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Tag Archives: fundraising
Speaker Johnson’s ‘Whirlwind’ First Full Week Marked By Santos Expulsion Vote, Doomed Israel Aid Bill And Fundraising Gaffe – Forbes
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- View Full Coverage on Google News
Fundraising in 2022 Was Among the Worst Ever, ‘Giving USA’ Found – The Chronicle of Philanthropy
- Fundraising in 2022 Was Among the Worst Ever, ‘Giving USA’ Found The Chronicle of Philanthropy
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North Dakota family is ‘devastated’ and fundraising for a lawyer after they say police killed their pet raccoon that was sought in a local rabies scare
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Erin Christensen was arrested after she brought her pet Raccoon into a bar, according to The Bismark Tribune.
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Authorities raided Christensen’s home and killed the Raccoon on the spot, collecting his body to test for diseases, she said.
-
The family set up a fundraiser to pay for Christensen’s legal fees and donate to a wildlife rehabilitation center.
The family of a woman in North Dakota who evaded police is raising money after she said local police shot and killed their pet raccoon in relation to a rabies scare.
Erin Christensen, 38, and her family is raising money on GoFundMe to cover legal fees after she was accused of causing a rabies scare at a local bar in Maddock, North Dakota when she brought in her family’s pet raccoon, she wrote on the fundraiser.
The family had been nursing the raccoon, named Rocky, back to health for three months, according to The Bismark Tribune.
According to the fundraiser, Christensen found the animal on the side of the road in June.
“Rocky was found approximately 3 months ago in the evening, he was lonely, scared, hungry, we decided not to engage him because maybe his mom would come to help him, the next day he was still in the same spot, so we took him in,” the family wrote on the fundraiser page.
“We were working very hard to rehabilitate him back into the wild we have bottle fed him, cared for him, he was still being bottle fed when he left and was still learning how to forage food we would place around trees and obstacles,” the family added.
Video: St. Louis company makes pancake art of pets
On September 6, police said that Christensen brought Rocky into a local bar in Maddock during happy hour, according to the Tribune.
Cindy Smith, who was bartending at the time, said that there were about ten people in the bar, and Rocky never bit anyone in the five minutes he was inside the bar.
“I saw she was carrying something, and I asked her what it was, and she showed me, and I said, ‘You’ve got to get it out of here,'” Smith told the Tribune. “I had no idea what she was thinking.”
According to the Tribune, the incident prompted the state Health and Human Services Department to issue a warning about potential rabies exposure.
“Rocky never left my arms when I visited the Maddock Bar, so who was at risk of rabies or other diseases?” Christensen stated on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on Wednesday after the Benson County Sheriff’s Office and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department executed a search warrant, according to the Tribune.
Scott Winkelman, the Division Chief of Game and Fish Enforcement, told the Tribune that Christensen tried to evade authorities.
The Benson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Sunday.
According to the family’s statement on GoFundMe, the authorities promised them that they would quarantine Rocky and let him go as long as he did not show any signs of rabies.
According to the Tribune, authorities raided Christensen’s home in search of Rocky and killed the Raccoon on the spot, taking his carcass to test for diseases.
“The police brought a battering ram to break down the front door of the house where Rocky was being housed at the time of his death,” Christensen said on the GoFundMe. “The amount of manpower used to find and kill Rocky, with simultaneous raids on three different residences, is impressive. A shock-and-awe campaign.”
Rocky tested negative for rabies, according to the statement on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on charges of giving false information to law enforcement and tampering with evidence. She was also given a Game and Fish violation of unlawfully possessing a furbearer, according to the Tribune.
The charges are misdemeanors that together would carry a maximum punishment of several years in jail and fines totaling $7,500, the outlet reported. Christensen is currently free on a $1,500 bond, the Tribune said.
“The impact to my family is that my children are confused and traumatized because of the excessive force that was used during the acquisition of this animal,” Christensen stated on GoFundMe. “This erodes the trust that they have in local law enforcement agencies. My children are devastated and inconsolable.”
The family is raising money on GoFundMe to not only pay for Christensen’s legal fees but also to donate a majority of the money to wildlife rehabilitation centers in memory of Rocky.
“Rocky was just a few months old, he was the sweetest, most loving little boy ever who everyone loved, there was never a dull moment being around him, he was so dang smart and always happy,” she said on the GoFundMe.
Read the original article on Insider
North Dakota family is ‘devastated’ and fundraising for a lawyer after they say police killed their pet raccoon that was sought in a local rabies scare
-
Erin Christensen was arrested after she brought her pet Raccoon into a bar, according to The Bismark Tribune.
