RNC Paid Trump’s Personal Attorneys Another $350,000

Zach Everson

Staff Writer

APRIL 21, 2022

The Republican National Committee paid law firms representing former President Donald Trump’s personal interests another $350,000 in March, according to a financial report filed Wednesday evening with the Federal Election Commission.

The Republican Party agreed to cover up to $1.6 million of Trump’s legal bills as he fights investigations in New York regarding his business practices, the Washington Post reported in December.

Forbes currently estimates Trump is worth $3 billion.

Then-President Donald Trump winks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office in March 25, 2019. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Attorneys Susan Necheles and Ronald Fischetti represent Trump in the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into his business practices. On March 3, the RNC paid Necheles’s firm $239,000 while Fischetti’s firm received $112,000 for “legal and compliance services.”

In February, two prosecutors quit that case, after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg reportedly told them he was not prepared to move forward with charges against Trump, the New York Times reported. Bragg later put out a statement that his office’s “investigation concerning former President Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, and its leadership” is continuing.

Spokespeople for the RNC and Trump did not respond to inquiries.

Wednesday evening, the RNC disclosed it paid attorneys representing former President Trump's personal interests another $350,000 in March. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION/REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE

Welcome To The Latest Issue Of Checks & Imbalances

Today we take a look at an ethics investigation into a freshman lawmaker and Trump's latest legal maneuvering.

Checks & Imbalances publishes on Mondays and Thursdays. Please support this work, if you can, by subscribing to Forbes. Any tips or suggestions? Email me at zeverson@forbes.com.  And you can follow me on Twitter at @z_everson. Thanks!

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House Ethics Committee Is Investigating Texas Republican Pat Fallon

The House Committee on Ethics revealed on Monday that it was investigating Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas). The first-term lawmaker’s office said that the probe concerns Fallon’s failure to disclose some stock trades in a timely manner.

Between January and April 2021, Fallon made more than 90 stock trades, which were worth a total of at least $7 million. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or STOCK Act, requires representatives to report their securities transactions to the House Clerk’s office within 45 days. Fallon reported his 90-plus transactions in mid-June, meaning some trades were not disclosed until five months after they occurred.

The following month, Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog, filed a complaint about Fallon’s report with the Office of Congressional Ethics, citing an article about the tardy disclosure published by Insider.

On Monday, nine months after the complaint was filed, the House ethics committee confirmed that, yes, it was investigating Fallon. What triggered the panel’s announcement is a rule stating that when the committee receives a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics, it must either release OCE’s report or make a statement that it was received within 45 days. (The months-long process from filing a complaint to getting the committee’s response is pretty standard.)

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) arrives to the U.S. Capitol for a House vote in March. On Monday, the House Committee on Ethics disclosed it was investigating Fallon. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES

The committee’s statement did not specify why it was investigating Fallon but his office said that the panel’s inquiry involves the stock trades. “When Congressman Fallon learned of the requirement to file periodic transaction reports for certain transactions, he spoke with the Ethics Committee,” a spokesperson for Fallon said in a statement. “He subsequently filed all required reports and chose to proactively pay the fines owed to the U.S. Treasury through the Legislative Resource Center.” Late filings are subject to fees of up to $200 per transaction.

Fallon’s spokesperson said the extension was “a matter of capacity” for the House Committee on Ethics. (Possibly related: The panel having to enforce the House’s mask mandates. “Quite honestly, we have spent way too much time over the last year having to be the mask police.” committee member Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) told the Washington Post recently.)

Similarly, the committee’s requirement to acknowledge an investigation within 45 days led to it disclosing its inquiries into Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.) and John Rutherford (R-Fla.) earlier this month. (Rutherford is a member of the ethics panel.)

As the ethics committee’s statement notes, “the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.”

The ethics panel is required to announce any action it’s taking against Fallon by May 31.

In early 2021, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) failed to report stock transactions within 45 days as the law requires. CLERK OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES/REP. PAT FALLON

Trump Tells Court He Doesn’t Have Documents Subpoenaed By New York Attorney General

"Former President Donald Trump does not have any more of the documents subpoenaed by New York Attorney General Tish James, his lawyer said in a court filing on Tuesday," reports Madeline Halpert:

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba wrote that after “conducting a diligent search and review,” Trump’s counsel determined that he was “not in possession of any documents” subpoenaed in December by the New York Attorney General, according to the court filing.

Habba said all remaining documents were “in the possession, custody or control” of the Trump Organization.

The filing comes two weeks after James asked a judge to hold the former president in contempt and fine him $10,000 a day for refusing to comply with a subpoena in her investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices.

Read more: "Trump Tells Court He Doesn’t Have Documents Subpoenaed By New York Attorney General"

Former President Donald Trump pauses during a speech Getty Images

Tracking Trump

"Checking Out: Trump Hotel Sale Will End an Era" (The New York Times)

"Trump’s PAC Keeps Losing Money. His Lawyers Keep Cashing In." (The Daily Beast)

"Trump Campaign Ordered to Pay $1.3 Million to Omarosa Manigault Newman in NDA case" (The New York Times)

RNC Paid Trump’s Personal Attorneys Another $350,000

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