© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the courtroom after attending the Trump Group civil fraud trial, in New York State Supreme Court docket within the Manhattan borough of New York Metropolis, U.S., November 6, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
By Alexandra Ulmer
(Reuters) -Hotelier Robert Bigelow instructed Reuters on Tuesday he gave Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump $1 million for his authorized charges and agreed to donate one other $20 million to a pro-Trump exterior group for marketing campaign functions.
“I gave him $1 million in direction of his authorized charges just a few weeks in the past. I made a promise to present him $20 million extra, that will probably be to the tremendous PAC,” Bigelow stated in an interview.
Trump faces 4 pending prison instances this 12 months, together with two over his efforts to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss, one over his dealing with of categorised paperwork upon leaving workplace and one other over his hush cash funds to a porn star.
Bigelow stated he felt Trump was being unfairly focused within the prison instances, and that his sympathy in direction of Trump had motivated the donation. The Justice Division says it acts with out political bias.
Bigelow’s main donation, which had not been beforehand reported, reveals how Trump can nonetheless rely on sure deep-pocketed donors as he battles unprecedented, pricey authorized issues within the midst of his presidential marketing campaign.
Trump is the runaway frontrunner to clinch the Republican presidential nomination to face Democrat Joe Biden within the November normal election.
Nonetheless, his prices are quickly mounting.
Trump was hit final week with an $83 million verdict in a defamation case introduced by author E. Jean Carroll, and a choose is about to rule any day now on the New York Lawyer Common’s request for $370 million in penalties for his misrepresentations to banks about his web price.
Bigelow, who relies in Nevada, stated he had dinner with Trump on Monday evening at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
“It was speculated to be one hour. It was over two hours. And we nonetheless ran out of time,” Bigelow stated, declining to supply particulars of their dialog.