Trump supporters harassed Biden-Harris 2:21 campaign bus
(CNN) -
Former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party reimbursed nearly $ 13 million to 2020 campaign donors in the first half of the year, after implementing fundraising tactics that tricked them into giving more money from what they intended or believed they were contributing,
The New York Times reported.
What's more, that outlet reported on Saturday that Trump's reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee (RNC), and their shared accounts have reimbursed more than $ 135 million to donors from 2020 through June of 2021.
A
New York Times
investigation
published months ago found that Trump's political operation last year automatically enrolled his donors online for recurring donations every week until Election Day.
Donors had to manually uncheck a box on digital donation forms if they wanted to opt out of the weekly donation, the newspaper reported.
A second preselected option was withdrawing another donation.
The Trump campaign made the disclaimer "increasingly opaque" by enclosing it between bold and capitalized text, according to the newspaper.
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The tactic led to demands for reimbursement from supporters.
And also to a large number of credit card fraud complaints,
The New York Times reported
.
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The process of returning funds
The New York Times reported, citing recently released Federal Election Commission records, that of the $ 12.8 million in refunds issued this year, $ 8.1 million came from Trump and the RNC's shared account, $ 8.1 million. 2.2 million from Trump's reelection committee and $ 2.5 million from the RNC.
The newspaper previously reported that Trump's political operation and the RNC reimbursed $ 122 million, or more than 10% of what it raised in 2020 through WinRed, which processes donations online for Republicans.
By comparison, President Joe Biden's committees repaid more than 2% of what they raised online last year through the Democratic donation processing site, ActBlue, the same newspaper reported.
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According to
The New York Times
, Republicans using WinRed continue to implement the pre-checked box for online donations, including Trump's political action committee, Save America.
Democrats, by contrast, have taken action to stop using that tactic.
Defending Trump's team
The Trump campaign has previously defended its tactics online.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for the campaign, told
The New York Times
that less than 1% of transactions, about 200,000, were the subject of credit card disputes last year.
Miller did not respond to refunds issued this year.
ANALYSIS |
Trump's $ 100 Million Threat to Democracy
Four Democratic attorneys general from the states of New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Minnesota are examining the fundraising practices of WinRed and ActBlue.
WinRed sued last month in Minnesota to stop the investigations, arguing that its activities are governed by federal law, not state consumer protection laws.
He called the investigations "illegal, partisan and hypocritical."
CNN's Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
Donald Trump 2020 United States elections