By Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said on Monday they had raised $141 million in May, nearly doubling the previous month’s haul thanks to an outpouring of support following his conviction.
The total includes the $53 million the Trump campaign says it raised in the 24 hours after a New York jury convicted the former president of falsifying company records in connection with a payoff to silence a porn star on the eve of the 2016 presidential elections. Trump had denied all allegations.
For months, Trump and his allies had worked to portray the prosecution in New York as politically motivated and orchestrated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, even though there is no evidence that Biden played any role in the case at the state level.
In a statement, the campaign and the RNC said the fundraiser showed that supporters saw through “the sham trial against Biden” and that the verdict “outraged and motivated Americans from all walks of life.”
Until recent months, Biden’s reelection campaign had routinely surpassed Trump’s in fundraising ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Trump first raised Biden in April, raising $76 million.
The Biden campaign has not yet announced May’s fundraising total.
The Trump campaign and RNC said they received more than two million donations in May, averaging $70.27 each. It said a quarter of the month’s donors were giving money for the first time this election cycle.
The numbers won’t be confirmed until filings are submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Conn.; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington)
