Legal defense funds for Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin have raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in the months after President Donald Trump accused them of sedition, “punishable by death.”
The Senator Mark Kelly Legal Defense Fund raised about $530,000 from December through March, according to IRS financial documents obtained by NOTUS.
The Senator Slotkin Legal Defense Fund raised over $400,000 since the beginning of the year, another document obtained by NOTUS shows. The fund has grown since December, when it raised over $100,000 in a month.
Trump’s accusations came after Slotkin and Kelly in November appeared in a video alongside other Democratic lawmakers urging the military to refuse illegal orders.
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Kelly and Slotkin both created their funds in December. Following Trump’s sedition accusation, the Department of Justice subsequently launched an investigation, but in February, federal prosecutors dropped their case against the two senators after a grand jury declined to sign off on an indictment.
The Department of Defense separately began investigating Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, but a federal judge blocked the Pentagon from further action against him.
Oral arguments are scheduled for May 7 for a lawsuit Kelly filed, Kelly v. Hegseth, against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his attempt to censure Kelly, accusing him of “reckless misconduct.”
The influx of cash to Kelly’s fund came from political action committees affiliated with Kelly himself and a roster of fellow Democratic senators.
They include Sens. Mark Warner, Alex Padilla, Amy Klobuchar, Martin Heinrich, Patty Murray, Brian Schatz, Maggie Hassan, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Luján, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Jack Reed, Tammy Duckworth, Chris Van Hollen, Catherine Cortez Masto, Tammy Baldwin, Ron Wyden, Ruben Gallego, Dick Durbin and Angela Alsobrooks. Slotkin’s leadership PAC donated, too.
Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, horror movie executive producer Charles Layton, former CEO of Intuit and PayPal Bill Harris, venture capitalist Jim Swartz and British American businesswoman Lynn Forester de Rothschild all donated to Kelly’s fund, according to the IRS documents.
“Senator Kelly is fighting back to protect the free speech rights of millions of veterans and all Americans from this administration,” Kelly’s spokesperson, Jacob Peters, told NOTUS in a statement.
The documents for Kelly’s fund did not indicate that the fund had spent any money on legal fees, though a spokesperson for Kelly said the fund will spend a considerable amount on legal counsel in the future. So far, most of the expenditures by the Senator Mark Kelly Legal Defense Fund went toward fundraising consulting from the Wilson Strategies firm and credit card processing fees with Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.
Slotkin’s fund received donations from several of the same PACs that Kelly’s fund did — plus one affiliated with independent Sen. Angus King and another affiliated with Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy.
Filmmaker and actor Paul Feig, billionaire hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel Jr., investment firm president William von Mueffling, Wall Street trader Andrew Beck III and several philanthropists donated to Slotkin’s fund, as well.
The majority of her fund’s expenses went toward legal fees with two law firms, WilmerHale and Elias Law Group. The Elias Law Group is led by high-profile Democratic lawyer Marc Elias.
Representatives for Slotkin and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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