The Big Lie and Wire Fraud
or Why "The Donald" doesn't play by the rules.
On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump executed the necessary documents to create his 2020 Reelection Campaign Fund.
Presidents do this routinely upon taking office, but Donald Trump did it on his first day. The whys were fairly obvious. Trump was told he could keep his reelection fund monies for himself even if he did not seek another term without any strings attached. Greed for Donald Trumps supplants the need for good or even normal optics.
Of course, Trump should have sought legal counsel to keep in his political committees on “the up and up” so to speak. Investigators for the Select Committee Investigating the January 6th Attack on the Capitol have undercovered yet another crime that likely would not have been pursued by forming an independent commission.
Shortly after the 2020 election, Donald Trump began fundraising over his “Big Lie” assertion of fraud by asking supporters to give money to the “Official Election Defense Fund”. The problem is that that entity did not exist and donations went elsewhere1. And elsewhere is a crime2.
It is rather embarassing that this would not be a big deal except that numerous White House insiders, Trump’s Attorney General, and assorted other legal counsel all told Trump there was no election fraud. Had there been a smidgen of evidence to support a case of election fraud, the paperwork to create an “election fraud” fund would have been blamed on paperwork or a personnel blunder. And as long as the money magically appeared in an appropriately named account, objections over the fraud would be viewed as partisan nitpicking.
Proving wire fraud is difficult as criminal intent is a key element but raising money for a non-existent entity for an unsubstantiated challenge to the 2020 election makes it a far easier charge to make.
It’s an open question now, however, given the false claims of election fraud, the plethora of testimony of individuals close to President Trump telling him the same, and Trump’s penchant for disregarding legal advice he does not like; if anything will come of a fairly ring-fenced wire fraud case against him.
One thing is for certain though, the GOP Congressional leadership decision to oppose any kind of investigation just got worse.
https://www.rawstory.com/jan-6-hearing-trump-crimes/
https://www.axios.com/2022/06/14/jan-6-committee-zeros-in-on-trump-fundraising-emails-tied-to-fraud-claims