Donors contributing to President Trump’s re-election campaign have indirectly given nearly $100,000 to a lawyer representing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, against a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee, ABC News reported Friday.
Campaign finance records confirm Winston & Strawn LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Chicago, received two payments totaling $97,904 in December 2018 by Donald J. Trump For President, Inc.
ABC News reported that the expenditures were payments to Abbe Lowell, a lawyer at Winston & Strawn representing Mr. Kusher, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
“This legal work was performed on behalf of the Trump campaign to assist them in defending against a baseless and political case brought by the DNC,” said Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Mr. Lowell.
“All campaigns and business cover the legal expenses of people working for them when sued,” Mr. Mirijanian said in a statement, ABC News reported. “Mr. Kushner has personally paid all of his separate legal fees to date.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign declined to comment, the report said.
Mr. Kushner, 38, married the president’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, in 2009. He later served on Mr. Trump’s campaign prior to ultimately joining the administration as a senior White House adviser.
The son of a wealthy former real-estate developer, Mr. Kushner’s net worth has been estimated at upwards of $300,000, the ABC News report noted.
DNC computers were hacked during the 2016 presidential race, and stolen emails were subsequently leaked online in the months and weeks prior Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s defeat to Mr. Trump.
Federal intelligence and law enforcement officials have blamed the DNC breach on Russian hackers and believe that both the theft and dissemination of the stolen emails were done as part of state-sponsored attempt to interfere in the election.
The Department of Justice is investigating the breach as part of a broader probe of allegations involving the 2016 race, including possible collusion between the Russian government and Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
Lawyers for the DNC have separately filed a civil lawsuit in D.C. federal court against more than a dozen individuals, including Mr. Kushner, alleged to have participated in a supposed conspiracy targeting Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
Mr. Lowell wrote a motion to dismiss the lawsuit entered on behalf by Mr. Kusher in December 2018, shortly before both expenditures were paid.
The DNC’s complaint “does not contain a single factual allegation implicating Kushner in the alleged wrongdoing,” Mr. Lowell argued at the time.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has listed payments in the past to lawyers representing people close to the president, ABC News noted, including $173,000 paid to a firm that that represented Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s former election campaign manager, and more than $101,000 to a firm that represents Mr. Trump’s security team.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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