title:  The Trump Campaign Paid Don Jr’s Lawyer A Vast Amount Of Money Just Before Scandal Broke (IMAGES)
text: Donald Trump s allies would very much like the RNC to cover the legal costs of retaining attorneys amid the inquiries into whether the campaign colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 election. It appears, though, that the alleged president s reelection campaign has already paid a legal firm $50,000 and that was just two weeks before Donald Trump Jr. s email scandal broke.Trump s reelection campaign (that s kind of funny considering that it s hard to determine if the former reality show star will last even a year in office at this point) paid $50,000 to the law offices of Alan Futerfas on June 26, according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission.The Daily Beast reports:On July 11, the New York Times revealed the contents of a June 2016 email exchange in which Trump Jr., through an associate, solicited damaging information about 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton.Just a day earlier, he had enlisted the services of Futerfas, who is best known for representing four of New York s major Italian mob families. The announcement of the hire came not from the Trump campaign but from the president s company, where Trump Jr. remains a trustee.Perhaps this is why the amateur president holds so many rallies even though he just got into office. Donations pour in from his gullible supporters and now, his own fans are paying the legal fees   presumably for his son s scandal.Drip, drip, drip:The Trump campaign s FEC filing shows significant expenditures on legal representation as it wades through scrutiny involving alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. As part of that investigation, the FBI is examining whether the Trump campaign guided Russian disinformation efforts aimed at key voting precincts.The consulting firm owned by Brad Parscale, the former Trump campaign digital director at the center of that controversy, received more than $2 million in payments from the campaign in the second quarter.The name of the committee: Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.The Trump campaign began paying Don Jr's lawyer about two weeks before the email story broke, per new FEC filing pic.twitter.com/F0ifZ3q2Xw  Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 15, 2017The campaign is also paying the Trump Corp. for legal consulting, a new category of campaign-to-Trump company payments as best I can tell pic.twitter.com/J6Smlw6ItI  Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 15, 2017The filing also shows that the campaign settled on a new vendor for legal consulting services: the Trump Corporation. So, it appears that Trump is profiting from his own scandal. According to the filing, the campaign paid the company nearly $90,000 three days after its payment to Futerfas.Trump claims to know nothing about the meeting his son took with a Kremlin-connected lawyer. That meeting was set up to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. Jared Kushner, Trump s son-in-law, and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, attended the meeting at Trump Tower. 5 others attended, including Russians. Junior keeps changing his story but it s all coming out in the wash. We re sure Mr. Mueller is taking notes.And none of this looks suspicious at all (wink wink).Photo by John Moore/Getty Images