Melania Trump was paid for a rare appearance at a political event. It’s not clear who cut the unusual six-figure check

CNN

By Pamela Brown, Jeremy Herb and Shoshana Dubnow, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Melania Trump has barely been seen on the campaign trail this year. One of the few times she has appeared at a political event, she’s received a six-figure paycheck – a highly unusual move for the spouse of a candidate.

The former first lady spoke at two political fundraisers for the Log Cabin Republicans this year, and she was paid $237,500 for an April event, according to former President Donald Trump’s latest financial disclosure form. The payment was listed as a “speaking engagement.”

Trump’s latest disclosure form said Melania Trump was paid by the Log Cabin Republicans for the April fundraiser. But it’s a mystery who actually cut the check: Charles Moran, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, told CNN earlier this month the group did not put up the money for her to speak, and the disclosure form did not give any more information about the source of the payment.

Ahead of the other fundraiser in July for the conservative LGBTQ group, a person familiar said at least one request was made to a donor about a similar payment. It’s unclear whether Melania Trump was ultimately paid. The campaign has not put out the financial disclosure for that period. The source told CNN that Ric Grenell, former ambassador to Germany and a Trump ally, was the one who made the request on behalf of Melania Trump. Sources said Grenell has also helped the former first lady with other business ventures.

Campaign finance and government ethics experts say a payment to a presidential candidate’s spouse to appear at political fundraisers in an election is unusual, ethically questionable and should, at the very least, be properly noted in the disclosure forms.

“It seems pretty self-serving. From my own general observation, I’m not used to seeing that,” said Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.

If the organization did not in fact make the payment to Melania Trump, the former president’s financial disclosure form may run afoul of ethics rules because it should have listed the sponsor who paid Melania Trump and not just where she spoke, Canter said.

“You could indicate that payment was for a speaking engagement for the Log Cabin Republicans, but you also need to report who the source of the payment was, otherwise you can’t assess for the conflicts of interest, and it wouldn’t be in compliance with the rules,” she said. “It should have properly been reported so that the source of the income is listed for the honorarium.”

Sources supportive of Melania Trump who attended the Log Cabin Republican events and didn’t know she got paid for at least one of them defended her, saying it’s her right to decide how to spend her time and to get paid for her time. One person close to Melania Trump said she has decided “my best and highest use is where I am,” adding that “she’s a priceless, timeless asset” for Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Melania Trump declined to comment in response to CNN’s questions.

Records show Melania Trump was also paid $250,000 for a Log Cabin Republican event in December 2022, one of three payments for $250,000 or more that she received for speaking that month, just after the former president announced he was running for reelection, according to Donald Trump’s prior year financial disclosure form. One of the events took place in Florida, and the other was for a California group, Fix California, which was founded by Grenell. Grenell did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The former first lady was also paid $155,000 by a Trump-aligned super PAC – called Make America Great Again, Again – for a speech she gave in Palm Beach, Florida, in December 2021, before Trump was a candidate.

She has a history of appearing at Log Cabin Republican events – in 2021 she was also the guest of honor at the group’s annual Spirit of Lincoln Gala.

The fundraising appearances also underscore how Melania Trump has been sparingly on the campaign trail this year. In addition to the two Log Cabin Republican appearances, she’s appeared alongside her husband at a  fundraiser hosted by billionaire investor John Paulson in Palm Beach and she made a brief appearance at the Republican National Convention, though she did not speak like she did in 2016. There’s no indication that she was paid for the appearance at Paulson’s fundraiser.

“She’s been so disconnected with this campaign and so absent that I could see her saying, ‘If I’m going to put my time in, I will get paid for this,’” said Stephanie Grisham, a former Trump White House press secretary and top aide to Melania Trump who has become a critic of the former president. “Even when we were in the White House, she was always so concerned about people making money off of her because she felt it was money she should be earning.”

Grisham said that, while in the White House in 2018, Melania Trump instructed her staff to direct a gift shop by the White House to stop selling Melania Trump memorabilia, such as bobbleheads, without permission.

“She was outraged. She didn’t like they were making money off of her,” Grisham said.

Donald Trump’s financial disclosures also show that the former first lady earned more than $330,000 over the past year for a licensing agreement for the sale of digital trading cards, or NFTs. Her website sells jewelry and other collectibles.

In addition, the former first lady is releasing a memoir next month and embarking on a promotional tour, which is separate from the campaign. In a series of short videos promoting her book on X, she’s made rare remarks on the attempted assassination of her husband in Butler, Pennsylvania, the 2020 election results and her history as a nude model.

“I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?” she said in one of the videos, referencing the gunman who fired at and wounded Trump at a rally on July 13 before being taken down by the Secret Service.

Melania Trump is not the only Trump family member to get paid while in the political spotlight. Kimberly Guilfoyle received a $60,000 speaking fee for introducing her fiancé, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, ahead of the insurrection at the US Capitol. Her speech was less than three minutes.

Speaking and appearance fees for events outside of political fundraisers for former government officials are not unheard of.

Former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton collected more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 to the time the former secretary of state launched her 2016 presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama reportedly made $400,000 from a single speech at a Wall Street health conference in 2017, attracting criticism from members of his own party at the time. And in the two years after he left the vice presidency and before launching his presidential campaign, Joe and Jill Biden made a combined $15.6 million, primarily from book deals and speaking engagements.

But officials for Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Bill Clinton say they did not get paid for any fundraising appearances during a political campaign.

The president’s son, Hunter Biden, was scrutinized for selling pieces of artwork, each priced at $85,000, at a Manhattan art gallery last spring while his father was a candidate for reelection.

By all accounts, the Log Cabin Republican fundraisers this year were a success. Grenell posted on X in July that the former first lady “opened her NYC Penthouse tonight to raise money” for the group.

“It’s the first campaign event ever held at the Trump residence,” he wrote. “And we raised $1.4 million in one night. Our goal is to get 50% of the gay vote for Donald Trump.”

At the April Mar-a-Lago event where Melania Trump spoke, the organization launched its “Road to Victory” program to target voters in swing states, according to Politico.

CNN’s Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.

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