Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee has announced that, in the 24 hours since the former president got indicted by a New York grand jury, his 2024 presidential campaign has raised over $4 million.
This outpouring of donations is, according to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s political action committee, a grassroots reaction by ordinary Americans outraged by the probe into the former president, which it described as a “witch-hunt.”
The PAC said in a statement Friday that since a grand jury empaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg voted on Thursday to indict the former president, his campaign has seen donations soar.
“This incredible surge of grassroots contributions confirms that the American people see the indictment of President Trump as a disgraceful weaponization of our justice system by a Soros-funded prosecutor,” the statement said, noting that over 25 percent came from first-time donors.
Trump’s campaign called Bragg’s investigation of the former president an “unprecedented political persecution” and “blatant interference” in the 2024 presidential election, with Trump being the leading Republican candidate.
Bragg has disputed the characterization of his probe as politically motivated. Leslie B. Dubeck, the general counsel for Bragg’s office, wrote a letter to top House Republican chairmen, denouncing what she called “baseless and inflammatory allegations that our investigation is politically motivated.”
The PAC pointed out that the former president’s campaign is largely being funded by smaller contributions and that this shows that the support he enjoys comes from ordinary Americans not special interest groups.Many of Trump’s supporters have referred to Bragg as a “Soros-funded prosecutor.” Billionaire financier George Soros contributed significantly to the Color of Change PAC, which endorsed Bragg in his campaign for Manhattan district attorney in 2021 and pledged over $1 million to back his campaign.
The “Soros-funded” label has been applied to Bragg for some time, though it has increasingly become the default descriptor since Trump’s indictment.
“Apparently, Soros-backed Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg is actually indicting my father,” the former president’s eldest son, Don Trump Jr., said in a video statement. “Let’s be clear, folks. This is like communist-level [expletive]. This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot … it would make them blush.”
Soros, for his part, has denied ever meeting Bragg or giving his election campaign any money.
“I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president,” Soros told Semafor.
Trump Indicted
The grand jury empaneled by Bragg voted on Thursday to indict Trump on allegations linked to a business records investigation related to a “hush money” payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 over an alleged affair Trump has denied.
Trump is the first-ever U.S. president to face criminal charges.
Joe Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, told The Epoch Times that the former president is expected to be in New York City next week for arraignment, with April 4 floated as a possible date.
Legal analysts have said that Trump’s defense lawyers are likely to raise a number of issues when he’s arraigned, including that the statute of limitations bars the alleged charges and that the case is based on a faulty legal theory.
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr has criticized the indictment, calling it a “disgrace” and a “political hit job.”
In an interview at the National Review Institute Ideas Summit, Barr said he saw the case against Trump as prosecutorial abuse and as “pathetically weak.”
“Judging from the news reports … it’s the archetypal abuse of the prosecutorial function to engage in a political hit job, and it’s a disgrace,” Barr said when asked to comment on the case.
Barr added that he believes Bragg is misapplying federal law related to campaign finance in pressing ahead with the charges.
“On the federal issue, they’ve gotten the statute completely wrong, in my mind, and I don’t think the Department [of Justice] would support this interpretation of the statute that they’re taking, which is that paying … hush money is a campaign contribution,” he said.
The grand jury in Manhattan has been probing whether any crimes were committed in arranging or booking the alleged hush money payments to Daniels, though the specific charges remain under seal.
Trump has insisted that he’s “a completely innocent person” and that the indictment is the latest in a line of actions meant to “destroy” his Make America Great Again movement.
First published in The Epoch Times