-
Authorities raided Christensen’s home and killed the Raccoon on the spot, collecting his body to test for diseases, she said.
-
The family set up a fundraiser to pay for Christensen’s legal fees and donate to a wildlife rehabilitation center.
The family of a woman in North Dakota who evaded police is raising money after she said local police shot and killed their pet raccoon in relation to a rabies scare.
Erin Christensen, 38, and her family is raising money on GoFundMe to cover legal fees after she was accused of causing a rabies scare at a local bar in Maddock, North Dakota when she brought in her family’s pet raccoon, she wrote on the fundraiser.
The family had been nursing the raccoon, named Rocky, back to health for three months, according to The Bismark Tribune.
According to the fundraiser, Christensen found the animal on the side of the road in June.
“Rocky was found approximately 3 months ago in the evening, he was lonely, scared, hungry, we decided not to engage him because maybe his mom would come to help him, the next day he was still in the same spot, so we took him in,” the family wrote on the fundraiser page.
“We were working very hard to rehabilitate him back into the wild we have bottle fed him, cared for him, he was still being bottle fed when he left and was still learning how to forage food we would place around trees and obstacles,” the family added.
Video: St. Louis company makes pancake art of pets
On September 6, police said that Christensen brought Rocky into a local bar in Maddock during happy hour, according to the Tribune.
Cindy Smith, who was bartending at the time, said that there were about ten people in the bar, and Rocky never bit anyone in the five minutes he was inside the bar.
“I saw she was carrying something, and I asked her what it was, and she showed me, and I said, ‘You’ve got to get it out of here,'” Smith told the Tribune. “I had no idea what she was thinking.”
According to the Tribune, the incident prompted the state Health and Human Services Department to issue a warning about potential rabies exposure.
“Rocky never left my arms when I visited the Maddock Bar, so who was at risk of rabies or other diseases?” Christensen stated on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on Wednesday after the Benson County Sheriff’s Office and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department executed a search warrant, according to the Tribune.
Scott Winkelman, the Division Chief of Game and Fish Enforcement, told the Tribune that Christensen tried to evade authorities.
The Benson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Sunday.
According to the family’s statement on GoFundMe, the authorities promised them that they would quarantine Rocky and let him go as long as he did not show any signs of rabies.
According to the Tribune, authorities raided Christensen’s home in search of Rocky and killed the Raccoon on the spot, taking his carcass to test for diseases.
“The police brought a battering ram to break down the front door of the house where Rocky was being housed at the time of his death,” Christensen said on the GoFundMe. “The amount of manpower used to find and kill Rocky, with simultaneous raids on three different residences, is impressive. A shock-and-awe campaign.”
Rocky tested negative for rabies, according to the statement on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on charges of giving false information to law enforcement and tampering with evidence. She was also given a Game and Fish violation of unlawfully possessing a furbearer, according to the Tribune.
The charges are misdemeanors that together would carry a maximum punishment of several years in jail and fines totaling $7,500, the outlet reported. Christensen is currently free on a $1,500 bond, the Tribune said.
“The impact to my family is that my children are confused and traumatized because of the excessive force that was used during the acquisition of this animal,” Christensen stated on GoFundMe. “This erodes the trust that they have in local law enforcement agencies. My children are devastated and inconsolable.”
The family is raising money on GoFundMe to not only pay for Christensen’s legal fees but also to donate a majority of the money to wildlife rehabilitation centers in memory of Rocky.
“Rocky was just a few months old, he was the sweetest, most loving little boy ever who everyone loved, there was never a dull moment being around him, he was so dang smart and always happy,” she said on the GoFundMe.
Read the original article on Insider
Family Is Fundraising for Lawyer After They Say Police Killed Their Pet Raccoon
- Erin Christensen was arrested after she brought her pet Raccoon into a bar, according to The Bismark Tribune.
- Authorities raided Christensen’s home and killed the Raccoon on the spot, collecting his body to test for diseases, she said.
- The family set up a fundraiser to pay for Christensen’s legal fees and donate to a wildlife rehabilitation center.
The family of a woman in North Dakota who evaded police is raising money after she said local police shot and killed their pet raccoon in relation to a rabies scare.
Erin Christensen, 38, and her family is raising money on GoFundMe to cover legal fees after she was accused of causing a rabies scare at a local bar in Maddock, North Dakota when she brought in her family’s pet raccoon, she wrote on the fundraiser.
The family had been nursing the raccoon, named Rocky, back to health for three months, according to The Bismark Tribune.
According to the fundraiser, Christensen found the animal on the side of the road in June.
