Two of the president’s lawyers made large contributions to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before the start of Trump’s impeachment trial.
According to the Center For Responsive Politics:
Former independent counsels Ken Starr and Robert Ray, who investigated then-President Bill Clinton around the time of his impeachment, each made large campaign contributions to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) last year before joining Trump’s legal team.
Starr, who on Monday lambasted what he called the “age of impeachment†before the Senate, gave $2,800 to McConnell in July 2019. Just after House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry in September, Ray gave McConnell $5,600, the maximum allowed for the primary and general elections. OpenSecrets couldn’t identify any other federal contributions from the two during the 2020 cycle.
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The contributions were seized on by one of the Democrats running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Amy McGrath:
Mitch recently took $8,400 in campaign contributions from two of the impeachment defense attorneys. Now, he's returning the favor by keeping witnesses from testifying in the trial.
This is the pay-to-play swamp that Mitch created. #SenatorForSale https://t.co/dkRVjDh8FB
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) January 31, 2020
Kentucky’s Republican voters who don’t like McConnell, but vote for him anyway, won’t be swayed by such obvious corruption, but McConnell made it clear that the fix was in long before the impeachment trial began.
The trial was always going to be sham for political reasons, but that didn’t stop Trump’s lawyers from spending some cash to make sure that the dirty deal got done.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association