Florida Republican state lawmakers have crafted legislation that would direct millions of dollars in state funds to be used to pay attorneys fees for victims of “political discrimination,” and would use the Dept. of Motor Vehicles as a conduit to allow Floridians to donate additional payments to a fund.
The bill is designed to help Donald Trump pay some of his legal expenses, millions of which are already being paid through Trump’s super-PAC. If passed and signed into law, could hand the ex-president up to $5 million.
The legislation has already won the endorsement from Jimmy Patronis, the state’s Republican chief financial officer, who for months has been publicly calling for taxpayers to pay to defend Trump from criminal charges,” Politico reports.
Patronis says having taxpayers pay millions of dollars in Trump legal expenses makes good fiscal sense.
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“If we can help and support a Florida candidate for the White House, that’s just good from a dollars and cents perspective,” Patronis said. “From all the decisions the federal government makes with regard to military installations, to roads, to disaster aid — it’s in Florida’s best interest to make sure their champion for the President is allowed a fair shot at the White House without being taken down by some fake witch-hunt.”
In a separate statement, Florida Politics reports, Patronis added: “We’ve got a Florida Man — Donald Trump — running for President, and he’s facing ongoing legal challenges from Democrats in New York, Washington D.C., and Atlanta.”
“The Left is really good at weaponizing the courts,” he claimed, “and because President (Joe) Biden is so unpopular, they’re not just trying to beat Trump at the ballot box, they’re trying to throw him behind bars, which is outrageous.”
State Republican Senator Ileana Garcia, who served in the Trump administration, in the Trump 2016 election campaign, and is the founder of Latinas for Trump, is also in support of the novel legislation.
“We’re in the midst of an historic moment where we’re watching an election that’s trying to be stolen by left wing prosecutors, the Biden Administration and even Blue States,” Garcia said in a statement. “They’re not trying to win at the ballot box; they’re trying to keep President Trump off the ballot by weaponizing the courts. Having a Floridian in the White House is good for our state — and anything we can do to support Florida Presidential candidates, like President Trump, will not only benefit our state, but our nation.”
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