“Rocky was found approximately 3 months ago in the evening, he was lonely, scared, hungry, we decided not to engage him because maybe his mom would come to help him, the next day he was still in the same spot, so we took him in,” the family wrote on the fundraiser page.
“We were working very hard to rehabilitate him back into the wild we have bottle fed him, cared for him, he was still being bottle fed when he left and was still learning how to forage food we would place around trees and obstacles,” the family added.
On September 6, police said that Christensen brought Rocky into a local bar in Maddock during happy hour, according to the Tribune.
Cindy Smith, who was bartending at the time, said that there were about ten people in the bar, and Rocky never bit anyone in the five minutes he was inside the bar.
“I saw she was carrying something, and I asked her what it was, and she showed me, and I said, ‘You’ve got to get it out of here,'” Smith told the Tribune. “I had no idea what she was thinking.”
According to the Tribune, the incident prompted the state Health and Human Services Department to issue a warning about potential rabies exposure.
“Rocky never left my arms when I visited the Maddock Bar, so who was at risk of rabies or other diseases?” Christensen stated on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on Wednesday after the Benson County Sheriff’s Office and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department executed a search warrant, according to the Tribune.
Scott Winkelman, the Division Chief of Game and Fish Enforcement, told the Tribune that Christensen tried to evade authorities.
The Benson County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Sunday.
According to the family’s statement on GoFundMe, the authorities promised them that they would quarantine Rocky and let him go as long as he did not show any signs of rabies.
According to the Tribune, authorities raided Christensen’s home in search of Rocky and killed the Raccoon on the spot, taking his carcass to test for diseases.
“The police brought a battering ram to break down the front door of the house where Rocky was being housed at the time of his death,” Christensen said on the GoFundMe. “The amount of manpower used to find and kill Rocky, with simultaneous raids on three different residences, is impressive. A shock-and-awe campaign.”
Rocky tested negative for rabies, according to the statement on GoFundMe.
Christensen was arrested on charges of giving false information to law enforcement and tampering with evidence. She was also given a Game and Fish violation of unlawfully possessing a furbearer, according to the Tribune.
The charges are misdemeanors that together would carry a maximum punishment of several years in jail and fines totaling $7,500, the outlet reported. Christensen is currently free on a $1,500 bond, the Tribune said.
“The impact to my family is that my children are confused and traumatized because of the excessive force that was used during the acquisition of this animal,” Christensen stated on GoFundMe. “This erodes the trust that they have in local law enforcement agencies. My children are devastated and inconsolable.”
The family is raising money on GoFundMe to not only pay for Christensen’s legal fees but also to donate a majority of the money to wildlife rehabilitation centers in memory of Rocky.
“Rocky was just a few months old, he was the sweetest, most loving little boy ever who everyone loved, there was never a dull moment being around him, he was so dang smart and always happy,” she said on the GoFundMe.
D.C. lightning strike survivor had been fundraising for refugees
That Thursday happened to be her 28th birthday, her family said. So while Amber waited for her husband to pick her up for a celebratory dinner, she sought shelter once again from the same tree, huddling with three others under its outstretched branches, according to her family and authorities.
One was Brooks Lambertson, a young and rising bank vice president from Los Angeles. There was Donna Mueller, 75, a retired teacher, and her husband James Mueller, 76, who came from Wisconsin to Washington to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary. And there was Amber, a young woman from California whose travels in the Middle East teaching English had kindled a desire to help those stricken by war and poverty in that region.
They were strangers brought to that precise spot on the east side of Lafayette Square, at that precise moment for different reasons — business, vacation, a passion to help.
Just before 7 p.m., it was at that spot — under a leafy tree about 100 feet from a statue of President Andrew Jackson — that lightning struck.
Experts recorded a lightning flash in the area as six individual surges of electricity that hit the same point in the space of half a second. If the electricity struck the tree first, experts said, it would have sent hundreds of millions of volts coursing through it before passing into and over the bodies of those gathered beneath it.
“It shook the whole area,” an eyewitness later recounted. “Literally like a bomb went off, that’s how it sounded.”
The strike left all four grievously wounded. Secret Service and U.S. Park Police — who keep the park in front of the White House under constant patrol — ran to help.
On Friday morning, police announced the elderly couple from Wisconsin had died. Later that night, the banker from Los Angeles also passed away, police said.
Amber would be the sole survivor.
The lightning strike stopped Amber’s heart, said her brother Robert F. Escudero. Two nurses, who happened to be visiting the White House on vacation and saw the Secret Service running to help, immediately started giving her CPR and managed to restore her pulse, he said.
