Question - Shouldn't This Be Considered Income?

[unblock]

11. They can probably argue that it's a legitimate campaign expense

The campaign benefits from Donnie getting a good result in court, and the campaign is in trouble if Donnie gets a bad result in court. So it's probably a legitimate campaign expense even though Donnie benefits personally and would have had to pay as an individual if he didn't have a campaign to suck funds from.

CEOs benefit personally from many corporate expenses, such as travel (they love spending a week for brief meetings or "conferences" in places like Turks and Caicos or Hawaii) or limo services. High profile CEOs can probably justify home security and bodyguards.

Btw, gift tax probably doesn't apply to any of this, but if it did, it's the donor who pays gift tax, but the recipient.