Courts

Picking Up The Tab For Donald Trump's Ballooning Legal Bills

What's $40 million between friends?

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(Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

This is what happens when there are two indictments against you, and everyone basically expects a third (and maybe a fourth). You have to hire lawyers and they have to get paid.

According to reports, the Donald Trump-founded political action committee (PAC), Save America, spent $40.2 million on legal bills in the first half of 2023. That means the PAC has spent $56 million since Trump left office. In fact, legal bills are the number one expense for the PAC in Trump’s 2024 presidential run. It’s basically turned into a bizarro litigation financier with no chance of any upside.

But it isn’t only the former president’s bills getting picked up. Others in his orbit being drawn into the legal fray are also getting their bills paid.

In an indictment unsealed Thursday charging Trump, his longtime valet Waltine “Walt” Nauta, and his property manager Carlos De Oliveira in the classified documents case, authorities allege that Trump called De Oliveira last August to say he would pay for De Oliveira’s attorney. That same day, authorities said, Nauta had a conversation with a different Trump employee who assured Nauta that De Oliveira was loyal to Trump.

Lawyers for De Oliveira and Nauta declined to comment, as did a spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the federal investigations of Trump.

Not that the spending is necessarily a problem (legally) according to campaign finance expert Paul Seamus Ryan. “It’s an extraordinary sum of money,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s up to the donors to decide if that’s the way they want their money spent. My sense is if you’re giving money to Trump in 2023, you’re fine with it.”

And like the Earth’s average temperature, these numbers are expected to disturbingly rise.

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Trump PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others [Washington Post]

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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