Former President Donald Trump’s PACs have spent about $50 million in donor money on his legal bills last year, sources told The New York Times.
The “staggering sum” spent by Trump on his legal fees and investigation-related expenses is about the same amount his lone remaining GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley raised across all her committees last year, the Times’ Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher write. Federal Election Commission filings this week are expected to detail the full extent of Trump’s “enormous financial strain,” they added.
Trump, who has a penchant for relying on campaign donations to pay his lawyers if he actually pays them at all, has used his Save America PAC to cover his legal costs. When the PAC ran low on cash last year, Trump asked for an unusual refund of $60 million that had been transferred to the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. PAC. Trump has also been directing 10% of donations raised through Save America to a PAC that primarily pays his lawyers, according to the Times.
The MAGA Inc. PAC transferred about $42 million to the Save America PAC, nearly as much as the PAC spent on independent expenditures like television ads, according to the report.
“This is old, recycled news about a refund request that was reported on nearly a year ago,” Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for the super PAC, told the Times. “The battle to defeat Joe Biden is here, and the time for everyone to step up and join this fight is now. Every dollar being raised by MAGA Inc. is going directly to defeating Joe Biden in November.”
Trump, who faces federal trials in D.C. and Florida, criminal trials in Manhattan and Atlanta and additional lawsuits in New York has also been paying the legal costs of some co-defendants, including former bodyman Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos De Oliveira. A separate legal defense fund has also raised $1.6 million.
Trump last week was ordered to pay $83.3 million to defamed writer E. Jean Carroll. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $370 million in penalties in Trump’s fraud trial — where the judge is expected to issue a ruling as early as Wednesday.
Haberman in an appearance on CNN Tuesday called Trump’s legal bills “eye-popping.”
“Number one, he is not somebody, who historically has liked paying legal bills… Well, this isn’t his money. This is donor money. And so, it’s a lot easier to pay, when you’re paying with donor money, number one,” she said.
“But number two, this is, it’s a lot of money. It’s not just him. It’s also lawyers, for witnesses, as you know,” she continued, adding: “These numbers are not going to get smaller, as we go forward, because he has been indicted four times, and this number got exponentially higher, last year than it was in 2022. And if any case goes to trial, this year, it is going to go even higher.”
Anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Haberman if Trump’s donors know their money is going to his legal bills.
“Did his donors know this is what they were going to be paying for? No. Would they all mind? I doubt it, because some of them thought they were paying for some kind of legal fight,” Haberman said. “And I’m sure, in their mind, you know, the number of his supporters, who I talked to, in Iowa and New Hampshire, who described the legal cases against him, as illegitimate or something they didn’t believe in? I’m not sure they would care about that. But it is worth noting, it is not — it is not his money.”
While many of Trump’s donations come from small-dollar donors, hotelier Robert Bigelow told Reuters on Tuesday he gave Trump $1 million for his legal fees and agreed to donate another $20 million to back his campaign.
"I was just sympathetic. They didn't solicit anything from me," said Bigelow, who feels Trump is being unfairly targeted.
Trump biographer David Cay Johnston, the author of the book "The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family,” said the reliance on donors raises questions about Trump’s self-professed wealth.
“Remember Donald used to tell us he was worth $10 billion? He should be rolling in money if that’s the case. And evidently, he has to depend on begging for money from people,” he told CNN on Tuesday.
“If you have $10 billion, this wouldn’t be a big deal,” said Johnston. “But if you don’t have $10 billion and you just claim it, that’s a whole other story.”
