars of contributions to pro-Trump organizations,” Wick explained, noting the money went to places as far-reaching as former “Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows‘ charitable foundation” and the “Trump Hotel Collection.” The rules governing PAC funds are very loose and allow funds to be used for personal expenses.

“The evidence developed by the Select Committee highlights how the Trump campaign aggressively pushed false election claims to fundraise, telling supporters it would be used to fight voter fraud that did not exist. The emails continued through January 6th, even as President Trump spoke on the Ellipse. 30 minutes after the last email was sent, the Capitol was breached,” concluded Wick as the clip ended.

“Every American is entitled and encouraged to participate in our process. Political fund-raising is part of that,” Lofgren said, finishing her statement.

“Small-dollar donors use scarce disposable income to support candidates and causes of their choosing, to make their voices heard, and those donors deserve the truth about what those funds would be used for,” she added.

“Throughout the committee investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the “big lie,” there was the “big rip-off.” Donors deserve to know where there funds are going and they deserve better than what President Trump and his team did,” concluded Lofgren, who then yielded back her time.

Watch the full clip above via Fox News

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