Two major donors of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spent $700,000 to hunt down anyone who would accuse her former Republican rival, Donald Trump, of sexual misconduct before the 2016 presidential election.
David Brock and Susie Tompkins Buell, who are both key left-wing political operatives and Hillary Clinton backers, shelled out six-figure amounts to frame Trump and ruin his chances for the presidency.
“[T]wo Democrats familiar with the arrangements [to fund a campaign to find Trump accusers] said a nonprofit group founded by Mr. Brock, American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, gave $200,000, while the fashion entrepreneur Susie Tompkins Buell, a major donor to Mr. Brock’s suite of groups, gave $500,000 to Ms. Bloom’s firm for the last-ditch effort,” the New York Times reported.
Character assassination cash
Brock and Buell joined a concerted legal effort – complete with soliciting a handful of sexual harassment accusers – to down Trump before Election Day.
“A well-known women’s rights lawyer sought to arrange compensation from donors and tabloid media outlets for women who made or considered making sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump during the final months of the 2016 presidential race, according to documents and interviews,” The Hill divulged. “California lawyer Lisa Bloom’s efforts included offering to sell alleged victims’ stories to TV outlets in return for a [33-percent] commission for herself, arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempting to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who ultimately declined to come forward after being offered as much as $750,000.”
The campaign was clearly orchestrated by Bloom – the daughter of feminist lawyer Gloria Allred – to assist PACs in their character assassination attempts specifically geared to ruin Trump and help Clinton get back into the White House.
“The women’s accounts were chronicled in contemporaneous contractual documents, emails and text messages reviewed by The Hill, including an exchange of texts between one woman and Bloom that suggested political action committees supporting Hillary Clinton were contacted during the effort,” The Hill’s John Solomon and Alison Spann reported.
Bloom has been found to be no stranger to making money off sexual misconduct suits – whether it is finding accusers or defending sexual abusers.
“Bloom, who has assisted dozens of women in prominent harassment cases and also defended film executive Harvey Weinstein earlier this year, represented four women considering making accusations against Trump last year,” Solomon and Spann added. “Two went public, and two declined.”
Legal opportunist?
The leftist attorney initially decided to take advantage of the lucrative opportunity to frame Trump right after he was declared the Republican presidential nominee.
“She said she reached out to a pro-Clinton ‘super PAC’ – though she declined to identify which one – for money to help her vet a sexual misconduct claim against Mr. Trump,” the Times’ Kenneth P. Vogel explained. “That case collapsed one week before Election Day, but as a result of the attention it generated, several donors reached out to Ms. Bloom ‘asking how they could help,’ she said. She told them that she was working with ‘a few other women’ who might ‘find the courage to speak out’ against Mr. Trump if the donors would provide funds for security, relocation and possibly a ‘safe house.’”
Even though Bloom refused to identify the donors, Brock and Buell’s involvement was soon exposed, but their funding to pay for the expenses to secure the solicited Trump accusers did not get the results they were looking for, resulting in partial refunds.
“It was not productive,” Vogul informed. “One woman requested $2 million, Ms. Bloom said, then decided not to come forward. Nor did any other women. Ms. Bloom said she refunded most of the cash, keeping only ‘some funds to pay for our out-of-pocket expenses’ accrued while working to vet and prepare cases.”
The denying game
Bloom denied that she cashed on the legal effort to bury Trump and also refused to admit that Hillary was in on the smear campaign.
“She said that she did not receive any legal fees for the work, and that she did not communicate with Mrs. Clinton or her campaign ‘on any of this,’” Vogel noted. “She said she represented only clients whose stories she had corroborated, and disputed the premise that she offered money to coax clients to come forward.”
The controversial attorney insisted that any money she took was to provide protection for Trump’s potential accusers.
“It doesn’t cost anything to publicly air allegations,” Bloom asserted, according to the Times. “Security and relocation are expensive and were sorely needed in a case of this magnitude – in a country filled with so much anger, hate and violence.”
Progressive colleagues of Bloom’s, however, do not corroborate her story on her firm’s handling of the funds.
“[B]ut Democrats familiar with the firm’s financial arrangements said otherwise,” Breitbart reported. “They said Bloom’s firm refunded Buell’s money but pocketed the money from American Bridge.”
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