Sources report that Donald Trump’s political fundraising machine, raking in cash at a phenomenal pace, is burning through it at an even faster speed, spending tens of millions of dollars to pay attorneys defending him in the numerous legal cases that are ongoing or pending.
The use of campaign donations to pay for what amounts to personal legal battles appears to conflict with a federal ban on the personal use of donor dollars, though this is not deterring the former president from doing it.
Trump’s Save America political action committee has paid nearly $37 million to more than 60 law firms and individual attorneys since January 2022, Federal Election Commission records show. That amounts to more than half of the PAC’s total expenditures, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance filings, and represents a staggering sum compared to other political organizations.
During the first half of 2023, Save America spent more on legal-related costs, over $20 million, than any other political committee that discloses to the FEC — more than the Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee spent during that period combined.
Donald Trump is known to be prodigiously litigious and in the last three decades, according to USA Today, has been involved in 4,095 lawsuits. However, he is now facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia and could potentially be looking at years in prison if convicted.
The bulk of the Trump PAC money went to law firms that have defended Trump against these criminal charges or in civil lawsuits. Other attorneys paid with the contributions that ostensibly are exclusively for election campaigns, worked on behalf of Trump’s businesses, his children, former White House aides and employees of the ex-president.
Paying the legal bills for co-defendants and potential witnesses raises difficult ethical questions: Does it “buy” loyalty to him or their clients? If clients feel indebted to Trump, will they be less forthcoming about what they know? Or even perjure themselves?
“The way these cases get built is you persuade the little fish to testify against the big fish,” said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and criminal law professor at George Washington University Law School. “Well, if the little fish’s lawyer is being paid by the big fish that’s less likely to happen potentially.”
But ironically, the legal jeopardy that the former president finds himself in has become his most powerful fundraising tool. The claim that he’s the victim of a corrupt justice system determined to silence him and his supporters resonates with his gullible, die-hard MAGA base, and his unending rants about being the subject of a witch hunt leads them to materially show their support with their donations.
To help pay the legal fees, Trump’s political operation has also moved millions from his super PAC, MAGA Inc.
According to AP News, “The FEC data reveal a pattern that has developed since Trump left office: he gets into legal trouble and responds forcefully, donations from his backers spike, and then millions of those dollars flow to the army of attorneys defending him and others caught up in the drama.”
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, stated that “The indictments are probably not expanding his coalition, but it’s certainly giving it greater intensity.”
This probably means that the money will keep on coming, draining the resources of the many small donors whose pockets are not deep, but who remain loyal to a man who has made history by being the first president to face federal criminal charges, and who continues to squander campaign funds on his legal defenses.
“So people who are already supporting Donald Trump are probably going to dig in their heels and support him more,” adds Kreis.
