Super PAC Has Spent $40M This Year on Trump Legal Bills – By Evann Gastaldo (Newser) / July 31, 2023
That includes legal bills for his aides, others in his orbit
The super PAC founded by Donald Trump spent more than $40 million in the first half of the year on legal defense costs for Trump, his advisers, and others in his orbit, sources tell the Washington Post and CBS News. The Save America political action committee is expected to formally disclose that amount, as well as other expenditures, Monday in its semi-annual Federal Election Commission filing. The number is a massive jump from the prior two years in their entirety, during which the PAC spent just $16 million total on legal spending. The New York Times, citing its own sources, reports that Save America is also requesting a refund for a $60 million contribution it made to another pro-Trump group. It paints the request as a signal of “a potential money crisis” for the former president.
The Post points out that in addition to being the largest expense the PAC has incurred so far during Trump’s 2024 campaign, it’s also more than Trump’s campaign raised in the second quarter of 2023—and as Trump faces multiple indictments, legal costs are expected to “mushroom.” Sources say the PAC is paying for the legal bills of nearly anyone caught up in the investigations who asks Trump or his advisers for assistance, and while interviewing witnesses in the various cases against Trump, prosecutors have questioned them about who is paying their legal bills, signaling they may be concerned about conflicts of interest. The Republican National Committee previously paid many of Trump’s legal bills, but could no longer do so after Trump announced he was running for president again in 2024.
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