The wife of an investor has launched a GoFundMe to help fund former President Trump’s mounting legal expenses in the wake of Friday’s verdict in the New York fraud case.
The GoFundMe has a goal of $355 million — the amount that Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay in penalties in a civil fraud case. As of Saturday night, the GoFundMe had already raised more than $185,000 from some 4,000 donors.
With interest, Trump and his business could pay more than $450 million, according to the New York attorney general’s office.
The online fundraiser was started by Elena Cardone, the wife of investor Grant Cardone, an entrepreneur and investor.
“I stand unwaveringly with President Donald Trump in the face of what I see as unprecedented and unfair treatment by certain judicial elements in New York,” Elena Cardone wrote on the GoFundMe page.
She continued, “The recent legal battles he faces are not just an attack on him, but an attack on the very ideals of fairness and due process that every American deserves.”
The Friday financial penalty comes shortly after Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million when a judge determined last month that Trump defamed writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million last year.
Trump’s attorneys slammed the Friday verdict, calling it a “politically fueled witch hunt,” and said the former president will appeal the ruling.