Trump body spends US$3.6m on his legal fees
Expenses drain funds backing leadership bid of ex-president while he faces criminal trials
Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s political group that pays his legal bills has reported spending US$3.6 million on lawyer fees last month, draining the finances backing the former Republican president’s White House bid as he trailed Joe Biden at raising money.
Trump is facing four criminal trials – including one which began last week – as he mounts an expensive campaign to challenge United States President Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 election.
Trump’s Save America group, which reported the outlays to the Federal Election Commission, is spending money largely raised from small donors, though the funds available could be dwindling.
The group, which is separate from Trump’s campaign but was his biggest fundraising group before he announced his candidacy, reported taking in just over US$10,000 from donors in March.
It was able to cover spending by taking a US$5 million refund of money it had previously given a super political action committee backing Trump’s campaign known as MAGA Inc.
Save America has now clawed back more than US$52 million of US$60 million it had previously given MAGA Inc, reducing considerably the amount of money MAGA Inc has available for television advertisements backing Trump.
While Save America has not disclosed the details of how much it has spent on each of Trump’s legal cases, its filings show that since the start of last year it has spent more than US$59 million on lawyer fees.
Trump was in court last week as a defendant on charges he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.
His three other pending criminal trials relate to his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election and to charges he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021. Trump is also appealing a US$454 million civil fraud judgment. His political operation is facing monetary challenges as well, disclosures to the Federal Election Commission showed.
His campaign reported raising US$15 million last month, up from around US$11 million February but not enough to make up financial ground with Biden, who has had a persistent edge in fundraising. Biden’s campaign raised more than US$43 million in March and ended the month with US$85 million in the bank.
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