More than $27M in Trump campaign fundraising went to legal costs in the last six months of 2023

The former president was indicted four times last year and has also had to answer civil lawsuits targeting his business and him as an individual.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s affiliated committees spent about $27 million on lawyers’ bills and related legal fees in the last six months of 2023, new federal election filings show, bringing the total for a year that included four separate indictments to almost $50 million.

Trump’s political fundraising apparatus is sprawling, but the new filings show that the price of lawyers is weighing him down. Still, Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, has seized on the legal cases against him as a potent fundraising tool, with his booking in a Georgia election case giving him what his campaign said was a record single-day haul.

Save America PAC, one of the groups Trump uses to raise money, spent $24.3 million on “legal consulting” in the last six months of 2023, according to federal election filings. That includes payments to firms that include lawyers like John Lauro, who is representing Trump in the case related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election; Todd Blanche, who also represents Trump in the New York hush money case; and Alina Habba, who represents Trump in the defamation case filed against him by author E. Jean Carroll and has appeared at his criminal arraignments.

While the Save America PAC raised $36 million over the last six months, $30 million came across six monthly payments from Make America Great Again Inc., a Trump-affiliated super PAC. While Save America helped provide early funding for MAGA Inc. when it launched at the beginning of Trump’s presidential bid, it appears that much of that money has been returned to Save America, which has been the primary vehicle for paying Trump’s legal fees. In the first six months of 2023, Save America PAC took more than $12 million from MAGA Inc.

Save America ended the year with just $5 million in cash banked away after having spent $35.2 million in total in the second half of 2023, almost as much as it raised.

On top of the legal spending from Save America, another Trump-affiliated group, the Make America Great Again PAC (which, under federal law, Trump raises money toward, and he can say how the money is used) spent $2.4 million on additional legal consulting in the second half of 2023.

Both groups also reimbursed another company, which handles campaign finance compliance and prepares disclosures for the campaign, millions more for legal fees. It was not clear whether those legal fees were associated with complying with federal campaign finance law or with investigations into Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

A fund to cover the legal fees for some of Trump’s aides raised more than $1.6 million from July to December, according to its filing. Known as the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, it does not contribute toward Trump’s legal expenses.

The filings show the brunt of the financial weight of Trump’s legal defense across four criminal cases, including two indictments related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and one over his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. He also has been the subject of a civil fraud lawsuit in Manhattan related to his business.

Trump’s legal woes have also taken him off of the campaign trail and into courtrooms, monopolizing resources and diverting him with legal brawls.

Trump’s rival for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, has attacked Trump over his legal spending, posting on X this week, “He can’t beat Joe Biden if he’s spending all his time and money on court cases and chaos.”

Haley has continued to raise money despite early losses to Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire, even as he threatens to blacklist her donors.

An early priority of the next R Congress and Trump WH should be legislation requiring the DoJ to repay funds from its current budget to those whose trials resulted in innocence or whose convictions are reversed upon appeal. ALL defense costs will be repaid by the DoJ and each eventually illegally prosecuted individual will receive damages of $500 per day of detention and incarceration. This would apply of course to the J6 political prisoners.

It was not clear whether those legal fees were associated with complying with federal campaign finance law or with investigations into Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

It is clear that the multiple lawsuits are a lawfare effort timed to interfere with the Trump 2024 election effort. A small fortune is being spent waging lawfare efforts.

Well, the legal cases have pushed Trump into the lead for the Republican nomination and also for the general election in November so maybe the legal fees are campaign fund money well spent.

Rona Mcdaniels spending millions of fine dining, hotels and limos does not seem to have helped Haley or Desantis. One can argue Trumps legal spending is the most effective political campaign spending in recent times.

The money being spent on these attack suits should be considered in kind political contributions and regulated as such.

The same with corporate money being used to “fortify democracy” or whatever other Orwellian phrase they are using to cover the fact that they are interfering with a government process.

RONNA’s FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS bother me far more.

>>>It bothers me a great deal as well.

I gather the RNC has a meager $7 million cash on hand for perhaps a half billion dollar GE campaign.

This is wholly inadequate to mount a presidential run for PDJT and basically leaves all down ballot candidates high and dry to fend for themselves.

The board nevertrumpers are now working on killing Trumps support in the general election, since he appears he will be the republican presidential nominee....

Many of them would rather have biden or who ever the left runs for president, than have Trump re-elected.

Considering how many lies and mis-leading things they have said, don’t believe them, when they claim they are still going to vote for Trump, as they keep attacking him.

“So they attack him legally (lawfare)...and then complain about him spending $$ on legal costs.”

And fail to mention these are all Democrat attacks. If the GOP ever attacked Democrats they would scream and seethe constantly about ethics and attacking political opponents.

It is clear that the multiple lawsuits are a lawfare effort timed to interfere with the Trump 2024 election effort. A small fortune is being spent waging lawfare efforts.

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Trump has spent over 50 million in his defense. I just wonder how many hundreds of millions have been spent by authorities in persecuting him.

Considering how many lies and mis-leading things they have said, don’t believe them, when they claim they are still going to vote for Trump, as they keep attacking him.

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