The political story of former president Donald Trump has used to pay his significant legal bills has dwindled to less than $4 million in the bank after taking into account his debts, according to new federal election filings.
So far in 2024, Trump is spending an average of nearly $5 million a month through his political action committee, called Save America, with an overwhelming portion going to legal bills. That means that at the end of May, Trump barely had enough money left to pay one month’s worth of legal bills.
Trump has avoided tapping his own personal fortune to fund his hefty legal bills. Instead, he relied on donor funds through his PAC. He has not used his campaign committee for legal bills.
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The former president is teetering on an extraordinary series of serious and costly legal threats in addition to his 2024 presidential campaign. He just went on trial in New York and was found guilty of 34 crimes related to falsifying company records to cover up a sex scandal. And Trump has also been charged in three other criminal cases — all involving expensive legal work — that have yet to go to trial. His PAC has also covered legal costs in his civil cases
In May alone, when most of Trump’s New York criminal trial was taking place, Trump paid $1.8 million to the Todd Blanche firm. Blanche was the former president’s lead attorney for the New York trial and is working on two federal cases in which Trump has been charged, one in Florida and one in Washington, D.C.
In total, Trump has spent more than $100 million on legal and investigation-related bills since leaving the White House in early 2021. And since the beginning of last year, at least seventeen companies and corporations have received $1 million or more.
Save America had $4,474,030 at the end of May and had collected $861,630 in unpaid bills, according to the documents.
Although the lawsuits have cost Trump a lot of money, they have also helped motivate his supporters to donate. In the 24 hours after his criminal conviction in May, the Trump campaign said it raised $53 million online, a windfall that is reshaping the 2024 financial landscape. Trump’s operation with the Republican National Committee entered June with more cash, $235 million. than President Joe Biden had with the Democratic National Committee.
“President Trump’s attorneys will continue to fight all of these Biden lawsuits and will continue to be appropriately compensated for their time and efforts,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement.
And more money will come from the fundraising deal Trump struck with the Republican National Committee after he became the presumptive nominee.
Trump’s advisers have publicly said the party would not fund Trump’s legal bills. And while that’s technically true, the deal instead sends $5,000 in large contributions directly to Trump’s PAC, even before the party gets its cut.
The account where these larger donations are accumulating, the Trump 47 Committee, has made just one transfer of $183,054 to Save America so far, the records show. No transfers took place in May.
Trump’s advisers also created a legal defense fund several months ago, which has continued to raise money but does not have updated public accounting. (Legal defense funds are subject to other, less frequent disclosure requirements.) The fund was described as intended for Trump advisers, though officials could always decide to expand it.
Although Trump’s attorneys were not the only attorneys paid during the filing period — some represent other clients — those representing him received the largest amounts.
In addition to the payments to Blanche, Save America’s largest legal fee payments last month were $450,000 to John F. Lauro, $253,849 to Continental PLLC and $236,148 to Chris Kise & Associates, the documents showed.
His PAC’s largest non-legal expenditure in May was an $80,533.74 payment to Trump’s own property in Bedminster, New Jersey, for lodging and catering. The committee has also continued to pay monthly “strategy consulting” payments to Hervé Pierre Braillard, a stylist who worked with the former first lady, Melania Trumpthe data showed.
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