they can mount quickly and far exceed a salary they are earning. unless they came to the government, they are going to have a hard time paying those fees and be very dependent on anyone who offers to help them out, which is where you have the concern. is this already a done deal, that the president would make this offer or does it have to go through the government of ethics first, for approval? there s mystery about what s going on with the legal defense funds. at one point, oge fiddled with some of the guidance after i left on legal defense funds. when they got negative attention, they recoiled saying they are not changing anything. when you reads the news stories about the president offering to contribute this money, they are talking about a single pooled fund for multiple white house apain tees. that s a very different approach than has been done in the past where there would be one fund
hitting deep into the hearts of the trump administration. you know, when it comes to using campaign funds, which larry craig learned for legal defense funds, it s really important that the candidate or the office holder first request clearance from the federal election commission for the use of those campaign funds. the fa krrc and if they determi donald junior wasn t really involved in the whole affair when it comes to the campaign, then this would have been an illegal use of campaign funds and the trump campaign as well as the rnc may well face legal ramifications for that. craig, let me ask you about one last piece of this and i, you know, i m only interested in this because i m suspicious of and have questions about an
there may indeed be a legal issue. you re very right to keep asking this question. you know, if donald junior was not involved in the campaign, which he isn t, it s possible that he that, you know, as a government advisor to donald trump they were somehow discussing the russian scandal and the russian probe. if that s the case, then the campaign funds could be used, but, you know, if that is the case, it s almost an admission that this whole russian probe is hitting deep into the hearts of the trump administration. you know, when it comes to using campaign funds, which larry craig learned for legal defense funds, it s really important that the candidate or the office holder first request clearance from the federal election commission for the use of those campaign funds.
to see if they instead want to pick this one other particular guy that works at the office. the trump administration then did exactly that, they picked that lower ranking staff who walter shaw warned explicitly should be expected to have a more pliable attitude on ethics toward this white house. that is the guy who s in charge of the ethics office now and he s revised the rules around legal defense funds for administration personnel. under the new interpretation of ethics rules around these things, mike pence and any other white house staff who needs to fund his legal defense hill be able to accept unlimb limited anonymous donations from lobbyists. what could possibly go wrong? i want lobbyists be able to fund it s the legal defense for white house officials facing the russia inquiry. tonight the administration announced that they do not want
defense funds for administration personnel under the new interpretation of ethics rules, mike pence and any other white house staffer that needs to fund the legal defense will be able to accept unlimited anonymous donations from lobbyists to defray any legal bills that arise out of these white house scandals. oh, good. what could possibly go wrong? if there is one thing for lobby ses lobb lobbyists to fund, it s the legal defense. tonight administration announced that they do not want this to be seen as a change in policy. i m sure they don t. but the out going director at the ethics office has been banging the drum over this for the last couple of days since they made this change warning that this really is a turn for the worse. today for the second time, we learned of a witness being called to testify before one of what we believe are the two grand juries convened by special