tRump's Inauguration Donor Pool Includes $50 Million in Contributions from Corporations Under Investigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corporations facing federal investigations or enforcement lawsuits collectively gave $50 million to Trump’s inauguration – a third of the corporate inauguration donations.

Public Citizen cross-referenced new inauguration donor data (as shown below) with corporations listed in our Corporate Enforcement Tracker database, and found 58 corporations which include crypto companies, oil and auto industries, Big Pharma, tech companies, Wall Street hedge funds and more, faced at least 88 federal enforcement actions when Trump took office. Cases against 11 of these corporations have already been dismissed or withdrawn, and six have been halted.

Public Citizen Researcher Rick Claypool says these corporation donations may serve as down payments for pardons or decisions to drop enforcement actions.

“Corporations facing federal lawsuits and investigations aren’t giving millions to Trump’s inauguration out of the kindness of their hearts,” said Claypool. “They are trying to buy good will. And when you’re a corporation under investigation or facing prosecution, that means the government dropping enforcement actions against you. In some cases, it may even mean receiving pardons in cases in which guilty pleas have already been entered, or retractions of settlements already entered into.

https://www.citizen.org/news/trumps-corporate-inauguration-donor-pool-littered-with-federal-investigations-enforcement-lawsuits/