A long-term drain on the campaign coffers—legal expenses—may be relinquishing some of their sway as ex-President Donald Trump confronts a heightened fundraising effort by the Democrats.
In June, the Save America PAC spent approximately $827,000 toward Trump’s legal fees, according to a new report. This is the first month in two years that the amount has fallen below $1 million. According to an Associated Press study of campaign finance records, the Trump-aligned PAC has spent almost $4 million per month on such expenses since July 2022. The majority of this expenditure has gone toward defending the former president in both civil and criminal charges.
That Save America has seen a decline of this magnitude is hardly unexpected. A conviction came from Trump’s weeks-long hush-money trial in May, and the ex-president has been lucky in two federal criminal cases that are unlikely to go to trial any time soon. Also hanging in the balance is a case in Georgia.
The campaign has reached a pivotal stage, and the funds that were previously allocated to fund those legal challenges can now be used for other purposes. After President Joe Biden backed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic ticket’s presidential nominee on Sunday, the campaign was essentially restarted. Trump has demanded a return of the funds spent by his campaign to undermine Biden.
As of Wednesday, Harris’s campaign had collected a whopping $126 million in contributions, thanks to the Democratic base’s unwavering support. This monumental amount is almost half of what the Biden reelection campaign had raised in the whole second quarter. A super PAC backing the Democratic ticket, Future Forward, has received an extra $150 million in pledges.
According to experts, every dollar counts in a competitive election, even though the amount Save America is paying for lawyers is very little compared to recent campaigns.
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, predicted that the race would be close and applauded the move to redirect funds previously allocated to lawyers to organizers.
Donations to Trump’s campaign increased following his conviction on May 31. Following the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, the campaign has not disclosed the exact amount it raised, but it is widely anticipated to be substantial.
Costs associated with legal representation have decreased since a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 state charges related to hiding a hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in order to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she had with the future president during the 2016 campaign. In his appeal, Trump reiterated his denial of guilt.
Additionally, the ex-president is attempting to halt the drain on his personal funds caused by a civil fraud judgment in New York that amounts to roughly $500 million. In February, a judge ruled that Trump and his business conspired for a long time to falsify financial documents in order to get transactions and loans.
Apart from that, Trump has managed to sidestep any legal issues that may have hindered his campaigning efforts in the upcoming summer and fall. The criminal indictment that Trump was accused of unlawfully keeping sensitive materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, was dismissed by a federal judge on July 15. Special counsel for the Justice Department, Jack Smith, is appealing that ruling.
Smith had intended to prosecute the ex-president on charges of attempting to derail the 2020 election, but last month the Supreme Court mostly agreed with Trump in providing presidents wide immunity from prosecution. The appeals process has stalled a fourth Georgia criminal case involving state charges.
According to Republican strategist Doug Heye, “He was a bit hamstrung by the trials when it came to doing fundraisers.” Neither the Wednesday event in Dallas nor the Thursday event in Miami were possible for Trump. In New York, he remained stranded. Well, that’s obviously not true.
Since January 2022, more than 80 law firms and individual attorneys defending Trump and his current and past aides have received at least $83 million from his Save America political action committee, according to filings from the Federal Election Commission. The bulk of the PAC’s budget goes toward this, and it has evolved into the primary mechanism for soliciting and disbursing funds for Trump’s legal representation.
Although the Federal Election Commission has determined that the prohibition does not apply to so-called leadership political action committees like Save America, experts in campaign finance argue that utilising the funds to hire lawyers for cases unrelated to the campaign or the officeholder’s duties could violate a federal ban on the personal use of donor dollars. There is an intrinsic political connection between the court proceedings and Trump’s candidacy, according to his campaign.
While the Trump campaign would not comment on the exact amount of legal fees, they did accuse the decision-makers of being politically motivated in bringing both criminal and civil proceedings. Democrats “weaponized the justice system against their chief political opponent during the peak of the presidential campaign,” according to Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
The legal pressure has been reduced, but Trump’s lawyers still have a mountain to climb.
According to Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Florida’s Stetson University College of Law, the immunity decision from the Supreme Court will be a point of contention between the prosecution and Trump’s lawyers in the New York case. No date has been scheduled for sentencing, so Trump’s attorneys will need to get ready for that if the case makes it through those hearings.
As this is happening, the attorneys will be working to reduce the scope of the remaining election interference charges. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington must determine, in light of the Supreme Court’s decision, which charges cannot be pursued by Smith’s attorneys any longer. In addition, his legal team will battle Smith’s appeal to reverse U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit involving the classified materials.
The most expensive time for defendants is during trial, so “Trump will still be racking up legal bills,” Torres-Spelliscy added, “but less than when he was in trial.”