Trump breaks fundraiser record after guilty verdict

The former US president’s campaign has raised $1 million for each of the 34 criminal charges

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has raised over $34 million since the former US president was found guilty on 34 felony counts in New York, in a trial he denounced as a politically motivated witch hunt.

A Manhattan jury agreed with the prosecutors that Trump’s reimbursements to his lawyer for an alleged “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels amounted to fraudulent bookkeeping and 2016 election interference.

“I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG!” a fundraising email sent by Trump’s campaign after the verdict was announced. “But with your support at this moment in history, WE WILL WIN BACK THE WHITE HOUSE AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

For every count of the New York indictment, the GOP base will probably donate a million dollars to the Trump campaign, Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett told Politico on Thursday evening. A statement from the Trump campaign on Friday proved him correct, and then some.

“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic. President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small-dollar donors,” said campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. 

Read more

Trump speaks out after conviction: Live Updates

“Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donor’s were brand new donors to the WinRed platform,” they added. “Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats with their election interference political witch hunt have awakened the MAGA movement like never before.” 

The $34.8 million haul was “nearly double” the biggest ever recorded by the Trump campaign, Wiles and LaCivita added. WinRed was so overwhelmed by the new donors that it briefly crashed on Thursday evening.

According to Politico, Trump had only $49 million in cash at the end of April, compared to President Joe Biden’s $84 million war chest. US laws limit the maximum individual contribution to a campaign to $3,300.

Trump’s verdict makes him the first-ever US president to be convicted of a felony. Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled the sentencing hearing for July 11, the eve of the Republican National Convention. Trump faces up to four years in prison for each charge, but his campaign has said he would appeal the verdict, and that the real judgment will be delivered by the American people at the ballot box on November 5.