Trump campaign announces $35M fundraising haul after guilty verdict

The Trump campaign brought in roughly $35 million after former President Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts in a New York hush money trial Thursday, as his campaign argues the verdict supercharged support among grassroots donors.

“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small dollar donors,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a joint statement Friday.

The campaign said the fundraising total broke the campaign’s previous record for small-dollar donations in a day. LaCivita and Wiles said nearly 30 percent of the donors following the verdict were new to the WinRed platform, which is used by Republican candidates for fundraising.

“President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country,” the two aides said. “President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict.”

Trump on Thursday was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first former president to be convicted of a felony. The 12-person jury in the hush money trial returned its verdict late Thursday afternoon, after deliberations lasting approximately 11 hours.

Trump had pleaded not guilty, denying wrongdoing related to the payments or that the affair they were alleged to be covering up ever happened. He is expected to appeal the verdict.

But his campaign and his allies were quick to try to turn outrage over the verdict into a fundraising boost. Campaign aides and contenders to be Trump’s running mate shared a fundraising link on social media, urging supporters to give.

Trump’s WinRed page crashed shortly after he was convicted, an issue his campaign attributed to an influx of donations.

The former president has made it a habit of turning his legal problems into campaign fundraising pitches. He used his mug shot after his Georgia indictment last year to bring in millions of dollars in campaign cash.

Trump’s campaign trails the Biden campaign by millions of dollars in terms of cash on hand, but the former president’s operation outraised Biden in the month of April, as GOP donors coalesce behind him.