Trump Spent $30 Million Raised From Small-Dollar Donors On Legal Bills In Last 6 Months

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump within the final six months of 2023 put $29.8 million of the cash he raised from retirees and different small-dollar donors into the pockets of his attorneys, most of whom are working to maintain him out of jail whilst he continues in search of his outdated job within the White House.

The new disclosures filed Wednesday night time with the Federal Election Commission carry Trump’s whole marketing campaign spending on his private authorized bills in 2023 to $54.2 million, in keeping with a HuffPost evaluation.

The largest winners are the attorneys dealing with Trump’s high-profile circumstances, up to now with restricted success.

Chris Kise, the lawyer who argued however misplaced Trump’s civil fraud case in New York City, noticed the 2 corporations he’s affiliated with obtain $4.9 million between July 1 and Dec. 31. Clifford Robert, who labored with Kise on that case, acquired $3.9 million.

John Lauro, Trump’s lawyer within the federal legal case based mostly on the Jan. 6, 2021, coup try, acquired $2.5 million. Todd Blanche, who can be engaged on that case, acquired $1.9 million.

And the agency of Alina Habba ― who represented Trump final week as a jury awarded $83.3 million in a defamation case to a girl whom a distinct jury final May decided had been sexually abused by Trump ― acquired $2.3 million, on prime of the $1.5 million she was paid within the first half of the yr.

Though 46 regulation corporations acquired funds, eight of them accounted for greater than three-quarters of the whole.

Most of the brand new funds had been made by Save America, the “leadership PAC” Trump created inside days of dropping his reelection bid in 2020. It raised some $76 million within the following weeks on the promise that donations would assist Trump battle the election leads to courtroom. In truth, none of Save America’s cash went towards that finish, and Trump used it as a substitute to pay a lot of his prices to stay politically related.

Trump continued utilizing the identical small-dollar fundraising checklist he constructed for his marketing campaign whereas within the White House to drag in tens of millions of {dollars} each month, virtually fully from donors giving $10 or $20 or $50 at a time. An excellent many donors listed their occupation as “retired.”

After Trump introduced his 2024 presidential marketing campaign in November 2022, his official marketing campaign committee started receiving 99% of every greenback raised, with 1% going to Save America. But as Trump’s authorized payments continued to mount final yr, that method was quietly modified to extend the fraction going to Save America by tenfold.

Almost the entire authorized charges are being paid by way of Save America, though between July and November, Trump transferred $5.9 million from Save America to a separate Trump committee, the Make America Great Again PAC. Of that $5.9 million, $4.1 million was used to pay attorneys, together with some who had been additionally being paid by Save America.

Habba, for instance, acquired $235,426 from the MAGA PAC.

It is unclear why Trump was transferring cash round and having attorneys paid by way of a second committee. The Trump marketing campaign didn’t reply to a HuffPost question.

Trump is going through a attainable nice of $370 million after dropping the fraud case based mostly on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of enterprise fraud involving inflated estimates of his web value. He can be probably going through a long time in jail following 4 legal indictments totaling 91 felony costs. One federal case and a Georgia prosecution are based mostly on his try to stay in energy regardless of dropping the 2020 election; a second federal indictment relies on his refusal to return secret paperwork he took with him to his South Florida nation membership after leaving the White House; and the fourth is a New York state case claiming he falsified enterprise information to cover a $130,000 hush-money fee to a porn star simply earlier than the 2016 election.

He is, regardless of all this, the close to sure Republican presidential nominee in 2024. He gained the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire main this month and holds giant polling leads within the coming nominating contests.