Possible Campaign Finance Violation?
The Trump campaign appears to be paying the legal fees of Donald Trump’s longtime and now former bodyguard. $66,000 has been shelled out to the law firm that represents Keith Schiller, who left the White House in a surprise move last September. Citing “newly filed campaign records,” NBC News first reported the story.
Schiller “testified to the House Intelligence Committee in November that someone made an offer to send five women to Trump’s hotel room in Moscow in the lead-up to the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.”
“Two people familiar with the matter told NBC News that Schiller painted the incident in a light favorable to Trump, saying he turned down the offer on Trump’s behalf, treated it as a joke and no women ever came, as far as he was aware.”
NBC adds that “Federal election law allows the use of campaign money for legal fees, but only if the fees are related to a matter connected to the campaign, legal experts say.”
The Trump campaign spent $834,000 on legal fees during the first quarter of 2018, federal campaign records show — about 20 percent of total spending.
Earlier Tuesday The Daily Beast published a report on Schiller titled, “The Trump Super Fixer Who ‘Knows Where All the Bodies Are Buried’.”
“There is no doubt that Keith Schiller knows where all the bodies are buried. Next to Michael Cohen, if Mr. Schiller ever turns state’s evidence, the impact on the president would be catastrophic,” Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti told The Daily Beast.
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