A pro-Trump nonprofit hit back at the venture capitalist donor who gave $2.5 million to uncover election fraud then demanded it back

Sinéad Baker
·3 min read
trump pentagon
President Donald Trump. Getty

  • A nonprofit that promised to gather evidence of electoral fraud hit back at claims made in a lawsuit from a donor who wants his money back.

  • Venture capitalist Fred Eshelman gave True the Vote $2.5 million to help it pursue claims that President Trump had been the victim of fraud in his loss to Joe Biden.

  • No group — including True the Vote and the Trump campaign — has been able to make an allegation of large-scale voter fraud that holds up in court.

  • Eshelman later sued, claiming that True the Vote failed to deliver and wouldn't give him updates on its progress.

  • In response, the group defended how it used his money, and cast blame on unnamed consultants working with Eshelman.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A pro-Trump group being sued by a donor unhappy with its progress uncovering voter fraud in the presidential election has hit back at his claims.

Fred Eshelman, a venture capitalist, filed a lawsuit against True the Vote last week, claiming that it fell short of his expectations and seeking the return of the $2.5 million he had given.

The complaint said that True the Vote promised to gather whistleblower complaints and file lawsuits in battleground states where President Donald Trump lost.

But, it said, Eshelman's efforts to monitor how it was progressing were met with "vague responses, platitudes, and empty promises of follow-up that never occurred."

Catherine Engelbrecht, the group's founder and president, said in a statement to Business Insider that the claims in the lawsuit are "not accurate and do not represent the true situation."

She did not say which parts of the lawsuit were inaccurate, or address the allegations that her group had not kept Eshelman properly informed.

But she did defend the way the group spent the money, which she said was spent on research projects, which she said are continuing, as well as launching four lawsuits which ultimately failed.

Engelbrecht also expressed surprise at her interaction with Eshelman's representatives, and appeared to lay blame on unnamed consultants working with him.

She said that these consultants handled the donation and that it was used to fund four lawsuits, which True the Vote later dropped, and also for other research.

Engelbrecht said that the same consultants later sent an unexplained invoice asking for $1,000,000 to be sent to another company "without so much as a website."

Trump
President Donald Trump. Getty/Chip Somodevilla

Engelbrecht said True the Vote did not pay the invoice, citing laws prohibiting donors from retroactively specifying how money is spent.

Instead, she said, the group called Eshelman directly, which she claims "infuriated" the consultants and led to the lawsuit.

Business Insider has contacted True the Vote and Eshelman for further detail. His lawsuit did not mention working with consultants.

Engelbrecht said of the donation: "When the consultants called us on November 5, it seemed like an answer to prayer. Now, it seems like a nightmare." 

No one has been able to prove President Donald Trump's claims that there was widespread voter fraud during the election, and his campaign team has been unable to do so in court after launching a slew of lawsuits in battleground states that he lost.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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