GoFundMe and other such services have provided a great benefit for people to be able to crowdfund for causes they care about, such as medical or financial emergencies.

But as we’ve seen, particularly in the past two years, there’s another possible use of the service. That is to reward or provide “legal services” for people who feature prominently in some of the biggest political battles between Republicans and Democrats.

Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe are two of the recipients of this new boon. Despite the fact that both were found to have acted improperly and that they were well-paid officials, they each got hundreds of thousands of dollars from folks on the left because they were viewed as being against President Donald Trump or his agenda. Strzok ended with $452,248 and McCabe with $566,836.

Christine Blasey Ford was another one, whose GFM said that she had to provide for security in the face of death threats. There were two main Ford-connected accounts, one that raised $647,610 and another, run by a Georgetown law professor which made $209,982.

Ford announced in a note on her main account in November of last year that any unused funds for her security would be donated to organizations which supported trauma survivors. She said that she would be posting on the GFM page when she’d selected the organizations where the funds can best be used. There is however no further note on that page. The other GFM account makes no mention of anyone getting any money other than Ford.

Now, in the latest political drama surrounding the whistleblower complaint filed by a member of the intelligence community, the whistleblower already has a GoFundMe to raise money for legal expenses. Who could have guessed?

The GFM was started by the whistleblower’s attorneys and money raised would go toward legal fees, although the lawyers have not charged the person anything so far. Money will also be spent on such things as additional expenses and such things as travel.

The GFM, which was started two days ago, is now already over $140,000.

This concept of crowdfunding raises a new and rather troubling specter – that someone in the future could tailor his actions or statements to make that money or the account might be used as a way of paying people off for serving a political agenda. There is no evidence that the whistleblower has done that.

However, it’s easy to see how someone else could. As if the political arena wasn’t already supercharged enough.