The lightning caused severe burns along the left side of her body and arm, her family said. That’s the side her bag was on, carrying the iPad she used to sign people up for refugee donations.
Her parents rushed to Washington from California, and her mother has documented her fight to recover on Facebook. The lightning strike left Amber struggling at first to breathe, wrote her mother, Julie Escudero. But by Friday, nurses were able to take her off the ventilator.
The lightning also damaged her short-term memory. She was scared and confused about what happened to her. “We definitely don’t want her to remember the incident right now,” her mother wrote on Facebook. But every time she wakes up, her mother wrote, she asks what happened to her, is she going to die, and will she be able to walk? Her family said one thing she has been particularly worried about is her work fundraising for refugees.
She had majored in international studies in college and traveled to Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, according to her brother and her work profile. She spent a year teaching English in Jordan and soon after began fundraising for nonprofits. She started working in Washington last year for a group called Threshold Giving and focused especially on fundraising for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief agency.
“The first thing she told me when we FaceTimed is, ‘I need to get back to work on Saturday,’” Robert Escudero said. “She’s worried about raising money for the refugee kids. She asked me, ‘Who’s going to get the money for them if I’m not out there?’”
A friend started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her medical bills. So her brother said he promised Amber he’d work with Threshold Giving in the coming days to also create a way for people who learn about her survival story to donate to refugees.
The one thing her family has not yet broached with her is the fate of the others who were with her that night under the tree.
“She is starting to realize there were others and she wants to know how they are doing and what she did wrong,” her mother said in a Facebook post on Sunday. “She cares so much for others, it will be hard for her.”
On Sunday, many signs of the fatal lightning strike were still visible at Lafayette Square.
A tree bore streaks of charred bark, cracks and a large gash in the main trunk where the wood remained warped like a bruise. Folks passing through Lafayette Square paused at the tree to stare at the scars.
One of them was Cal Vargas, a childhood friend of Lambertson, who died. He brought a wreath and bouquet of white flowers to lay at the base of the tree. Vargas and Lambertson had been friends since kindergarten and grew up together in Folsom, Calif., where they shared a passion for sports and the Sacramento Kings.
“He was an amazing individual,” Vargas said quietly. “Always had a smile on his face, always looked at the bright side of things.”
Earlier on the day the lightning struck, Lambertson, 29, had arrived in Washington on a business trip from Los Angeles. He was passing time before a dinner reservation when he got caught in the storm, Vargas said.
In a phone interview, Lambertson’s father, whom The Washington Post is not identifying by name to protect his privacy, said his son was “probably the best human being that I know.” He said his son’s kindness, generosity and humility “showed up in everything he did, in all his interactions with people.”
He worked at City National Bank as a vice president managing sponsorships for the company. He had done marketing for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, and graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, according to a statement from the bank.
The elderly Wisconsin couple who also died that day were celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary, family members said.
Donna Mueller, 75, and her husband, James Mueller, 76, had been high school sweethearts before marrying. James had owned a drywall business for decades while his wife worked as a teacher, according to one of their daughters-in-law, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy.
The couple lived in Janesville, Wis., about 70 miles west of Milwaukee, and had five grown children, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “Both would do anything for their family and friends,” relatives said in a statement.
The odds of someone being killed by lightning are extremely rare. In the past decade, only an average of 23 people in the United States have died each year.
Multiple fatalities are even more rare. Before last week’s strike, the last time three people died in a single incident was more than 18 years ago on June 27, 2004, when three people in Georgia were struck under trees at Bedford Dam State Park, said John Jensenius, a specialist at the National Lightning Safety Council.
Because lightning tends to strike tall objects, experts warn that taking shelter under a tree during a thunderstorm is highly dangerous. When a tree is hit by the electrical charge, moisture and sap in the tree easily conduct the electricity, carrying it to the ground around the tree, experts say.
“When lightning strikes a tree, the charge doesn’t penetrate deep into the ground, but rather spreads out along the ground surface,” Jensenius said. “That makes the entire area around a tree dangerous, and anyone standing under or near a tree is vulnerable.”
For that and other reasons, Amber’s survival has felt miraculous, her family said. If it hadn’t happened in right in front of the White House where Secret Service agents are stationed. If the two nurses who revived her hadn’t been on vacation and seen what happened.
On Saturday night, Amber was finally able to take a few steps on her own, her family said. She was supposed to start a master’s program in international relations this fall at Johns Hopkins University — the latest step in her work trying to help refugees and those suffering abroad.
