Former President Donald Trump paid his attorneys more than $5 million in February through his Save America PAC, new filings show—more than all of his expenses combined the month before—as the ex-president is burning through cash to cover his legal costs while scrambling to raise more money.
Trump’s legal bills are expected to continue to balloon as the cases against him ramp up. The four criminal cases against the ex-president are still moving forward, with his trial over “hush-money” payments made during his 2016 campaign expected to begin in mid-April following a 30-day delay. Trump is also appealing rulings against him in his civil fraud and Carroll defamation cases, and will go to the Supreme Court in April as the former president asks justices to declare he’s “immune” from criminal prosecution.
$10.9 million. That’s how much Trump’s main campaign fund raised in February, according to its FEC filing, reporting $7.8 million in expenses and ending the month with $33.5 million in cash on hand. The Trump campaign is lagging behind President Joe Biden, whose campaign reported raising $21.3 million in February and went into March with $71 million in cash.
Trump’s PAC payments to his attorneys come in addition to the massive legal judgments the ex-president has separately been ordered to pay, which are so far not being paid using PAC money. Trump posted a $91.6 million bond earlier in March in response to Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, in which he was ordered to pay $83.3 million plus interest. He’s also days away from the deadline to pay the more than $454 million he owes in his civil fraud case, as New York Attorney General Letitia James is expected to start enforcing the judgment if Trump hasn’t posted bond by March 25. Trump has asked an appeals court to delay the payment while he appeals the case, but it hasn’t ruled yet on his request.
Trump spending PAC money on his personal legal fees is a legal gray area, Dan Weiner, former FEC counsel and director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Elections and Government Program, told Forbes in February. The practice is “highly questionable,” Weiner said, though given the FEC’s history of not going after violations—particularly regarding any kind of gray area—it’s unlikely to take any action against Trump’s legal payments. “Because of lax enforcement, we have this kind of ‘Wild West’ campaign finance landscape, where there are a bunch of rules, but they are so unevenly enforced that people don’t have a good sense of what they can and can’t do, and that’s obviously a breeding ground for pushing the envelope,” Weiner said.
Trump’s legal spending has come under scrutiny in the past few months as the general election has neared, as the ex-president is reportedly scrambling to court big donors and raise cash to close the gap with Biden. The New York Times reported in March that some donors are wary of writing checks to Trump because of his legal woes, worried that their money will be funneled to pay his personal legal fees instead of helping his campaign. Trump’s legal fees have also been an issue as the ex-president has joined forces with the Republican National Committee in light of becoming the party’s nominee, overhauling the organization’s leadership with his handpicked officials—including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump—and establishing a joint fundraising committee with the party. Trump’s takeover of the RNC has spurred questions over whether the party will now be helping to foot the bill for his personal lawyers, though campaign officials have said it will not. A member of the RNC introduced a resolution that would categorically bar the party from footing Trump’s legal bills, but it failed to pass.
(Forbes)
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