This story reminds me of a tabloid headline years ago that screamed: “DONOR WANTS KIDNEY BACK!”
A big donor to Trump’s election fraud lawsuits wants his money back because, he says, he was defrauded by Trump’s fraudulent election fraud claims. To wit:
“A major contributor to … Trump’s fight to overturn the presidential election sued to recover $2.5 million in donations after the campaign failed in several court cases and was unable to prove any fraud,” Huffington Post reported on Thanksgiving, November 26, 2020. (Read story here.)
Fred Eshelman (photo), a South Carolina entrepreneur who started several pharmaceutical companies, filed the lawsuit in a Texas federal court against True the Vote (TTV), a group devoted to overturning the 2020 election, after they refused to return his donations.
According to the lawsuit, TTV allegedly promised “to keep him informed of how his millions were being used in what was pitched as a strong case against alleged election fraud. Instead … he was fed ‘vague responses, platitudes and empty promises of follow-up.'”
His complaint continues, “He was kept in the dark when weak cases filed in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania were voluntarily withdrawn in a decision the investor claimed was made in concert with counsel for the Trump campaign,” who are batting roughly 1-for-40 in the courts so far — because they have no evidence of election fraud, because there wasn’t any election fraud, and while lawyers can lie about things like that in press conferences and fundraising appeals, they’ll get in ethics trouble if they do it in court.
The complaint continues, “In the Wisconsin case, Republican powerhouse attorney James Bopp promised that ‘evidence will be shortly forthcoming.’ But Bopp withdrew the case last week just hours before scheduled oral arguments without ever providing a shred of evidence.”
Now, I can’t predict what a judge might do with this complaint. However, I can suggest a few defenses TTV might try out in court (i.e., throwing arguments at the wall to see if any stick):
- Caveat emptor.
- There’s a sucker born every minute.
- A fool and his money are soon parted.
- Contributory negligence; i.e., believing Trump is like walking in front of a car.
You probably get my drift by now: I have no sympathy for a reactionary who “doesn’t suffer fools” in the business world (see story here) but is willing to spend millions to subvert our democracy. There simply shouldn’t be a legal remedy in the courts for getting ripped off that way.
P.S., I suspect what he’s really upset about is being made to look like a credulous fool (which he is, by the way) by a pack of vulture lawyers, because $2.5 million is pocket change to this guy. Too bad. He shouldn’t have stuck his head in the lion’s mouth.
P.P.S., if you have a couple million burning a hole in your pocket, and like Eshelman are eager to turn America into a banana republic, feel free to donate it to TTV here:
DONATE
Instructions: Fill in the required info (name, address, credit card #, etc.), click on “Other”, and enter $2500000.00 or whatever amount you wish to contribute. If you enter one or two too many zeroes, too bad, that’s on you. Donations are NOT refundable.