How Trump moved money to pay $100 million in legal bills
Since leaving office in 2021, former President Donald Trump has spent more than $100 million on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records.
The remarkable sum means that Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years – none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election.
Now those accounts are nearly drained, and Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them.
Late 2020 to early 2021
Trump raised a staggering $254 million online from Nov. 4, 2020, the day after the election, to President Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20, 2021, as he urged supporters to fuel an “election defense fund.”
The contributions came so quickly that on Nov. 9, Trump formed a new political action committee, Save America, to store all the cash. Only a fraction of the money, however, went toward recounts and other legal challenges to the election. Some went to Trump’s lawyers during his second impeachment, related to the Jan. 6 riot. But Trump banked much of the cash.
Rest of 2021
Trump started to use the money to fund his post-presidential political operation and what would eventually become his sprawling legal teams. In February, Trump renamed his 2020 committee to MAGA PAC.
By the end of 2021, Save America, which continued to bring in new donations, held a substantial portion of Trump’s fundraising: $105 million.
2022
Both Save America and MAGA PAC spent significantly in 2022 on legal bills and other related expenses. The House held its public Jan. 6 hearings. The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, for missing classified documents in August. His legal fees rose.
Trump spent about $27.2 million on legal-related costs for the year.
As Trump prepared to announce his 2024 run late in 2022, he faced a quandary: His PAC could not directly spend money to elect him as president. So Save America transferred $60 million to a pro-Trump super PAC called MAGA Inc.
2023
Save America began 2023 with $18.3 million. But Trump’s legal expenses were about to soar. He was first indicted in March 2023 in New York. Three other indictments followed.
Trump spent close to $60 million on legal and investigation-related costs – which included his lawyers, a document-production company and an expert witness in his New York civil fraud case.
Early last year, Trump made a change to bring more money into Save America, the PAC that was paying his legal expenses. At first, 1 cent of every dollar he raised online went to Save America; the rest went to his 2024 campaign. But with Save America short of cash to pay lawyers, he increased that to 10%.
It was still not enough. By June 2023, Save America had less than $4 million on hand. In an unusual move, Trump asked his super PAC for a refund of the $60 million he had given just months earlier so that Save America could continue paying for his legal expenses.
By the end of 2023, more than $42 million had been returned from his super PAC to Save America.
2024
With his first trial looming – in the New York case related to hush-money payments to an adult film actress – Trump’s legal costs continued to rise. He spent at least $9.7 million in January and February.
The more than $100 million in legal spending since leaving office does not include spending from Trump’s 2024 campaign, which has not paid for his personal legal bills. The use of donations to pay for his personal lawyers has been allowed under federal rules.
To cover the ongoing legal costs, his super PAC refunded an additional $10 million in January and February. But there is now only $7.75 million left to refund. Save America had less than $4 million at the end of February, when accounting for unpaid debts.
The Trump team has said the Republican National Committee won’t pay his legal bills. But his new shared fundraising agreement with the party directs a portion of donations to his Save America PAC before the party itself. Still, the account paying Trump’s legal bills will most likely be out of money by summer at the current spending pace.
Then, Trump must decide: Whose money will he use to pay his lawyers?
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METHODOLOGY:
Data comes from filings made with the FEC since 2020 for Trump’s 2020 campaign committee (which was renamed Make America Great Again PAC), Trump’s 2024 campaign committee, the leadership PAC Save America, the Make America Great Again Inc super PAC, the joint fundraising committees Trump Make America Great Again Committee and Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, and the fundraising platform WinRed.
Legal costs were tallied from all expenditures matching the term “legal” and certain expenditures matching the terms “document” and “research,” which were determined to be related to ongoing legal cases and investigations. The figure for 2024 includes legal debts incurred by Save America in 2024, which were outstanding at the end of February.
Yearly donations were calculated from online donations reported by WinRed for the 2020 and 2024 Trump campaigns, Trump-aligned leadership committees and Trump-controlled joint fundraising committees.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.