GOP megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson together contributed a half a million dollars last year to a legal defense fund set up for Trump aides swept up in the Russia investigation, tax filings released Thursday evening revealed.
The contributions — 250,000 from each spouse — were the only ones made to the Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust in the last quarter of 2018. Previous tax filings show that Trump allies including Geoffrey Palmer, Phillip Ruffin and Anthony Lomangino contributed tens of thousands of dollars earlier this year.
The most recent filing shows various law firms receiving funds. Among them are Jones Day, which received more than $10,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018; Mintz Levin, which received some $54,000; King & Spalding which received $40,000, and Berliner Corcoran & Rowe, which received nearly $33,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The fund was set up last year to help pay the Russia probe-related legal bills for those who worked for President Trump’s campaign, transition and White House. It will not be used to pay for lawyers for Trump’s immediate family, according to a filing with the Office of Government Ethics, nor for lawyers for the campaign itself.
See the fund’s latest tax filing below:
