A charity that was created just to help those who were charged with crimes in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, is providing funds for some of the co-defendants involved in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The Courage Under Fire Legal Defense Fund is a project of the nonprofit group, Personnel Policy Operations. It has provided legal funding to the co-defendants and has been recommending people for a potential second Trump White House stint, the Washington Post reported.
Several PPO staffers have worked under Mr. Trump, including the group’s president, Troup Hemenway. Other officials include Joshua Whitehouse, who served in the Department of Agriculture, Homeland Security and the Department of Defense in the Trump administration, and Joe Guy, who worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Those who have received money include John Eastman, a lawyer who advised Trump’s campaign to reject the electoral votes, Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who tried to delegitimize the 2020 election results, Mike Roman, the former Trump campaign official who was responsible for coordinating the alternate electors who were pro-Trump, and Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser who is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for not complying with a congressional subpoena.
“I’m dealing with millions of dollars in legal fees. I suppose if I had a billionaire hanging out ready to help, that would be nice, but that’s not the world in which we live,” Mr. Eastman, who is being prosecuted in Arizona and charged in Georgia as part of the big racketeering case in Fulton County, told the Post.
“One of the things that people need to be concerned about in taking on a role in any administration is if they’re going to end up with a big target on their back,” he said. “Knowing that people will stand up to help defend you makes it easier for people to be willing to take on those roles.
The fund has offered up roughly $3.2 million, with help from Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn. PPO’s legal fund also supplements a separate group, the Patriot Defense Fund, which was formed to cover legal fees for Mr. Trump. The Georgia GOP also covers some fees for defendants.
“Many of us have been targeted, and in our bones we all get what motivates someone to want to serve, to work, to die for our country,” PPO co-founder and former general counsel Andrew Kloster told the outlet. “It’s about the willingness to stand with someone at what’s often the most difficult time in their life — and not abandon them.”
Officials from PPO are said to be in regular contact with the Trump campaign, although the groups’ activities are separate and unsanctioned.