Former president Donald Trump’s PAC, Save America, has splashed out more than $20 million in litigation fees in recent months amid mounting legal disputes, according to newly filed campaign finance reports.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Aug. 1 show that Mr. Trump’s Save America PAC has received over $32 million in contributions since the start of this year, but spent more than $24 million in operating expenditures, including more than $21 million in legal expenses.
This year’s legal expenditure has skyrocketed in comparison to the $16 million the PAC spent on Mr. Trump’s legal costs throughout all of 2021 and 2022 combined, according to previous FEC filings.
The PAC reported paying nearly 50 various companies or entities for legal consulting, some of which were paid seven-figure sums.
Overall, Save America began 2023 with more than $18 million cash on hand, but is now down to just down to less than $4 million, the filings show, although the decline in finances was also driven by necessary spending on things like office supplies and consulting in order to keep the PAC up and running.
Elsewhere, the pro-Trump super PAC,Make America Great Again Inc. (MAGA) reported raising over $14.6 million from donors in the first half of 2023, but spent $25.6 million and issued a $12 million refund to Save America, Politico reports.
Donald J. Trump For President 2024, Inc., meanwhile, reported starting the year off with over $3.2 million and currently has around $22.5 million cash on hand.
The filings come as Mr. Trump and his associates are facing a number of legal battles.
The former president, who is making a bid for the White House again in 2024, remains under investigation in relation to the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
He has also been charged by the Department of Justice with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; one count of scheme to conceal; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; and one count of false statements and representations.
Trump ‘Witch Hunt’ Is ‘Unlawful’
In addition, the former president has been charged by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg with falsifying business records in relation to an alleged “hush money” made payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels when Mr. Trump was a presidential candidate in 2016.The former president is also in an ongoing legal dispute with writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused the then-president of defaming her when he denied having raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied the claims made against him and claimed to be the victim of an ongoing political “witch hunt.”
A number of Mr. Trump’s associates are also under investigation and wrapped up in legal disputes, for which his super PAC is reportedly footing the bill.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the former president, told The Washington Post that Save America was paying legal fees for those who worked for the former president “to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed” by what he said was “unlawful harassment” from investigators.
“They know they have no legitimate case,” Mr. Cheung said of prosecutors for the Justice Department and FBI.
Mr. Trump’s campaign finances differ substantially from those of fellow Republican candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whose super PAC, Never Back Down, reportedly ended June with $96.8 million in cash on hand.
According to that poll, Mr. Trump is leading at 54 percent over his GOP rival, Mr. DeSantis at 17 percent, while no other candidate in the running has received above 3 percent in support.
