Trump directs donations to a PAC that has paid legal fees as they mount
Trump directs donations to a PAC that has paid legal fees as they mount
Former President Donald J. Trump has subtly started transferring more of the funds he is raising away from his 2024 presidential campaign and into a political action committee that he has used to cover his personal legal expenses. Trump is facing a number of escalating investigations.
The change, which was only mentioned in the fine print of his online disclosures, raises new concerns about how Mr. Trump is covering his mounting legal expenses as he gears up for at least two criminal trials, which could cost millions of dollars. It also makes it unclear whether his political action committee, Save America, is in financial trouble.
For every dollar raised online when Mr. Trump launched his 2024 campaign in November, 99 cents went to his campaign, and one penny went to Save America.
But according to internet archival data, he changed that split sometime in February or March. Now, just 90% of donations go to his campaign, with the remaining 10% going to Save America.
That alteration could have a significant impact: According to his campaign’s reported fundraising totals, the subtle trick may have already transferred at least $1.5 million to Save America.
Additionally, the group’s formation has allowed Mr. Trump to avoid paying his own legal bills by having his modest donations cover them.
Mr. Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, declined to elaborate on the reasons why the Trump campaign changed the way the money it is raising is being distributed. One of the former president’s most precious assets, the list of email addresses and phone numbers of his supporters, is technically owned by Save America, and the campaign is essentially paying the PAC for access to that list, he said.
A fair-market analysis was carried out to determine that email list rentals would be more efficient by changing the fund-raising split between the two entities, Mr. Cheung said in a written statement. “Because the campaign wants to ensure every dollar donated to President Trump is spent in the most cost-effective manner, it was determined that email list rentals would be more efficient.”
There are numerous and rather ambiguous rules governing what political action groups and candidate campaign committees may spend money on. But generally speaking, neither a PAC nor a campaign committee can spend money directly on the politician’s campaign or on items that benefit the candidate personally.
Save America has been covering the costs of different investigations into the former president and his friends for more than a year, prior to Mr. Trump becoming a candidate for the 2024 election. The PAC declared that it had $122 million in its bank account in February 2022.The PAC has only $18 million in cash on hand at the start of 2023, according to documents.
The remaining funds were used for staff pay, Mr. Trump’s political efforts last year, including some spending on other candidates and organisations, as well as miscellaneous expenses. This included the $60 million that was sent to the super PAC MAGA Inc., which is backing Mr. Trump. And about $16 million was used to cover legal expenses.
The internet revenues of Mr. Trump’s competitors are not similarly divided with a connected PAC. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Ambassador Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott all have webpages that funnel all donations to their respective political committees. The same is true for Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.Adav Noti, senior vice president and legal director of Campaign Legal Centre, stated, “I think in this particular situation, specifically because the use of the leadership PAC to pay legal expenses and potentially other expenses that would be illegal personal use of campaign money, there’s an unusual incentive for the leadership PAC to take in more than it would normally do.
The magnitude of Mr. Trump’s legal bills skyrocketed prior to his most recent campaign. In the first half of 2022, Save America incurred legal costs of $1.9 million. According to federal data, that amount increased dramatically in the second half of last year, approaching $14.6 million.
Late in 2022, a Trump advisor said that Save America PAC had set aside around $20 million to handle litigation costs.
Since then, Mr. Trump has been charged twice: once by a federal grand jury in Florida for alleged violations of the Espionage Act stemming from Mr. Trump’s long-term possession of classified documents and official records, and once by a Manhattan grand jury on charges related to a hush-money payment to a porn star.
The former president is currently being represented in both instances by renowned lawyer Todd Blanche, who quit his white-collar litigation firm in April to join the former president’s legal team. Mr Trump also recently had meetings with roughly a dozen attorneys in Florida.
The legal issues Mr. Trump is facing are closely related to his political campaign and fund-raising initiatives. A “I Stand With Trump” T-shirt with the date of his Manhattan indictment (“03.30.2023”) is available for purchase from his campaign store for $36; a second shirt with the date of his Florida indictment (“06.08.2023”) was recently added and is available for $38. On the landing page of the business, half of the featured items display a false mug shot and the words “not guilty.”
As overlapping teams of white-collar attorneys defend Mr. Trump in the federal case, the Manhattan criminal case, as well as in the Georgia investigation, where Mr. Trump could face yet another indictment this summer for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, Mr. Trump’s standard legal strategy of delay, delay, delay, could prove costly. Additionally, he is the subject of a growing investigation concerning his attempts to retain power after losing the election by special counsel Jack Smith.
If Mr. Trump has issues with the political action committee, it is still unknown if he will attempt to use campaign funds to hire attorneys, and if so, whether this would violate spending regulations.
According to Mr. Noti, “He can use the campaign to pay for legal bills that arise out of candidate or officeholder activity.” Of course, some of the present legal cases fall into this category, while others do not, and some are in a grey area. “That really depends on the subject at hand.”
Republican election lawyer Jason Torchinsky asserted that he thought Mr. Trump was prohibited from using Save America donations to cover his own legal costs now that he is a candidate, claiming that doing so would be “an excessive contribution” in accordance with Federal Election Commission precedent. And he asserted that Mr. Trump was not permitted to use any campaign funds since doing so would constitute personal usage.
