Trump impeachment: McConnell has received donations from defense team

McConnell has received campaign donations from Trump's impeachment defense team

Several members of President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team recently gave money to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's 2020 reelection campaign, a Courier Journal analysis of campaign finance data found.

Ken Starr, who famously prosecuted former President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial before joining Trump's team, gave the maximum individual contribution allowed — $2,800 — to the McConnell Senate Committee on July 31, 2019.

This wasn't Starr's first donation to McConnell, however. The lawyer and former Baylor University president is a longtime Republican who has given to every McConnell reelection campaign since 2002.

Another member of the president's impeachment defense team, Robert Ray, gave a total of $5,600 to the McConnell Senate Committee through two separate donations — one for the primary election, one for the general — on Sept. 30, 2019.

Ray, who succeeded Starr in his federal role as independent counsel and was involved in Clinton-related investigative work, did not donate to previous McConnell reelection efforts, according to campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission.

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The Republican-run Senate is in the midst of an impeachment trial, during which McConnell and other senators are tasked with deciding whether to acquit Trump of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress.

As the Senate's top official, McConnell is in a position to hold significant sway over this situation.

However, McConnell campaign manager Kevin Golden told The Courier Journal that these donations from Starr and Ray have not influenced the Senate majority leader's interactions with the Trump defense team.

"The absence of any adequate arguments by House impeachment managers seems to be playing a pretty meaningful role however," Golden wrote in an email.

Ray's donation came 12 days after The Washington Post broke news of a whistleblower complaint that Trump threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine until the country agreed to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of political rival and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The whistleblower complaint, which was filed on Aug. 12, 2019, and made to the inspector general of the intelligence community, kicked off a monthslong investigation into potential wrongdoing by the president.

The House of Representatives voted to pass two articles of impeachment in December 2019 and sent them to the Senate this month. Two weeks ago, the White House revealed who would represent Trump in the trial.

Before the House even voted on the impeachment articles, McConnell said in December that he would be in "total coordination with the White House counsel" for the trial — raising the eyebrows of Democratic opponents and a fellow GOP senator.

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McConnell also criticized the House's investigation into Trump as the "most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history" well before the president's defense team was assembled.

None of the other members of the Trump impeachment defense team has given to McConnell for his 2020 reelection bid. Only one member, Eric Herschman, joins Starr in having previously given to a McConnell reelection campaign committee.

McConnell has plenty of reasons to stand by Trump.

Like the president, Kentucky's longtime senator is up for reelection this year, and he's running to represent a state that supported Trump in a big way in the 2016 election.

McConnell also has established a partnership with Trump that led to the record-setting appointment of numerous conservative judges to federal benches around the country. The Senate has rapidly confirmed judicial candidates, including two U.S. Supreme Court justices, nominated by Trump's administration over the past few years.

That's a signature achievement for McConnell in his career as well as a central part of his reelection pitch, and he hasn't shown any interest in slowing down on that front.

McConnell has been clear from the outset that he doesn't see himself as an impartial juror and that he expects senators to address this impeachment along party lines.

"This is a political process," he said last month. "The House made a partisan political decision to impeach. I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I'm not impartial about this at all."

Seven Republicans and 10 Democrats, including retired Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath and state Rep. Charles Booker, have filed to run against McConnell.

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Ben Tobin: [email protected]; 502-582-4181; Twitter: @TobinBen. Morgan Watkins: 502-582-4502; [email protected]; Twitter: @morganwatkins26.