Donald Trump’s extraordinary tour of courtrooms this year thanks to his multiple legal problems has been a well-documented distraction from his more directly political operations. And there’s been some attention given to the amount of money he’s having to raise to pay his many lawyers and expert witnesses — money that theoretically could instead be going into campaign expenses such as ads and staff.
But perhaps we’ve been looking at this issue from the wrong perspective. Suppose Trump was not running for president. Would he be able to raise the money to pay his legal expenses if he was no more than an embattled ex-president rattling the cup even as some other Republican prepared to duel with Joe Biden?
That’s unclear, but it’s very clear he’s having to come up with a lot of jack to keep the suits working on his behalf, as the Associated Press recently reported:
Trump’s Save America political action committee paid [NYU Accounting Professor Eli] Bartov nearly $930,000 last year as an expert witness in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case that threatens the former president’s real estate empire, according to new Federal Election Commission filings.
Bartov bombed. New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron declared in December the professor’s testimony proved only that “for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say.”
An Associated Press analysis of new Federal Election Commission filings shows the payments to Bartov are among $54 million in legal expenditures made last year by Trump’s political fundraising machine….
Coupled with FEC data from 2022, AP’s review found that Save America, Trump’s presidential campaign and his other fundraising organizations have devoted $76.7 million to legal fees over the two years.
The accounting is complicated, but basically Save America is what is known as a “leadership PAC” with very few limits on eligible expenditures. So it has become the main conduit for Trump legal expense payments, with some of its money coming from a 10 percent rake-off of funds from small donors. But these costs are rolling in at a pace that will deplete the eligible funds sooner rather than later, aside from the opportunity costs associated with raising money for lawyers that could go elsewhere, as Bloomberg News recently explained:
The legal costs, which are expected to grow as Trump faces four criminal indictments, are likely to be a drag on his reelection effort’s finances. Money that can be used for legal fees is set to run out mid-year if he keeps spending at the same pace he did in 2023, meaning he will need to raise more from donors or appeal to the Republican National Committee for help.
Yes, the RNC could help its almost-certain nominee with legal costs, which may have something to do with Trump insisting on a member of his family becoming co-chair of the national party committee. Certainly Lara Trump has smiled upon the idea of the RNC helping her father-in-law with his unique level of bills from lawyers and experts, as NBC News reports:
After speaking at the former president’s South Carolina campaign headquarters Wednesday evening, Lara Trump was asked by NBC News if she thinks the RNC paying for his legal bills is something that would be of interest to Republican voters.
“Absolutely. That’s why you’ve seen a GoFundMe get started,” she said in remarks to a gaggle of reporters, referring to a GoFundMe page set up by Trump’s supporters in response to his multiple legal battles. “That’s why people are furious right now and they see the attacks against him. They feel like it’s an attack, not just on Donald Trump, but on this country … So I think that is a big interest to people. Absolutely.”
This is not great news for the many, many Republican candidates who might normally expect some financial help from the RNC, which is already struggling to make ends meet.
For Trump, though, it confirms suspicions about the ulterior motives he might have had in deciding to run for president in 2024. I’m sure that despite his notable lack of ideological principles and his limited interest in policy details, there are things he would like to do as president that have nothing to do with his vast legal liabilities, born of a lifetime of reckless behavior at the pinnacle of business and politics. For starters, he would like to fire an awful lot of federal employees to make way for his devoted loyalists, who would then be in a position to torment “enemies of the people,” particularly in journalism. But there’s no way around the fact that becoming president is the one sure way he can quash federal criminal indictments and intimidate prosecutors everywhere and that running for president is the easiest way to cover his legal expenses. As Lara Trump suggests, paying Trump’s lawyers has become a political cause, thanks to his assertions that every civil or criminal charge against him is part of a witch hunt that will eventually demolish the liberties of the MAGA rank and file. Trump’s suits are really freedom fighters who deserve nothing but the best in compensation.