“She’s an amazing, strong-willed person. And she has such a heart for others,” her brother said. “So the goal now is to get her walking again by the time classes start in a few weeks.”
Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
Trump fundraising dips in first six months of 2022, trails DeSantis
The tally does not include new direct contributions to Trump’s Save America PAC, which won’t be disclosed until late this month and have in recent months totaled up to $20,000. The PAC received $23,409 this quarter through WinRed, which processes online transactions for Republican candidates and committees.
The former president’s yields are falling as his time in the White House recedes further into the past. In the same six-month period last year, Trump collected more than $56 million in online donations, and then raised about $51 million from July through December of 2021.
The latest filing puts Trump’s haul behind that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis, who delighted conservatives nationally with his hands-off approach to the coronavirus pandemic, raised about $45 million in the first six months of the year, according to state filings.
Small-dollar online donations have dipped across the GOP, said people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party data, blaming the trend on donors having less disposable income because of inflation and on their fatigue with the relentless fundraising appeals. Numerous Democratic incumbents in close Senate races reported record hauls in the second quarter, including Georgia Sen. Raphael G. Warnock, who brought in $17 million compared to GOP challenger Herschel Walker’s $3.6 million, and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who raised $7.5 million compared to GOP challenger Adam Laxalt’s $2.8 million.
The new figures offer fresh evidence of the financial muscle Trump could put behind a third run for the presidency, as he sounds out allies about a possible announcement. That dynamic could influence the timing of any possible campaign announcement, as Republicans weigh whether he would clear the field and how his designs on 2024 might reshape this year’s midterms.
Trump and DeSantis are the dominant fundraisers in their party, with Trump maintaining a reservoir of support from small-dollar donors and DeSantis having won the backing of some of the GOP’s most generous megadonors, foremost among them hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who recently said he would move his company, Citadel, from Chicago to Miami. Next week, DeSantis is holding a trio of fundraisers in Utah. He is asking for $25,000 from couples attending a reception in Salt Lake City hosted by, among others, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and property developer Scott C. Keller, according to invitations obtained by The Washington Post.
The comparison is imperfect. DeSantis is raising money for a committee that can accept unlimited contributions, while donors can only give $10,000 per year to Trump’s joint fundraising vehicle. DeSantis also has an ongoing race for which he’s raising funds — he’s up for reelection this fall. So, too, is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), another possible contender for his party’s 2024 presidential nomination. He raised $29 million in the first six months of the year, his campaign said.
But Trump is hardly choosing to “hang up his hat and sail into the sunset,” as the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, this week advised him to do. Instead, he’s traveling the country stumping for endorsed candidates, repeating his debunked claims of election fraud and hinting at a third bid for president. He recently told supporters in Las Vegas that he “ran twice and won twice, and may have to do it a third time.”
“He is not only raising money at an unparalleled pace, but he is investing in America First candidates and continuing to grow the MAGA movement into 2022 and beyond,” said Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, in response to the new filings on Friday.
The latest fundraising numbers show that his online solicitations continue to resonate with his base, even as House investigators probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol accuse him of deceiving his supporters with promises of a nonexistent fund devoted to contesting election fraud.
“Having campaigned and fundraised for President Trump since 2015, there has been no stronger support and interest for him than there is today,” said Ed McMullen, Trump’s ambassador to Switzerland who also served as his South Carolina state director during the 2016 presidential campaign. “President Trump’s popularity and fundraising continues to grow and thrive at every level.”
Trump’s name and image dominate fundraising appeals for other GOP candidates and party committees, a sign of his enduring pull with the party’s base. Trump has recently moved to rein in other entities’ attempts to fundraise off his coattails, and the tension would only intensify if and when Trump officially announces his candidacy.
“The entire fundraising apparatus in the Republican Party revolves around President Trump,” said Caroline Wren, a Trump-aligned GOP fundraiser who helped organize the rally on Jan. 6, 2021. “Candidates and party committees rely on President Trump’s name for their low-dollar fundraising efforts, and when it comes to high-dollar fundraising, President Trump has selflessly spent the past two years raising millions of dollars for America First candidates and organizations, including headlining fundraising events for every major Republican Committee.”
Trump had been largely stockpiling his PAC contributions, but a person familiar with the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe its financial details said its spending jumped in June. The increase stemmed from legal bills arising from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, more transfers to support other candidates and committees, and higher costs to raise money online, the person said. The Save America PAC finished June with $112 million on hand, the person said, which would be a net gain of about $11 million from the prior month.
The Save America PAC’s June report to the FEC is due on July 20. Earlier filings show the group dispersed about $6 million in recent months to boost Trump’s preferred candidates in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary and Georgia’s gubernatorial primary. He prevailed in Pennsylvania, successfully elevating celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz above a crowded field, but failed to topple incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia.
