As Mark Twain once observed, “The law is a system that protects everybody who can afford to hire a good lawyer.” By that standard, former President Trump may find it increasingly difficult to defend himself against the partisan lawfare being waged against him by the Biden Justice Department and allied Democratic prosecutors in New York and Georgia. During the first half of 2023, Trump paid for most of his “good lawyers” by using funds from his Save America PAC. Nearly 90 percent of the expenses paid by this PAC, about $20 million, went to legal fees. This left it with less than $3.7 million in cash on hand according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) summary.
All of which suggests that the lawfare campaign being waged against Trump by the Biden Justice Department and allied Democratic prosecutors is working.
Trump’s campaign is far from broke, however. His main fundraising entities, Donald J. Trump for President, Save America, and the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, had nearly $32 million in cash on hand, according to FEC filings. The joint committee alone raised $53.8 million during the first half of the year, including $23.7 million in small dollar donations. Yet, as the New York Times phrases it, “Mr. Trump’s complex political orbit is already spending more than it is taking in, and tapping into money it raised years ago — an unusual trajectory this far out from an election.” Meanwhile, Special Counsel Jack Smith is very interested in the finances of Save America as the Washington Post reports:
While interviewing potential witnesses associated with Trump, prosecutors have raised pointed questions about who is paying for their lawyers and why, people familiar with the questions said. Trump advisers told The Washington Post that the PAC, which raises most of its money from small-dollar contributions by Trump supporters across the country, is footing the legal bills for almost anyone drawn into the investigations who requests help from the former president and his advisers.
The Special Counsel’s obvious interest in the Save America PAC has led to media speculation that contributions to the PAC may be seized. Andrew Weissmann, best known as “Mueller’s pitbull” and now an MSNBC “analyst,” gleefully tweeted: “Keep your eyes peeled for a criminal case about the Trump PAC and forfeiture allegations/seizures. Case would not need to go all the way up to Trump before Jack charges folks and seizes assets.” Frank Figliuzzi, another Mueller protégé who has also found a home at MSNBC, posted this hopeful “analysis” on Twitter: “This isn’t over yet. When you raise millions based on a fraudulent claim, you’ve committed a crime. And, you just might have to give those millions back.” (RELATED: Jack Smith’s Sham Indictment Shows Biden Regime Wants to Face Trump)
Never mind that Trump’s donors aren’t asking for their money back. The only Republicans who question Trump’s use of the contributions are his rivals for the GOP nomination. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, for example, went on CNN “Prime Time” to denounce Trump for using money from middle-class donors to pay legal expenses: “They’re not giving that money so he can pay his personal legal fees.” Christie offers no evidence for that and is frequently booed by GOP audiences for criticizing Trump. Meanwhile, the corporate media have wildly exaggerated Trump’s legal expenses. CNN ran a story titled, “Trump leadership PAC spends more than $40 million on legal fees amid indictments.”
Former President Donald Trump’s political action committee, Save America, has spent more than $40 million on legal fees since the start of this year, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The PAC, which raises most of its funds through small-dollar donations from Trump’s supporters, is expected to report to the Federal Election Commission on Monday that it spent $40.2 million on legal costs in the first half of the year — more than double the amount the group spent on legal fees in all of 2022.
Predictably, the “source familiar with the matter” got it wrong. As noted above, the total reported by the Save America PAC to the FEC for the first half of 2023 was about $20 million. This didn’t prevent most legacy media outlets, including Bloomberg, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, Reuters, the Daily Mail, the Independent, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and the Washington Post from using the bogus $40 million figure in their headlines. Thus far, only the Post has issued a correction: “A previous version of this article said that Donald Trump’s Save America PAC was expected to disclose $40.2 million in legal spending in the first half of 2023. The group’s filing later reported about $20 million in legal spending.”
Inaccurate reporting by the corporate media notwithstanding, Trump’s legal expenses constitute a very real problem for his campaign. As noted in the Times article quoted above, the political committees that Mr. Trump directly controls plus an independent super PAC which supports him exclusively raised about $67 million during the first half of 2023 and spent $90 million during the same period. The excess expenses were primarily attributable to legal fees. Consequently, Trump’s Save America PAC has been reduced to requesting a refund on a $60 million contribution it made last year to the Make America Great Again super PAC. Thus far, he has declined to use his own money to pay for the legal expenses.
All of which suggests that the lawfare campaign being waged against Trump by the Biden Justice Department and allied Democratic prosecutors is working. The question is this: Will his donors stick with him as the indictments pile up? NBC reports: “The former president’s legal woes are putting financial strain on his political operation. But he can call on the support of more donors than the rest of the GOP field combined.” What about the big money donors? In the end, they will go for the best investment. They are all watching Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. If he defeats Trump in the early GOP primaries, that’s where they’ll place their bets. To return to Mark Twain’s aphorism, DeSantis doesn’t need to hire a good Lawyer.
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