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.

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.

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.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
    93·
    10 months ago

    So, this is fraud right? Asking for donations, saying the money is for one thing and then using it for something else. That’s called fraud, right?

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      18·
      10 months ago

      They claim that there was a disclaimer somewhere that said the money might be used for legal challenges or something. I think it’s fraud, and some of his donors might want to sue, but I don’t know if he will be prosecuted for this without more victims stepping up and demanding it. His defense could line up qultists around the block to testify on his behalf that they knew they were donating to his legal defense fund.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
      16·
      10 months ago

      Could be.

      Or Trump could be loaning his campaign money at substantial interest, which is perfectly legal AND a common practice with many legislators on both sides of the aisle, because all we elect are corrupt and evil people.

      Imagine how much worse this is going to get when he’s reelected and everything he said and did is validated. I suspect the next several years will make 2020 look like a cakewalk.

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      I’m not entirely sure. I know that he’s not supposed to use any of his campaign money to pay for fines or other penalties incurred by litigation. I think he might be allowed to use it to pay lawyers to defend him, though.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    36·
    10 months ago

    The GOP has a great trick they love to play. Get elected and pass a law that you know is going to be challenged in the courts. Say a book ban or demanding all school kids memorize the 10 Commandments to graduate kindergarten. Now the Left is forced to divert money from political races to court cases. And, since the GOP is funded by taxpayers, they can drag the cases out for years, costing the Left more and more money.

    Trump’s done the reverse. The base is ignoring the regular GOP and pouring money into Trump’s ever empty pockets.

    https://www.newsweek.com/multiple-state-republican-parties-going-broke-1858680

  • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    10 months ago

    PACs are terrible but it’s even wilder to me that they’re effectively paying his legal bills.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
    4·
    10 months ago

    Sad thing is that the more advertising Trump does, the more people dislike him. Pulling money from ads to legal fees might help the s.o.b.