The Big Ripoff

The Committee* is holding televised hearings. It was revealed that Donald Trump and his campaign engaged in potential fundraising fraud, raising $250 million for a Trump “election defense fund” that did not actually exist.

In showing that Trump deceived donors into contributing money to the election defense fund – based on claims about a stolen election that his top advisers told him were nonsense – the Committee suggested Trump engaged in potential fraud as well as other violations of federal law.

But the “Official Election Defense Fund,” as it was billed on fundraising emails did not formally exist, according to Trump campaign aides.

During the hearing Congresswoman (D-Calif.) Zoe Lofgren said, “Not only was there the Big Lie, there was the Big Ripoff.”

Most of the money went to Trump’s newly created Save America PAC. The PAC then made contributions to Mark Meadows’ charity, to a conservative organization employing former Trump staffers, to the Trump Hotel Collection, and to the company that organized the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol last Jan. 6.

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*Wikipedia:  The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The attack, inspired by Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 presidential election, was the culmination of attempts to overturn the election, which the incumbent Republican Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

On June 12, 2022, the committee announced it has enough evidence to recommend that the Justice Department indict Trump. The committee has argued that Trump knew he did not win the election and was thus perpetrating a fraud, and it has referred to a "criminal conspiracy" that led to the attack on the Capitol.