Former President Donald Trump's top campaign staffers have received pay boosts and other financial benefits amid his various criminal cases, according to a new report.
A ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings published Monday found that nine witnesses in the trial received "large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs and a grant of shares and cash from Trump's media company."
Among those witnesses are campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, whose pay reportedly more than doubled, campaign chief Susie Wiles, whose daughter was hired onto the campaign and is now the fourth-highest-paid employee, and Trump aide Margo Martin, who received a roughly 20 percent raise.
Wiles and Martin appeared before the grand jury in the federal classified documents case and were spotted at the New York City courthouse where Trump stood trial for almost seven weeks in the hush money case. Epshteyn, who testified in the Georgia election interference case, accompanied the presumptive Republican presidential nominee nearly every day, often sitting in the second row behind the defense table.
In response to questions from ProPublica, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung called the 2024 campaign "most well-run and professional operation in political history."
"Any false assertion that we're engaging in any type of behavior that may be regarded as tampering is absurd and completely fake," Cheung said in a statement.
The jury in Trump's hush money case trial handed down a guilty verdict on Thursday. The 12 jurors unanimously convicted the former president of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents in relation to payment that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.
The courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court became a revolving door for Trump allies, who flocked to New York from across the country to show their support. Those appearances included some of the nation's top Republicans, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, and several vice presidential contenders, including Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Also in attendance was longtime Trump aide Dan Scavino, who testified before the grand jury in the federal election interference case against Trump. Between being subpoenaed and testifying, Scavino was appointed to the board of Trump Media and "granted a $600,000 retention bonus and a $4 million 'executive promissory note' paid in shares," ProPublic reported. Scavino said the changes had "nothing to do with any investigation."
The publication also reported that monthly payments from the Trump campaign to Epshteyn's company, Georgetown Advisory, shot up from an average of $26,000 between November 2022 to August 2023 to $50,000 after Trump's August 14 indictment. Since October, his company has been receiving an average of $53,500 per month.
After Wiles testified, her political consulting firm reportedly received its highest-ever monthly payment from the Trump campaign in the amount of $75,000 and she received a 20 percent raise, which the campaign said was because she renegotiated her contract. In the months that followed, her daughter, Caroline, who had also previously worked for the Trump White House, was also hired by the campaign, where she makes $222,000 a year. Caroline said her hiring was not related to her mother.
Martin—who has drawn comparisons for being a Melania Trump lookalike, was also given a roughly 20 percent pay raise—from $155,000 to $185,000, months before her grand jury appearance, according to the Trump campaign.
Others who received financial benefits included Trump attorneys Jennifer Little and Evan Corcoran, whose law firms saw dramatic increases in payments from a Trump political action committee and Trump's campaign. Little received $218,000 from the PAC after testifying in the classified records case and Corcoran's firm received $786,000 from the campaign days after he testified as part of the same probe.
One of the biggest questions in the hush money trial was whether former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg would be called to testify. Cohen, who was a star witness in the case, testified that it was Weisselberg who drew up the number for the total $420,000 reimbursem*nt that The Trump Organization owed Cohen.
Weisselberg, who is in prison for perjury, never appeared on the stand. Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office pointed out that he received a $2 million severance agreement in January 2023. The agreement remains outstanding and Weisselberg was still due several payments at the time of the trial.
The Trump Organization has said it agreed to pay Weisselberg and former controller Jeffrey McConney severance "based on the number of years they worked at the company. President Trump played no role in that decision."
Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, told ProPublica that "It feels very shady, especially as you detect a pattern. ... I would worry about it having a corrupt influence," but that it would be a hard case to prove in court.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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