The committee directed $75,000 in May to the law firm of an attorney representing Cleta Mitchell, a pro-Trump lawyer who advised him on efforts to overturn the results of the election. The attorney, John P. Rowley, did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s PAC also continued to spend money at his properties, directing about $30,000 in recent months to the Trump Hotel Collection.
There are no explicit restrictions on the personal use of funds raised by leadership PACs. Such committees, in addition to boosting like-minded candidates, can be used to pay advisers, cover travel expenses and defray legal bills, among other costs.
One limitation, said experts in campaign finance law, is that people behind such PACs can’t use the money to further their own future campaigns. Travel and other expenses advancing a candidate’s political activities are subject to contribution limits once the candidate has declared for a certain office, these experts said.
Even transferring those funds to a super PAC making independent expenditures boosting the candidate would likely provoke complaints if the money “established the super PAC or is the majority of the money financing the super PAC,” said Charles Spies, a Republican election lawyer.
Trump’s committee reported its dividends as its fundraising practices are under scrutiny by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Amanda Wick, a committee investigator, highlighted in a hearing last month how Trump and his allies raised $250 million in the weeks after the election by barraging his supporters with fundraising emails promoting an “Official Election Defense Fund,” even though no such fund existed.
“Not only was there the big lie,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). “There was the big rip-off.”
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment about those allegations.
Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor focused on securities and commodities fraud, said the Justice Department is unlikely to bring charges related to the fundraising practices highlighted by the committee. Prosecutors would face a host of challenges, he said, including proving that authors of the solicitations had an intent to defraud and countering a possible defense that donors would have chipped in regardless of the substance of the appeal.
Such appeals continue. Four emails sent in May from Trump’s PAC, for example, asked donors to contribute to a “Protect our Elections Fund.”
One subject line: “Future Election Fraud Alert.”
It implored supporters: Please contribute at least $45 or more IMMEDIATELY to the Protect our Elections Fund.”
Josh Dawsey, Dylan Freedman, Anu Narayanswamy and Chris Zubak-Skees contributed to this report.
2024 Watch: In the fundraising fight, Ron DeSantis is the $100 million man
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As he runs for reelection for a second term steering Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has morphed into a fundraising behemoth.
The deadline to report March fundraising totals to Florida’s Secretary of State isn’t until Monday, but it’s already clear that the governor – through his reelection campaign and Friends of Ron DeSantis, his political committee – has already hauled in over $100 million so far in the 2022 cycle.
DESANTIS VS. DISNEY: WHAT’S AT STAKE
The massive fundraising total dwarfs the leading Democratic gubernatorial challengers hoping face off and defeat the governor come November.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, U.S. February 24, 2022.
(Reuters)
But the haul – which comes from some of the biggest and most powerful donors in the GOP as well as from small dollar grassroots contributions not only across Florida but from coast to coast – also sends a signal to the rest of the potential 2024 Republican presidential field of DeSantis’ popularity, influence, and strength should he launch a White House campaign.
Longtime Republican fundraiser and lobbyist David Tamasi told Fox News that there’s plenty of interest in DeSantis among the GOP money class
NO LET UP IN TRUMP’S FUNDRAISING PROWESS
“DeSantis continues to be a top draw with the high-end dollar market. The trick will be to translate an expected November win into a monopoly,” Tamasi said.
Former President Donald Trump remains the most prolific fundraiser in the Republican Party. His Save America political action committee has brought in over $125 million since its launch soon after the 2020 election, and had over $110 million in its coffers as of the end of February.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Ariz.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
But just as he’s a solid number two to Trump and ahead of the rest of the field of other potential contenders in the early 2024 GOP presidential nomination polls, DeSantis is also firmly in second place in the campaign cash dash. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Ballotpedia spotlights that DeSantis has reported raising nearly $110 million, according to figures filed with the Florida Secretary of State.
TRUMP WINS CPAC 2024 STRAW POLL, WITH DESANTIS SECOND
Tamasi, who raised money for former President Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, noted that “any tier 1 presidential candidate must be able to demonstrate a robust fundraising capability with big donors and even more so now, small donors. We know Trump can raise from both and this haul shows DeSantis has the capability also. The question is who else can join this club?”
DeSantis has seen his popularity surge among Republican voters in his state and around the nation over the past two years, thanks in large part to his combative pushback against COVID-19 restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic as well as his aggressive actions in the culture wars.
GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, on Nov. 6, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada
(Fox News )
“I am standing my ground. I’m not backing down,” DeSantis emphasized last November as he spoke at a major confab of Republican leaders and activists. “We’ve done an awful lot in the state of Florida. We have a lot more to do, and I have only begun to fight.”
The governor has repeatedly deflected talk of a 2024 run, saying he’s concentrating on his 2022 gubernatorial reelection and telling Fox News that the next White House race is “way down the road. It’s not anything that I’m planning for.”
Pompeo’s 2024 deciding factors
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says any decision he makes on whether to run for the White House in the upcoming 2024 election cycle will be dependent on whether he believes “this is the moment” where he can best “serve America.”
And Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who served as CIA director and later as America’s top diplomat during the Trump administration, inferred in a Fox News interview in Manchester, New Hampshire on Thursday that his decision will not be dependent on whether his former boss or whomever else decides to jump into the next Republican presidential nomination race.
POMPEO HINTS PRESIDENTIAL RUN NOT DEPENDENT ON WHAT TRUMP DOES
Hours before Pompeo headlined the Hillsborough County GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner, Trump indicated in an interview with the Washington Post that if he launches a 2024 bid to try and return to the White House, it’s doubtful that Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, and DeSantis would also run.
“If I ran, I can’t imagine they’d want to run. Some out of loyalty would have had a hard time running,” said Trump, who since leaving the White House over 14 months ago has repeatedly flirted with making another presidential bid.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is joined at the Hillsborough County, New Hampshire GOP’s annual Lincoln-Reagan fundraising dinner by county chair and RNC member Chris Ager, in Manchester, N.H. on April 7, 2022
(Fox News)
Asked about those comments and whether his own decision would be impacted by what Trump decides, Pompeo told Fox News, “The Pompeos have always used the simple fact of do you believe this is the moment where you think you can best serve America, this is the place you can have the most impact. That will be how we make our decision in the end.”
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“It’s the right way to think about someone who puts themselves forward to the people of the United States to run for office, whether it’s president or back in home state Kansas,” he emphasized. “All of those things, they turn essentially on your belief that you’re the right person to sit in that place. And if you believe in that, you have an obligation to go do it.”
Will Haley’s 2022 NH trip pay dividends in 2024
On her first trip back to New Hampshire in a year and a half, former ambassador to United Nations Nikki Haley was laser focused in supporting Matt Mowers bid for Congress.
Former Ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley campaigns on behalf of GOP congressional candidate Matt Mowers of New Hampshire, at an event on April 4, 2022 in Derry, N.H.
(Fox News)
Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor, headlined multiple events on Monday for Mowers, a former New Hampshire GOP executive director who later worked on Trump’s 2016 general election campaign before serving in the State Department during the former president’s first two years in office.
HALEY’S TRIP TO NEW HAMPSHIRE SERVES MULTIPLE PURPOSES
And the trip by Haley, whom pundits considered a potential 2024 GOP presidential hopeful, generated more buzz about her possible national ambitions.
Asked about 2024, Haley told Fox News “if we don’t win in 2022 there will be no ’24. That’s why we’re going around the country trying to make sure we do that.”
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As for her timetable, Haley said “I don’t have to make a decision until the first of next year. But I can tell you I’ve never lost a race. I’m not going to start now. I’ll put a thousand percent into it and finish it.”
How Ukrainians are fundraising in cryptocurrency
More than $15 million in cryptocurrency has been donated to Ukrainian groups since Russia attacked the country on February 24th, according to research firm Elliptic. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have formed to support Ukrainians. NFTs have been sold to raise money for the Ukrainian people and military. The country’s official Twitter account has said it accepts Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
BTC – 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) – 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022
Donations like these are ordinarily made the old-fashioned way: through banks. In tech-savvy Ukraine, crypto has emerged as a quick and easy way to handle this money. It’s not just money flowing into the country, either — stablecoin Tether is supposed to be pegged to the US dollar. But demand in Ukraine is so high that it’s broken its peg, and is trading above the dollar — at $1.10, as of this writing.
“Coming from Ukraine, it’s totally normal to have stacks of dollars in physical proximity,” says Illia Polosukhin, a Ukrainian cofounder of NEAR Protocol, a competitor to Ethereum. He has family in Kharkiv, which was being bombarded as we spoke. “You don’t trust the local currency and on top of that, you don’t trust banks.” That makes Ukraine a natural place for cryptocurrency adoption.
Ukraine is known for its tech talent, with more than 200,000 tech workers, and its IT export business did $6.8 billion in volume last year. It also officially legitimized Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies last year, in a law regulating digital financial assets and providing fraud protection for Ukrainians. (Previously, crypto existed in a gray area where people could transact but companies and exchanges doing so attracted law enforcement attention.)
