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Donald Trump spent $10 million in donor money to pay his legal bills last year, but snubbed Rudy Giuliani because he failed to overturn President Biden’s 2024 win, federal election filings show.
Trump channeled the money from his Save America PAC into the pockets of his lawyers, who are still working to battle multiple cases.
The 76-year-old has teams of lawyers working to defend him against allegations of tax fraud at the Trump Organization; an investigation into his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago; claims of interfering in the election in Georgia; and whipping up the January 6 insurrection.
One prominent name who does not feature on The New York Times‘s list is Giuliani, who championed Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump told aides he did not want to pay Giuliani unless he succeeded in overturning the election.
Donald Trump, seen on January 28, has used $10 million in donor funds to pay his legal bills, it was reported on Tuesday
Trump spent $10M of donor money on his own legal bills – and gave former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his former personal attorney nothing.
Rudy Giuliani represented Donald Trump through some of the most tumultuous times in the former president’s presidency and is still awaiting payment.
Whether Trump can continue to use his PAC funds to pay his personal legal bills now that he is a declared presidential candidate is a gray area, experts told the paper.
‘Payments by a PAC that exceed the contribution limit are contributions to the candidate and are unlawful,’ said Jason Torchinsky, a campaign finance expert and lawyer with the firm Holtzman Vogel.
The current limit on individual donations to candidates is set at $3,300 for the current two-year political cycle.
The biggest paycheck, for $3 million, went to Florida-based law firm Critton, Luttier and Coleman.
The firm is affiliated with Christopher M. Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida.
Kise was hired by Trump to work on the Mar-a-Lago documents case, but is also now working on the tax fraud case at the Trump Organization, being led by the New York attorney general, Letitia James.
Another firm working on the Mar-a-Lago documents – Silverman Thompson Slutkin and White – received $1.3 million.
The firm is where Evan Corcoran, another of Trump’s high-profile lawyers, works.
Corcoran testified before a grand jury last month about the classified documents, and federal prosecutors are seeking to have him return to answer more questions. They have asked a judge to waive his right to refuse to answer questions on the basis of attorney-client privilege.
Chris Kise, a former attorney general for Florida, received $3 million to represent Trump in cases involving Mar-a-Lago documents and Trump Organization tax fraud allegations
Evan Corcoran, whose firm Silverman Thompson Slutkin and White received $1.3 million to work on the Mar-a-Lago documents
Jim Trusty, a former assistant state attorney in Montgomery County, Maryland, was hired by Trump after the former president saw him on TV
Michael van der Veen, pictured, represented Trump in his second impeachment trial, in February 2021
Alina Habba, who is acting for Trump in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who accuses him of raping her in a New York department store changing room in the 1990s. Her firm has been paid $2 million
The PAC spent roughly $1.2 million in fees paid to Ifrah Law, the firm of Jim Trusty.
Trump saw Trusty on television and decided to hire him, the paper reported.
Habba is representing Trump in multiple cases
Another $1.3 million went to Michael van der Veen’s law firm.
He represented Trump during his second impeachment trial, and in a New York tax fraud case against the Trump Organization – losing on all 17 counts.
And roughly $2 million was paid to the firm of Alina Habba, who is acting for Trump in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who accuses him of raping her in a New York department store changing room in the 1990s.
Habba is also representing the former president in his case against The New York Times for its reporting on his tax returns; a defamation case in Pennsylvania; and in a case against Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and ‘fixer’ who has now turned against him.
Most of Trump’s PAC money was raised before his November announcement that he was running for re-election in 2024.
At the end of last year, the PAC had just over $18 million in cash on hand, its federal filings show.
This comes as Trump and his businesses are fighting multiple legal woes and scandals.
Yesterday, the top investigator for the House January 6 committee said the riots – which some say Trump incited – were part of a ‘multipart plan to prevent the transfer of power’ following the 2020 election.
Timothy Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney, said he believes the Department of Justice also needs to charge several allies of former President Donald Trump including his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Meadows never testified before the committee, while Giuliani revealed very little – pleading the Fifth throughout his testimony.
The House select committee spent months investigating Trump and his allies’ involvement in inciting the riot and called on several members of his inner circle to testify.
Although some decided to remain silent when called before the panel, Heaphy said that the DOJ will ultimately come to a decision on who to charge depending on what further evidence they are able to procure – beyond what was presented to the House committee.
And last summer, Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 400 times during his deposition with the New York Attorney General’s office.
The former president refused to answer any questions during four hours of questioning on August 10.
Trump had to go to New York City over the summer to appear for a deposition in James’ civil fraud investigation against the former president.
Appearing on August 10, Trump politely answered the opening questions from James before going into the several-hundred string of refusals to Wallace’s inquiries.
Trump answered ‘yes’ when James asked if he was familiar with the rules for a deposition.
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