Welcome to the Checks & Imbalances newsletter. Today we take a look at Trump’s legal bills and legal maneuvering, as well as an ethics investigation into a freshman lawmaker.
RNC Paid Trump’s Personal Attorneys Another $350,000 In March
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.
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.
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- “Checks And Imbalances: The Reporter’s Notebook Edition”
- “Watch: Where Some Of The Biggest Lawsuits And Investigations Against Donald Trump Stand”
- “Watch: Byron Donalds Speaks To Forbes About Midterms, Energy, And The Inner Workings Of Congress”
- “Alex Jones’ Infowars Site Files For Bankruptcy — Here Are The Lawsuits That Led To Millions In Legal Fees”
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.)
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.
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.
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)
Editor’s Picks
- “Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta registers as a foreign agent lobbying for Libya’s government” (OpenSecrets)
- “Top oil and gas companies increase lobbying spending amid global energy crisis” (OpenSecrets)
- “Lobbyists loved Mike Pence, hitting his office up more than any VP ever. Here’s what they wanted” (USA Today)
- “Crime Stoppers of Houston Has a Tip: Vote Out These Judges” (The Marshall Project)
- “Florida Bill to End Disney’s Special Tax District Heads to Gov. DeSantis for Signature” (The Wall Street Journal)
- “Trump’s Most Loyal Lawmakers Are Actually Losing Money” (The Daily Beast)
- “Dr. Oz has close ties to the wealthy du Pont family heirs, and they’re backing his GOP bid for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat” (CNBC)
- “Federal government contractor fined $56,000 for making an illegal contribution to a prominent conservative super PAC” (Insider)
- “Infrastructure bill, Russia issues keep lobbying revenues high” (Politico)
- “Trump-endorsed JD Vance keeps failing to follow federal financial rules” (Insider)
- “Vance parlays Trump endorsement into new Thiel money” (Politico)
- “Drug lobby taps Biden aide’s brother” (Axios)
- “Lobbyist returns to Hill for Senate Agriculture GOP” (LegiStorm)
- “Rep. Meuser legislative director heads to renewable-energy lobby” (LegiStorm)
- “Republican congressional candidate savages ‘sodomite predators’ and 'LGBT Groomers' in wildly homophobic fundraising blast” (Insider)
- “Conservative super PAC spends millions boosting Republican congressional candidates” (OpenSecrets)
In Closing
“Can you pay my bills?
Can you pay my telephone bills?
Can you pay my automo-bills?
If you did then maybe we could chill”
– Destiny’s Child, “Bills, Bills, Bills”
