The sprawling case against former President Donald Trump in Georgia has driven many of the defendants to ask for donations in order to cover legal fees. President Trump himself has dug deep into his campaign coffers to ensure his representation in this and other court cases he is facing.
While some of the 19 defendants have done quite well raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in a short time span, others seem to be struggling.
The case was brought on Aug. 14 by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. She alleged that President Trump’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 elections, including through alternative slates of electors in several states, amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Among the defendants are former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also served as President Trump’s lawyer; Mark Meadows, former congressman and President Trump’s chief of staff; several lawyers that advised or aided President Trump, as well as several GOP alternative electors in the Georgia 2020 election.
At least nine of them have turned to the Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo to raise cash for legal fees.
Mr. Giuliani is among those who haven’t asked for donations, but he’s been rumored to be running low on cash, particularly after he put his Manhattan co-op on the market. President Trump is hosting a $100,000-a-head fundraiser for Mr. Giuliani at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Sept. 7.
Crowdfunding Ups and Downs
The most successful on the crowdfunding front has been John Eastman, former dean and professor at Chapman University’s law school. He’s raised over $520,000 since launching his campaign about two years ago.Mr. Eastman served as a lawyer to President Trump in several 2020 election challenges. He devised a strategy of using alternative slates of electors in contested states in order to have the Vice President reject the official electors.
Harrison Floyd, former head of Black Voices for Trump, has been the surprise crowdfunding runner-up, raising nearly $300,000 in less than two weeks. The U.S. Marines veteran living off a disability pension surrendered himself at the notorious Fulton County Jail in Atlanta on Aug. 24, telling the judge he didn’t have money for a Georgia lawyer or bond. He was declared a flight risk and put in jail.
His case drew media attention, and as his fundraising campaign went online, donations poured in. By Aug. 26, he had a lawyer and a bond motion filed. He was out of jail by Aug. 30 and since then has been doing rounds on conservative talk shows, even considering a run for Congress.
Ray Smith, III, President Trump’s lead attorney during the 2020 election in Georgia, has raised around $150,000.
Other defendants haven’t had much success, though.
David Shafer, former head of Georgia GOP and one of the alternative electors, raised just over $20,000 online. He’s also trying to pull in some cash through monetizing his X account with over 60,000 followers.
Sidney Powell, former federal prosecutor who challenged the 2020 election on President Trump’s behalf though she wasn’t officially part of his legal team, has received less than $8,000 in donations to a GiveSendGo campaign that appears to have been set up by a third party to her benefit. She’s been accepting donations through her nonprofit, Defending the Republic, she told The Epoch Times via email.
Her Defending the Republic PAC, a separate entity, finished the first half of 2023 with some $170,000 cash on hand, but it seems it hasn’t been involved in covering her legal fees.
Legal Defense Fund
About a month ago, the Trump team set up the Patriot Legal Defense Fund that should cover legal expenses for current and former employees and aides of the former president. It’s not clear how much money the fund has raised so far. Its website offers merchandise emblazoned with President Trump’s mug shot—a hot commodity after his booking at the Atlanta jail on Aug. 24, according to some vendors.It’s not clear if the fund will cover the expenses of the Georgia defendants in particular.
Head of the fund, President Trump’s adviser Michael Glassner, hasn’t responded to emailed questions by press time.
PAC Money
As for President Trump himself, his PACs have been covering his legal fees. His leadership PAC Save America incurred some $22 million in legal expenses in the first half of 2023 alone and over $38 million since 2021. The Make America Great Again PAC seems to have picked up some of the expenses too, spending some $4 million in the first half of 2023 and about $15 million since 2021, though much of those costs don’t seem to be associated with the criminal cases against the former president, according to data from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).Legal Headache
Legal fees have been a major headache for Trump associates targeted by prosecutors since his running for office in 2016.In one of the earliest cases, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of military intelligence and, for a short time, National Security Adviser to President Trump, was forced to sell his house and later relied on donations from his supporters to pay his lawyers. Ironically, the initial legal team convinced him to plead guilty to lying to the FBI—a crime he later said he didn’t commit.
He recanted his plea after getting Ms. Powell to represent him, and the DOJ eventually dropped the case. The presiding judge, however, refused to dismiss the case until President Trump pardoned Gen. Flynn in late 2020.
