Republicans are asking donors for at least $60 million to fund legal challenges brought by President Donald Trump over the U.S. presidential election’s results, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in several states following Tuesday’s election pitting the president against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
“They want $60 million,” said a Republican donor who received solicitations from the campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The two sources spoke to Reuters about the requests for money on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The Trump campaign and the RNC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since voting ended on Tuesday, the Trump campaign has sent out email and text solicitations alleging foul play and seeking donations.
The call for funds comes as the Trump and Biden campaigns gird for a potentially protracted legal fight over the election.
Trump campaign senior advisor David Bossie, who leads conservative advocacy group Citizens United, has been chosen to lead the post-election legal challenges, according to a source familiar with Trump’s campaign strategy.
The campaign has lost court rulings in closely contested states, including Georgia, but scored a legal win in Pennsylvania on Friday, when a court ordered election officials to set aside provisional ballots cast on Election Day by voters whose absentee or mail-in ballots were received on time.
Biden inched closer to a potential victory on Friday as he took narrow leads over Trump in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia three days after polls closed.
Trump, who started the race with a strong financial advantage, ended his campaign struggling to keep up with the Biden fundraising juggernaut.
Biden raised about $130 million during the Oct. 1-14 period, about three times the roughly $44 million raised by Trump’s campaign, according to the candidates’ most recent disclosures with the Federal Election Commission.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Aram Roston; additional reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Simon Lewis; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)
