Maggie Haberman Sources Say Trump Hoped To Raise ‘Tens Of Millions’ On Hunter Biden — If He Was Found ‘Not Guilty’

New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman says multiple Trumpworld sources confirm ex-President Donald Trump was planning to raise “tens of millions” on the Hunter Biden verdict — if it had come back “not guilty.”

Hunter Biden was found guilty on all three counts Tuesday in his trial for gun charges, and is also facing tax charges in California.

The verdict put a crimp in the Trump/GOP refrain about a “two-tiered” justice system controlled by President Joe Biden — who has promised not to pardon his son, and said in a statement following the verdict that “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal.”

And according to a new report co-authored by Haberman and NYT colleagues Jonathan Swan and Michael Gold , the verdict also blew up plans to raise money off of an acquittal — much more money than a conviction:

Many Trump allies had been secretly rooting for an acquittal. The talking points wrote themselves: It would have been yet more evidence that the United States justice system was rigged in favor of the Bidens and against the Trumps. Tuesday’s guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative.

Even more valuable would have been the fund-raising potential.

A person with knowledge of the Trump campaign’s fund-raising plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there had been discussions about how much an acquittal would help Mr. Trump, potentially raising tens of millions of additional dollars as they planned to cite it as more evidence the justice system was rigged. After Mr. Trump was convicted in Manhattan on 34 felony counts, his campaign raised record sums online, and some of his advisers recognized that an acquittal of Mr. Biden’s son had the potential to raise Mr. Trump far more cash than a conviction, the person said.

…

A Trump ally who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe private conversations explained that as soon as it was clear that the Hunter Biden gun case couldn’t be used against President Biden, the topic fell off the radar for political messaging.

“The only good that could come out of this was that if he was acquitted on charges where he’s obviously guilty,” the Trump ally said. “An acquittal on charges that he was obviously guilty was the only upside for us.”

Haberman’s reporting and analysis are significant because she is rightly considered an expert on Trump with deep experience reporting on the subject and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights.