WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Donald Trump鈥檚 political fundraising machine is raking in donations at a prodigious pace, but he鈥檚 spending tens of millions of dollars he鈥檚 bringing in to pay attorneys to deal with the escalating costs of the various criminal cases he is contending with as he moves further into the 2024 presidential campaign.
Campaign finance experts say using the money to pay for lawyers in cases not related to the campaign or officeholder duties appears to conflict with a federal ban on the personal use of donor dollars, even though the Federal Election Commission has ruled the prohibition doesn鈥檛 apply to so-called leadership political action committees. The massive amount of money going to lawyers also amplifies the urgency Trump is feeling to raise money both for the campaign and his legal defense, which is unfolding on multiple fronts.
Trump鈥檚 Save America political action committee has paid nearly $37 million to more than 60 law firms and individual attorneys since January 2022, Federal Election Commission records show. That amounts to more than half of the PAC鈥檚 total expenditures, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance filings, and represents a staggering sum compared to other political organizations.
During the first half of 2023, Save America spent more on legal-related costs, over $20 million, than any other political committee that discloses to the FEC 鈥 more than the Republican 春色直播 Committee, Democratic 春色直播 Committee and 春色直播 Republican Senatorial Committee spent during that period combined.
The bulk of the Trump PAC money went to law firms that have defended Trump against a series of criminal charges or in civil lawsuits. Other attorneys paid with the contributions worked on behalf of Trump鈥檚 businesses, his children, former White House aides and employees of the ex-president.
Footing the legal bills for co-defendants and potential witnesses raises additional thorny ethical questions: Will the attorneys paid by Trump be more loyal to him or their clients? If clients feel indebted to Trump, will they be less forthcoming about what they know?
鈥淭he way these cases get built is you persuade the little fish to testify against the big fish,鈥 said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and criminal law professor at George Washington University Law School. 鈥淲ell, if the little fish鈥檚 lawyer is being paid by the big fish that鈥檚 less likely to happen potentially.鈥
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. ___
Trump鈥檚 status as the first former president to be criminally indicted, his run for another White House term while defending himself in multiple court cases, and the loads of donor money flowing to lawyers are a trifecta unparalleled in U.S. history. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and he and his allies have blasted the long list of felony charges and lawsuits as political attacks meant to derail his 2024 campaign.
But the legal jeopardy has become his most potent fundraising tool. Trump鈥檚 claim that he鈥檚 the victim of a corrupt justice system determined to silence him and his supporters is a primary plank in his platform. .
As Trump鈥檚 civil fraud trial in New York got underway earlier this month, he used the heavy media coverage as a megaphone. To the cameras stationed in the courthouse hallways, Trump denounced state Attorney General Letitia James鈥 case as 鈥渁 witch hunt and a disgrace.鈥 He and his company are accused by James of inflating the value of his real estate empire to deceive banks and insurers.
Trump also turned his surrender in Georgia on charges that he illegally schemed to into a fundraising bonanza. His presidential campaign said it has sold about 47,000 T-shirts, coffee mugs and posters featuring the mug shot taken of the former president when he was booked in August at the Overall, the campaign said it raised $9.4 million in the days following the photo鈥檚 release. That money is earmarked for political and campaign activities, not for legal expenses, according to the campaign.
To help pay the legal fees, Trump鈥檚 political operation has also moved millions from his super PAC, MAGA Inc.
The FEC data reveal a pattern that has developed since Trump left office: he gets into legal trouble and responds forcefully, donations from his backers spike, and then millions of those dollars flow to the army of attorneys defending him and others caught up in the drama.
The second and third quarters of 2022 illustrate the cycle. Save America spent about $1.5 million on legal fees in the second quarter. During the third, payments to attorneys grew to more than $6 million. The surge coincided with the FBI鈥檚 court-authorized search for top-secret documents he allegedly hoarded at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which federal prosecutors say violated laws meant to keep classified information secret.
鈥淭he indictments are probably not expanding his coalition, but it鈥檚 certainly giving it greater intensity,鈥 said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. 鈥淪o people who are already supporting Donald Trump are probably going to dig in their heels and support him more.鈥
That鈥檚 true of at least some donors, who say they have no problem with their money going to lawyers.
鈥淔irst thing I thought: What a crock,鈥 said Robert Lee, a motorcycle repairman in Boca Raton, Florida, who made a small donation after the FBI鈥檚 Mar-a-Lago search. 鈥淣one of this ever happened to anyone who wasn鈥檛 Trump.鈥
Asked about a presidential campaign that spends so much on legal expenses, Lee said, 鈥淭hat would be fine with me. I see nothing wrong with that.鈥
In addition to the New York business fraud case and the election case in Georgia, Trump is battling federal felony counts arising from the Mar-a-Lago records case in Florida and the 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C. In a separate New York state case, he鈥檚 accused of making hush money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep a sexual relationship from becoming public. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges involving the payment.
Two of Trump鈥檚 most heavily compensated lawyers, Alina Habba and Christopher Kise, flanked the ex-president at the defendants鈥 table when the trial in James鈥 business fraud lawsuit began earlier this month.
Habba is the managing partner of Habba Madaio & Associates in Bedminster, New Jersey. Her small litigation firm, which is near Trump鈥檚 eponymous golf course, has received almost $3.5 million from Save America.
Habba has also been engaged in several civil cases for Trump, according to court records, including an ongoing defamation lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, whom a jury found was sexually assaulted by Trump. Habba is his attorney in a lawsuit he filed against his niece, Mary Trump, and New York Times reporters for an 鈥渋nsidious plot鈥 he claims they masterminded to obtain his income tax records.
Kise left the megafirm Foley & Lardner to be one of Trump鈥檚 attorneys. His firm, Chris Kise and Associates, received $2.8 million from the PAC. Along with the New York fraud lawsuit, he has a lead role in the Mar-a-Lago records case. Kise has deep ties to Florida鈥檚 Republican party. He worked on the transition teams for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.
Last year, Kise joined Florida-based Continental PLLC, a law firm that has separately received nearly $2.9 million. Court records show two other Continental attorneys were involved in early stages of the records case.
Critton, Luttier & Coleman, a law firm in West Palm Beach, Florida, received $3 million from Save America, according to the FEC filings. The firm did not respond to a request for comment about the work it did.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson University College of Law in Florida, said the risk of paying defense attorneys with contributions is that the FEC or the Justice Department may later decide that it was an illegal personal use of campaign funds. She doubted such a case would be brought against Trump now because doing so might slow the ongoing federal prosecutions overseen by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith.
鈥淏ut after the Mar-a-Lago and January 6th cases are done, I would not be surprised to see a personal use case against Trump for using these millions in donations that are meant to go to his political campaign going instead for the personal use of keeping him out of prison,鈥 Torres-Spelliscy said.
The FEC declined to comment for this story, but it seems unlikely to act anytime soon. The agency is led by six commissioners, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Trump nominated all the GOP commissioners. One of the Democratic commissioners, appointed by President Joe Biden, joined with
Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the non-profit Campaign Legal Center, criticized what he called the FEC鈥檚 鈥 blinkered and narrow view of the personal use prohibition.鈥
鈥淭he FEC is a dysfunctional agency that often fails to enforce the law because several commissioners don鈥檛 genuinely support the mission of the agency and favor a deregulatory approach to campaign finance laws,鈥 Ghosh said.
The hands-off approach, he added, has allowed Trump to exploit the people who give him money to help him politically.
鈥淚t does feel like donors are being taken advantage of to advance Donald J. Trump鈥檚 personal interests,鈥 Ghosh said.
, Smith and his team of prosecutors described Trump鈥檚 decision to pay the legal fees of co-defendants and potential witnesses as part of a pattern of his 鈥渙bstructive conduct鈥 in its investigations. The former president 鈥減resents a significant risk of tampering with evidence (and) seeking to influence or intimidate potential witnesses,鈥 according to the filing.
Those concerns are amplified in court records filed by Smith鈥檚 team in the Mar-a-Lago case.
About two weeks after the FBI found reams of classified documents in a storage room, Trump called a Mar-a-Lago employee with whom he is alleged to have discussed deleting security camera footage of the property, according to a July indictment. Trump assured the employee, property manager Carlos De Oliveira, that he would get him a lawyer.
He鈥檚 accused of scheming with Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, to conceal the footage from investigators. Court records show De Oliveira is being represented by John Irving of Earth & Water Law, a firm that has received more than $338,000 in payments, according to the campaign finance reports.
Another firm, Brand Woodward Law, represents Nauta and has been paid more than $350,000. Prosecutors handling the Mar-a-Lago case argued at a hearing last week that Nauta鈥檚 lawyer, Stanley Woodward, has a conflict of interest based on his prior representation of a key government witness: a Mar-a-Lago information technology worker who has since struck a cooperation deal with the government. Woodward has denied any conflict and has disputed prosecutors鈥 characterization of events, and the judge in the case cut short last Thursday鈥檚 hearing and scolded prosecutors for presenting arguments that she said were not properly raised earlier.
Trump鈥檚 former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is represented by the law firm McGuireWoods. The firm received almost $900,000.
None of that matters to donors contacted by the AP. Dawn Smelcer of Fayetteville, North Carolina, a frequent donor to Trump鈥檚 2024 campaign, said she鈥檚 backing Trump because of the 鈥渕istreatment鈥 he鈥檚 endured.
鈥淗e鈥檚 fighting an evil and we鈥檙e helping him to fight that evil,鈥 she said.
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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.
