Trump campaign shoulders big bills as probe expands
Legal expenses top $677,000 during April-June period
President Trump already has stockpiled nearly $12 million for his 2020 re-election campaign, but his spending on legal expenses is soaring as his administration deals with a rapidly expanding investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, documents released Saturday afternoon show.
Trump’s campaign racked up more than $677,000 in “legal consulting ” fees between April and June, more than twice the $249,000 he spent on legal bills during the first three months of his presidency, newly filed Federal Election Commission reports show.
Most of the legal expenses were tied to his longtime election law firm, Jones Day.
But the filings also show a nearly $90,000 payment for legal expenses to his company, the Trump Organization, and $50,000 payment on June 27 to the law firm of Alan Futerfas, the New York-based criminal attorney now representing Donald Trump Jr.
The younger Trump is facing increased scrutiny over revelations that he met a Russian lawyer in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, believing that the Russian government had dirt to offer on Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton.
The payment to Futerfas came before The New York Times broke news of Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russian lawyer and nearly two weeks before it was publicly announced that Futerfas would represent the president’s oldest son.
Michael Glassner, the executive director of Trump’s campaign, did not respond to requests for more information about the payment to Futerfas. Futerfas did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the payment and its timing, and a White House official referred the question to the campaign.
Using donors’ money to pay his son’s legal bills “should be permissible,” Washington election lawyer Ken Gross told USA TODAY, because the younger Trump’s actions “were purportedly on behalf of the campaign.”
New details have emerged in recent days about the meeting involving the president’s son. On Friday, news broke that a Russian-American lobbyist who once served in the Soviet military also was part of the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
On Saturday, the president formally announced the addition of a veteran Washington lawyer, Ty Cobb, to his legal team at the White House.
Cobb, a partner in the investigations practice at the Hogan Lovells firm, is expected to oversee the White House’s legal and media response to the Russia probes.
Bob Biersack, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, said if Trump campaign pays his son’s legal expenses a key question will be whether it will underwrite the legal expenses related to the Russia investigation for other campaign staffers.
Using donors’ money to pay his son’s legal bills “should be permissible.” Washington election lawyer Ken Gross