Trump’s Super PACs Spent $50 Million In Donor Funds On Legal Fees Alone In 2023

In 2023, Donald Trump‘s super PACs spent $50 million in donor funds on legal expenses.

Trump spent the money after being criminally indicted in his failed effort to overturn the election and misuse of classified documents. He also faces defamation and civil fraud cases in civil courts.

The former president began raising millions of donations to him after he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

Trump pushed false claims of voter fraud to encourage his supporters to donate after his loss, attempts which have since become crucial to two of the indictments filed against him.

Save America, a Trump PAC which previously had over $100 million in the bank, almost went broke last year under the crush of legal fees.

The super PAC had paid for attorneys for Trump and some of his aides, who were named in the indictments, including Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, who were both charged in the former president’s classified documents case after he left the White House.

Ten percent of every dollar the 45th U.S. President raises from supporters is being given to Save America, which primarily pays the legal expenses.

The exact amount that these political groups paid attorneys in 2023 will be revealed on January 31 as a part of legally necessary filings to the Federal Election Commission.

This massive amount of money symbolizes Trump’s continuing legal issues as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination and a second term in office. Two of his trials are scheduled to begin in March, which means he will be teetering between the campaign trail and the courtroom, though both trials could eventually be delayed.

Though these PACs spent this money on legal matters in just 2023, Rudy Giuliani, one of the former president’s closest legal allies and former attorney, recently claimed that he has not yet been paid in full.

During a recent bankruptcy court filing in New York, Giuliani stated that his net income had fallen to just a monthly payment of $2,308 and his old boss still owed him millions of dollars. As of August 2023, he had only been given $340,000 as reimbursement from one of Trump’s PACs.

The former president’s only GOP opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, declared in late January that she raised just more than $50 million through her super PAC, Stand for America Fund.

On January 30, Haley went to X and reposted an article reporting on Trump’s use of legal funds.

“Another reason Donald Trump won’t debate me… His PAC spent 50 MILLION in campaign dollars on his legal fees,” she wrote in the caption. “He can’t beat Joe Biden if he’s spending all his time and money on court cases and chaos.”

Trump’s legal problems are only escalating.

On January 5, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron to fine the Trump Organization $370 million for years of business fraud.

In 2022, she initially demanded $250 million from the former president and his company, charging that it falsely escalated the property values of his real estate empire. The valuations helped him acquire benefits through lower insurance and borrowing costs. During this trial, more valuations had been disclosed as fraudulent.

Despite this, Trump’s attorneys argued that Engoron should reject the accusations against him. They said in their briefs that most of the transactions in James’ complaint were beyond the statute of limitations.

Additionally, Trump asserted that there were no victims since the banks had been repaid with interest, and that Engoron and his top clerk were partisans and had not offered fair treatment in the case.

James is also seeking to ban Trump for life from doing business in New York state.

On January 26, Trump slammed Judge Lewis Kaplan after storming out of court during the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.

He left while Carroll’s attorney gave his closing statements to the jurors. While he was gone, the attorney said to the jury that the former president believes that with his wealth and power, he can treat the victim in any way he pleases without suffering the consequences.

After leaving, Trump returned while his attorney made her closing statements, but he had not been present when the verdict was delivered. The jury found him guilty, and he was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages.

Trump expressed his anger towards Kaplan on Truth Social after the trial ended. He said that the trial was one-sided since the judge did not allow him to defend himself.