Donald Trump’s PACs spent $50 million on the former president’s legal bills in 2023, according to a report from the New York Times.

The former president’s PAC are operating as slush funds to help him fight off a mountain of civil and criminal cases

Donald Trump’s PACs spent a staggering $50 million on the former president’s legal defense in 2023, according to a report from The New York Times.

According to two sources who spoke to the Times, the former president’s massive legal bills were paid out through funds from the Save America PAC and the Make America Great Again PAC, his two primary political action committees. The full details of the PAC spending will be made available Wednesday, the deadline for Federal Election Commission year-end campaign filings.

Given the multiple civil and criminal cases leveled against Trump in the last year, the mountain of legal bills is not necessarily a surprise. In August of last year, Save America revealed that it had burned through the majority of its cash-on-hand on Trump and his associates’ legal defenses. The Times reported at the time that Save America had requested a $60 million refund from another Trump-affiliated group to keep itself afloat.

According to the Times, 10 cents of every dollar donated to Trump’s campaign is being directed towards Save America, which in the last year has operated virtually exclusively as a legal slush fund for the former president.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    411·
    11 months ago

    Using campaign donations for personal expenses like this is of course super illegal.

    If just about anyone else had done it to this degree, their campaign would be over and they’d be facing a seperate trial for it or at the very least the maximum fines available to the FEC.

    • ares35@kbin.social
      101·
      11 months ago

      PACs have fewer restrictions than campaigns when it comes both getting and spending money.

      • eRac@lemmings.world
        4·
        11 months ago

        10% of actual campaign donations have been passed to the PAC being used almost exclusively for legal bills. This is campaign money.

    • crusa187
      21·
      11 months ago

      I’d imagine Cori Bush has a thing or two to say about this rn