Roger Sollenberger

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyDonald Trump’s legal payroll is easily the largest and most diverse of any political figure in modern U.S. history. But while most of the attorneys that Trump’s various fundraising committees have paid over the years are a matter of public record, one of the top recipients still poses a mystery—with more than $8 million in legal costs going to an unknown firm, or firms, through what appears to be a corporate intermediary.Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the arrangement masks the true recipients of a significant amount of Trump’s legal bills, depriving the public of that information while possibly running afoul of federal law. And the unprecedented structure of those payments, the experts said, potentially violates the ban on corporate contributions.For the last 15 months, five of Trump’s political committees, including his 2024 campaign, have paid about $8 million in combined legal costs to a curious recipient: Red Curve Solutions, the firm that handles their political accounting.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyPay Dirt is a weekly foray into the pigpen of political funding. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.As Donald Trump’s first criminal trial begins on Monday, the former president’s defenders have been lodging a familiar list of complaints about why the case against him is misguided and unfair.Trump’s case—stemming from a six-figure hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 election—prompted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. to bring 34 felony counts against the former president related to falsifying business records, after he allegedly tried to cover up those payments.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesFor nearly a year, two of the loudest members of Congress—Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)—have quietly pursued a First Amendment lawsuit in California, as Politico recently revealed, with essentially no public spectacle, statements, or fundraising solicitations.But perhaps most curiously, none of their political committees have reported any legal expenses connected to the lawsuit in the nine months since it was filed—and now, one of the attorneys on the case is facing disbarment.Gaetz and Greene filed the lawsuit in July, seeking judgment against two California cities and a group of left-leaning nonprofits over a canceled political event during a fundraising tour in the summer of 2021. The plaintiffs include Gaetz and Greene in their official congressional capacities, along with their campaign committees and their joint fundraising group, “Put America First,” which put on the 2021 tour. The parties filed the suit “on behalf of themselves and the prospective attendees at their July 17, 2021 scheduled political rally.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesPay Dirt is a weekly foray into the pigpen of political funding. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Thursday.As the impeachment inquiry into the Biden family’s business dealings came crashing down around his ears, House Oversight chair James Comer—who for months has made overblown claims about the Bidens’ limited liability companies—was launching an opaque new LLC of his own.Comer registered the new company, called “Gamaliel Stargazer LLC,” in Kentucky on March 14, as House Republicans were scrambling to find a way to end their disastrous impeachment probe with dignity.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/GettyOne of the most powerful corporate entities in the country, which has a number of controversial ties to China, appears to have been providing a passive revenue stream to an influential Republican senator for years.Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who sits on the powerful Finance Committee and chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, has deep ties to Oracle, dating back to his life as a private sector entrepreneur. Those relationships continued while Daines was in office, reaping hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from the Austin, Texas-based software and analytics giant.Today, Oracle is at the center of the complex but heated national political debate about TikTok and its relationship with the Chinese government, with its $1 billion TikTok data management contract playing a key role in the controversy. While the TikTok discourse has dominated the national stage lately, that contract is just the tip of the iceberg for Oracle, a powerful beltway player that has seen a number of recent scandals—including deadly failures from a Veterans Administration project and ties to dicey security contractors in China.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyHouse Republican leaders behind the sputtering impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday to iron out alleged “inconsistencies” in witness testimony. But they might want to start with the witness the GOP impeachment team has cited as their “most credible by far.”Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski has provided testimony riddled with inconsistencies, including statements that contradict claims in the FBI’s write-up of their interview with him just ahead of the 2020 election.In closed-door testimony last month, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pressed Bobulinski on those statements, according to a transcript. In response, Bobulinski blamed other people for lying or getting it wrong: the FBI agents who wrote up the interview, old business associates, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, and reporters at The Wall Street Journal.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Animation by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyAfter years of accusations of financial mismanagement, the Republican National Committee is overhauling its 2024 election operations—a full-on MAGA makeover that the RNC claims will curb excessive spending and steer as much money as possible to supporting Donald Trump’s campaign.But it appears that one of those strategic spending moves may have a profound effect on a successful minority outreach program, which two people with knowledge of the plans characterized as self-defeating, potentially erasing gains with groups of gettable new voters who have cooled on the Democratic Party.As one of the sources put it to The Daily Beast, the tagline might as well be, “Make the RNC White Again.”Read more at The Daily Beast.