New federal filings show that President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is paying Donald Trump Jr.’s defense attorney. Just two weeks prior to the release of emails documenting Trump, Jr.s’ meeting with Kremlin-linked attorney Nataliya Veselnitskaya, Trump’s reelection campaign paid $50,000 to the law offices of Alan Futerfas, The Daily Beast reports. “Trump Jr. does not yet face any official allegations of legal wrongdoing, but he and the White House have scrambled to contain the political fallout from the controversy,” The Beast explained. “It was not immediately clear whether the campaign expenditure was remuneration for Futerfas’s representation of Trump’s son on Russia-related or other matters. But the payment sticks out on a presidential campaign’s expenditure list: Futerfas’s expertise is in white collar criminal defense, not political and election law.”
Meanwhile, Trump Jr. addressed the controversy, arguing that he “never meant to hide such information from the public,” but also that “the public has to understand that these sort of things are subject to various protocols set in place for the safety of the family.” “Believe me when I say that there are good times to be a Trump, but there are also some very, very bad times to be a member of this family. This just happens to be one of the latter. However, I’d like to add that there has never before been a case in American history where such a powerful family made it into the White House as a whole. Therefore, you can’t expect all of us to act differently all of a sudden just because one of us managed to get a hold of the presidency. The rest of us still have very important jobs to do, and doing business requires a lot of money nowadays.”
He continued on a slightly sharper note: “And by the way, while we’re on the subject, why would I or any other member of my family have to justify anything we do? Sure, our dad’s the president, so it’s expected that he’ll be ridiculed and scrutinized more than anyone in the country, and we’re okay with that. What’s more, we’d be worried if all that somehow didn’t come with the territory. After all, it’s the job of the president to be held accountable for pretty much everything that happens in the country. On the other hand, the rest of us are there to help the guy, of course, but that doesn’t mean we need to stop being who we are or doing what we love. So what if my lawyer got paid with 2020 campaign money? It’s our money anyways and we’re allowed to do whatever we want with it. That was a perfectly legitimate move and anyone who says otherwise is delusional.”
“Besides, there’s a very obvious reason why I haven’t done anything wrong. If, God forbid, something bad should strike my father down, I will be the first in line to, how should I put this – succeed the throne. If he dies or becomes unfit for duty for some reason, I’ll be the next president, which means I’ll be the one running for presidency in 2020, which, by default, makes me the sole owner and proprietor of everything. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter where the money comes from as long as it keeps coming and there are no questions asked. Besides, I had a significant role in the preparation of the 2020 campaign, so I should at the very least have a say when it comes to who gets to do what with the money. That’s just the way the world works,” he concluded.
