Dear John,

There have been so many bombshells exposed by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

One bombshell we can’t let people forget is that Trump’s campaign fundraised like mad off of the baseless allegations of election fraud, a.k.a., the Big Lie Rip-Off..

The Trump campaign took $250 million in donations from supporters that it said would go to the Official Election Defense Fund to pay for legal fees for court cases to challenge and overturn the 2020 presidential election results.^[1]

Except the “Official Election Defense Fund” doesn’t exist. Never has. Never will.

Out of that $250 million, only $13 million was actually spent on court expenses. That didn’t stop millions of dollars from going to organizations run by Trump staffers, the Trump Hotel Collection, and the fiancée of Trump's son Donald Trump Jr, just to highlight a few.

It was a fraud designed to milk as much money from Trump supporters as they possibly could, with no regard for the truth, and the House Select Committee exposed it all in great detail.

Exposure isn’t enough. The Trump Campaign must be held accountable. When you lie to raise money over the internet, it’s wire fraud. And this case is cut and dry. It’s time for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to shut it all down and prosecute the Trump Campaign for wire fraud now.

Here’s how most of the $250 million in supporter-donated money was spent:^[2]

• $100 million for “various fundraising expenses and advertising efforts aimed at raising even more money”

• $5 million for the company that organized the Jan. 6 rally

• $1 million each to two separate organizations tied to Trump staffers

• $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection

• $60,000 to Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., to introduce Trump for two-and-a-half minutes at the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol

That’s not all of it, because another almost $100 million in supporter-donated money was transferred to a separate entity called the "Save America PAC” that promotes Trump, pays for his rallies, travel, and expenses, and continues to raise money off of the Big Lie today.^[2]

You probably remember the “Save America PAC” from the last time Trump got busted cheating and had to refund $122 million to elderly voters scammed BEFORE Election Day through a completely different deceptive fundraising scheme exposed in November 2020.^[3]

Or maybe you remember when in 2018, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, once billed as the charitable arm of Trump’s theoretical financial empire, was forced to dissolve and give away all its remaining assets under court supervision by the New York attorney general. The foundation was found to be engaging in “a shocking pattern of illegality.”^[4] Sound familiar?

There’s also when Trump settled the fraud case against Trump University for $25 million dollars,^[5] Mary Trump's lawsuit claiming Trump defrauded her millions from her inheritance, the Panama Hotel Fraud and Tax Litigation suit and the Doe v. Trump Corporation investors scam class action, to highlight just a few more in the long list of Trump fraud and prosecutions.^[6]

But the Big Lie Rip-Off is the biggest and the most serious; it must not go unprosecuted.

Thousands of hard working people had more than $250 million dollars stolen by an American President in an elaborate fraud scheme. Now it’s up to the DOJ to finish the job.

When it comes to the Big Lie, everything comes back to Trump, but Trump isn’t the only one who should be held accountable.

The Trump Campaign must be treated no differently than Trump’s Foundation in New York. The DOJ must prosecute wire fraud now, before Trump and his campaign do it all over again.

Thanks for joining us in this fight,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] Jan. 6 panel: Trump campaign used 'big lie' to raise millions from supporters, Yahoo News
[2] The Jan. 6 panel says the Trump campaign misled donors using election lies, NPR
[3] Trump Campaign: Scamming Elderly Voters Is Only Okay When We Do It, Vanity Fair
[4] Trump Foundation Will Dissolve, Accused of ‘Shocking Pattern of Illegality’, New York Times
[5] Trump settles fraud case against Trump University for $25M, USA Today
[6] Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump, Just Security}