Eric Trumps wife and Donald Trump Jr.s girlfriend are on the 2020 campaign managers payroll at $15K a month – Raw Story

President Trumps campaign manager, Brad Parscale, has been paying $15,000 a month the equivalent of the top White House salary to Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle, the wife and girlfriend of Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., respectively, for campaign work.

This article was originally published at Salon

The payments, the existence of which was revealed in March by the New York Times, reportedly came through one of Parscales private companies, Parscale Strategy.

Lara Trump is a senior campaign adviser, and Guilfoyle, formerly a senior campaign adviser, is currently chair of Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising vehicle between the campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Its unclear why the campaign didnt pay the pair directly, but the payments would allow the campaign to sidestep federal electionrules that require it to publicly disclose all spending.

I can pay them however I want to pay them, Parscale told Huffington Post, which first revealed the amount of the payments.

Its unclear when the payments began, and though Huffington Post did not specify which of Parscales firms was making them, the Times report cited two sources that named Parscale Strategy. (Guilfoyle was reportedly overheard complaining to Parscale that her checks were late.)

These payments reveal how the murky web of campaign finance has become evenmurkier in the Trump era, and how easy it is to blur individual roles, organizational hierarchiesand payment flows to live between the famously fuzzy lines of federal electionlaw.

Parscale has also operatedat least two other firms: the now-defunct Giles-Parscale; and Red State Data and Digital, which has purposely ambiguous financial connections to the campaign and affiliated groups.

In 2017, the AP reported that Giles-Parscale (not Parscale Strategy) hadhired Lara Trump as a liaison, a job the Raleigh News & Observer later specified as comprising digital, fundraising, and merchandising efforts.

At the time, AP reported, Giles-Parscale was doing digital work for America First Policies, the dark-money affiliate of the America First Action Super PAC. Parscale along with Pence adviser Nick Ayers and Paul Manafort associate-cum-federal inmate Rick Gates had co-founded AFP in 2017, just before hiring Lara Trump. By the time Parscale left to become Trumpscampaign manager in February 2018, AFP had paid Parscale Strategy millions of dollars.

Its unclear whether Lara Trump left Giles-Parscale, but she received the alleged $15,000 monthly payments from Parscale Strategy separately. Parscale sold his half of Giles-Parscale for a reported $10 million in mid-2017. (The 2016 Trump campaign had paid the company $94 million.) Financial records from America First Policies do not show that the group made any payments to Giles-Parscale that year.

Parscale Strategy has since been paid more than $37.8 million from a range of clients, according to the ethics watchdog groupCREW, including the Trump campaign, the RNC, joint fundraising committeesand the America First Action Super PAC.

A third Parscale firm, Red State Data and Digital, has been paid a combined $3.3 million by America First Action and its dark-money affiliate America First Policies, according to CREW.

Lara Trumps $15,000 monthly payments float somewhere in the nexus between Parscale Strategy and its clients the Trump campaign, America First Action, the RNCand the nominally unaffiliated America First Policies.

Though America First Policies is legally barred from engaging in political activities, it shares offices and employees with America First Action, the Trump campaigns super PAC. Those two organizations have paid Red State Data and Digital (again, also a Parscale firm)a combined $3.3 million, CREW reported.They are apparently Red States only known clients.

Guilfoyle also has several direct connections to Parscales firms. CREW reported that in the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, America First Policies a Parscale client ran a series of digital ads featuring Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr.Those ads did not name candidates, but ran in locations where races were tight.

A former Fox News personality, Guilfoyle left the network in 2018. She began dating Donald TrumpJr. two years ago and began joining him at campaign events. In a 2019 press release, Parscale announcedthat Guilfoyle would join the Trump campaign as a senior adviser.

The RNC had paid Parscale Strategy millions for digital ads, payments it reportedly suspended at Parscales request in September of last year. In January of this year,Guilfoyle became the head of Trump Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee shared between the Trump campaign and the RNC.

The payment amount $15,000 a month also does not seem coincidental.

First, $15,000 a month, or$180,000 a year,is the top White House salary. The Trump administration pays more top White House salaries than previous administrations, and in another, possibly related, break with tradition, all Trump White House employees are presumed to have signed a non-disclosure agreement contingent upon their hiring. The Trump campaign also requires employees to sign NDAs.

In August 2018, former Trump adviser Omarosa Manigault-Newman released a tape of Lara Trump offering her $15,000 a month for a campaign job in December2017, immediately after Manigault left the White House. At the time, Lara Trump was an adviser to the campaign but had also reportedly been holding high-level meetings at the White House, a move experts believe is illegal. Manigault considered the proposed paymentto be hush money.

It sounds a little like, obviously, that there are some things youve got in the back pocket to pull out, Lara Trump said on the tape. Clearly, if you come on board the campaign, like, we cant have, we got to

Oh, God no, Manigault replied.

In another passage from the tape, Trump explains that the offer wasintended to reflect ManigaultsWhite House salary.

So, I know you, you were making 179 at the White House. And I think we can work something out where we keep you right along those lines, Trump said. Specifically, let me see, I havent even added up the numbers. But we were talking about, like, 15K a month. Let me see what that adds up to. Times 12. Yeah. So thats $180,000. Does that sound like a fair deal for you?

According to ABC News, either the Trump campaign, the RNCor America First Action are also paying former presidential security chief and Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller $15,000 a month for security services connected to the 2020 Republican National Convention. Another Trump adviser, John McEntee, who left the administration in 2018 because of a gambling addiction, was hired by the campaign at $14,000 a month hours after he walked out of the White House. The campaign also offered $15,000 a month to former ad director Gary Coby.

Trump reportedly charges donors $15,000 for a photo with him.

ABC News also reported that America First Action and the RNC paid Parscale 15 separate monthly installments of $15,000 betweenMarch 2017, when he first hired Lara Trump, and June 2018.

then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, weve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has cut advertising rates in half, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism and were investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You wont find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

Go here to see the original:

Eric Trumps wife and Donald Trump Jr.s girlfriend are on the 2020 campaign managers payroll at $15K a month - Raw Story