The Washington Post: Trump’s zombie claim that Obama spent $4 million to conceal school and passport records

Most legal fees paid by a presidential campaign are for compliance review, vetting strategies, contributions and other activities, said Larry Noble, senior counsel at the nonpartisan campaign finance reform group Campaign Legal Center and former FEC general counsel: “You have to look at it [a presidential campaign] as a highly regulated business that is dealing with millions of dollars, and they have their lawyers involved in every part of it. … If they spent $4 million on legal fees, there’s no way that the Obama birth certificate issue represented all the work they did. … There’s so much more going on in a campaign.”

What about Trump’s challenge to Obama? Noble said offsetting a political campaign’s legal fees with an individual’s donation would have been a campaign finance violation. Trump’s $5 million would have far exceeded the $2,500 campaign contribution limit for an individual, if he gave it to Obama for America. Noble said it is questionable whether a political campaign could legally do something (i.e., disclose documents) in turn for donations to a charity.

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