Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee has reportedly spent more than $40 million on legal bills since the start of the year – and has sought the return of $60 million to another group supporting the GOP White House candidate.
The PAC, Save America, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending to the Federal Election Commission on Monday, two sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity.
The amount is more than double the more than $16 million the PAC — which raises most of its funds through small-dollar donations — spent on legal fees in all of 2022, according to CNN.
Save America spending on legal costs has drawn scrutiny from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest between the former president and witnesses.
The 2024 GOP frontrunner faces dozens of federal charges in Florida over the retention of sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and New York state charges after a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump, 77, also faces the prospect of criminal indictments in Washington and Fulton County, Georgia, in connection with alleged election interference. He has flatly denied wrongdoing and decried investigations as a “witch hunt.”
Trump’s team insists that the sum spent on defending the former president and members of his inner circle is necessary as his legal troubles escalate.
“In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, the leadership PAC contributed to their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN.
He also blasted what he described as “unlawful harassment” from investigators, telling the Washington Post that “they know they have no legitimate case.”
Campaign finance expert Paul Seamus Ryan said he didn’t necessarily see any “legal red flags” with the spending, saying Trump had wide latitude to spend on legal fees — but noted that the “extraordinary sum of money” was far more than any other 2024 candidate would be spending now.
“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,” he told the paper.
Meanwhile, The New York Times cited two unnamed people in a report that the PAC has sought the return of $60 million it made to another group supporting Trump due to the staggering legal costs.
It was unclear how much money was refunded, according to the Times, and Cheung would not comment to the news outlet about the matter.
On Sunday, Trump vehemently denied directing a staffer to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago after Special Counsel Jack Smith lodged three additional charges against him, including for allegedly telling the underling to have video scrubbed after the Justice Department subpoenaed for it last year.
The former president, who pleaded not guilty to a 37-count related indictment last month, was slapped with an additional charge from Smith last week for two counts of obstruction and one count of willful retention of national defense information over other documents at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort.
He is expected to stand trial in the classified-document case in May 2024.
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