The country ranked fourth on Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index, behind only Vietnam, India and Pakistan, and about $8 billion of cryptocurrency passes through the country annually. “The big idea is to become one of the top jurisdictions in the world for crypto companies,” Alexander Bornyakov, the deputy minister at Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, told The New York Times last year.
When Polosukhin was in Ukraine last year, he was surprised to see that crypto had proliferated widely, even among people who aren’t working on crypto projects. He noted that Tether is particularly popular, partly because so many Ukrainians were used to working with the dollar as a reserve currency. There was another factor: the relative paucity of investment options. Besides the real estate market, “the only other opportunity to invest is actually crypto.”
That may explain why so many cryptocurrency and Web3 proponents have rallied around the country since the February 24th invasion. Though there are concerns that Russian companies may also use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, the Bank of Russia has been pushing for a ban on cryptocurrencies. (Instead, it favors the digital ruble.) So when Ukraine’s central bank suspended digital cash transfers and limited cash withdrawals, crypto — alongside the dollar, gold, and silver — became a viable option for making transactions.
Broadly, the international crypto community has reacted with messages of support for Ukraine. Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, tweeted that the invasion was “a crime” against Ukrainian and Russian people, adding “Glory to Ukraine.” Later, Buterin retweeted an announcement from Unchain.fund, aimed at humanitarian relief. Nine people have to sign off on the funds being dispersed; NEAR’s Polosukhin is one of the signers. After we spoke, Polosukhin sent me a document with ways to donate.
It’s not just Polosukhin. A member of Russian performance art group Pussy Riot created UkraineDAO, to use “the power of web3 tech and community to raise funds.” There’s also RELI3F, “a humanitarian aid initiative founded by NFT/web3 artists collaborating to support the people of Ukraine.” On Twitter, the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced that the company “just gave $25 to each Ukrainian on FTX. Do what you gotta do.”
Yev Muchnik, a Ukrainian-born lawyer who’s lived in the US since 1988, has been working on Ukraine United DAO with developers from PieFi. “Everyone’s kind of banding together to figure out ways they can help,” she told me. “It really restores your faith in how people and community and technology can do so much.” Among the DAO’s goals: creating peer-to-peer mesh networks to preserve internet connectivity, even if centralized internet service providers go down.
My Ukrainian credit cards don’t work anymore. I’m safe physically in Kazakhstan, but all my savings are gone.
Crypto is the only money I still have, and today I can say without exaggeration that $BTC, $ETH, and #NFT are going to save my life while I can’t come back home.
— ARTYOM FΞDOSOV (@usleepwalker) February 25, 2022
“The missing link is trying to figure out what people on the ground need,” Muchnik says. She thinks that blockchain technology will make it easier to make sure that funds that are raised for Ukrainians actually go where they’re supposed to. Her understanding now from people on the ground in Ukraine is that people are withdrawing money from their bank accounts and trying to find alternative ways to transact.
The collective coordination effort demonstrates how crypto can be used as a public good, Muchnik says. She’s coordinating with people in Ukraine and Poland to verify and authenticate the organizations that spring up. The blockchain also means that the flow of funds is traceable; anything unused can be returned.
Oleksii Stoiko runs a popular Telegram channel in Ukraine about cryptocurrency, which he created after being inspired by Bankless, a media organization focused on crypto. It exploded in popularity about a year and a half ago, he told me from his home in the western part of the country. It doesn’t surprise him that Ukrainians have taken to crypto. “Ukrainians are natural when it comes to coordination,” he says.
On February 24th, Stoiko felt too frightened to leave his house, even though there were no Russian troops nearby. “It’s pretty, pretty scary, actually,” he says. Right before he and I spoke, he was reinforcing the windows in his apartment with duct tape.
When we spoke on the 25th, things in Stoiko’s area were mundane, except for the empty shelves in big supermarkets — the most popular foods are all gone — and a lot of people running around with suitcases. But the outreach from the cryptocurrency community has helped him feel less alone. “It really warms my heart to read all these kind words and support for me personally and for all Ukrainian people,” he says.
Polosukhin’s focus right now is on making sure that those in need are taken care of — whether that’s in cryptocurrency or not. It’s easy to send crypto, he notes, but it’s not necessarily easy for people to receive it if the internet or power is cut off. When we spoke, the only thing working in Kharkiv were mobile providers, and Polosukhin wasn’t sure when they’d fail too. For those who had it, cash was still the best strategy.