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31 Oct, 2016 19:30

Trump refuses to pay his pollster more than $750k

Trump refuses to pay his pollster more than $750k

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is disputing the more than three-quarters of a million dollars he owes GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio, whom Trump hired in May, according to the billionaire businessman's latest campaign financial filings.

The Republican candidate owes nearly $767,000 in "contested debt" to Fabrizio Lee, Fabrizio's polling firm, as well as an additional $55,300 that Trump owes the firm, according to Trump's latest report with the Federal Election Commission. Trump paid Fabrizio's firm nearly $624,000 in September, the Washington Post reported.

"This is an administrative issue that we're resolving internally," Trump's senior communications adviser Jason Miller told the Post. Fabrizio did not return the Post's requests for comment.

Fabrizio is a longtime GOP strategist who has advised candidates such as Florida Governor Rick Scott, "more than a dozen US Senators, scores of US Congressmen and numerous Governors and other statewide elected officials," among many others, as well as top corporate clients such as Visa and Bank of America, according to Politico.

Fabrizio was an ally of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who left the campaign in August. Since then, Fabrizio's advice has not been accepted within the campaign, according to some reports. When Manafort left the campaign, Trump hired pollster Kellyanne Conway as his replacement.

Since the end of August, Trump's campaign has hired four other polling firms to execute voter surveys. Conway's firm was one of those, receiving $673,000 through October 19, according to the FEC filings.

READ MORE: Show me the money: Trump campaign pays The Donald’s businesses handsomely

All recent polling of the presidential election by major news outlets and polling firms has Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leading Trump ahead of Election Day on November 8.

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