The political action committee that former President Donald Trump is using to pay his legal bills faced such staggering costs this year that it requested a refund on a $60 million contribution it made to another group supporting the Republican front-runner, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The decision signals a potential money crisis for Trump, who has so far refused to pay his own voluminous bills directly and has also avoided creating a legal-defense fund for himself and people who have become entangled in the various investigations related to him. It comes as Trump runs a campaign while under indictment in two jurisdictions and, soon, potentially a third, while also paying the legal fees of a number of witnesses who are close to him or who work for him.
It is unclear how much money was refunded. But the refund was sought as the PAC, Save America, spent more than $40 million in legal fees incurred by Trump and witnesses in various legal cases related to him this year alone, according to another person familiar with the matter. The numbers will be part of the Save America Federal Election Commission filing that is expected to be made public late Monday.
That $40 million was in addition to $16 million that Save America spent in the previous two years on legal fees. Since then, Trump has been indicted twice and has expanded the size of his legal team, and his two co-defendants in the case related to his retention of classified material work for him. The total legal spending is roughly $56 million.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/60-million-refund-request-shows-145209096.html
Comment: This NYT article is titled wrong. The legal fees are not pressuring Trump. They are pressuring the Republican effort to win the White House in 2024. Trump’s got plenty of pressures, but legal fees are not among them. The MAGA crowd will foot the bill. Unfortunately for the Republican effort to regain the White House, there’s less MAGA money going their way. As I remember Trump was stingy with the money he raised leading up to the 2022 elections.
I know it’s called the Save America PAC, but so far it’s more a Save my Miserable Old Ass from Prison PAC. I imagine this is all exasperating to Republicans, even all those who see Trump as a viable candidate for 2024, but would like to see some of that wealth shared amongst the rest of the ticket.
TTG
There’s also the $250 million from the Stop the Steal grift.
IMO, Trump will win the GOP nomination and lose the general to old, doddering Biden.
Trump had his shot. When push came to shove he demonstrated he had no courage. His entire administration was hired from the Swamp. He was so weak kneed that he had no guts to declassify what Devin Nunes who saw the docs suggested. Trump hired Rod Rosenstein & Chris Wray who turned around and screwed him over, yet didn’t have the guts to fire them. He said he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary’s classified docs on her private server. That didn’t happen either.
The GOP is also similar. In contrast, Trump was impeached the first time for having a conversation with Zelensky and asking him to investigate the corruption. Biden of course having taken bribes is not being impeached. Trump also didn’t launch any investigation of the Biden corruption either when he was in office. Then notice the sweetheart plea deal Hunter was getting including immunity from future prosecution just like Trump’s labor secretary and previously Miami US attorney arranged with Epstein.
BP, I gather from your writings that you work in finance, probably international finance.
In any case, I wonder if you have any opinion on the paleoconservative economist Paul Craig Roberts.
He writes about economic (his professional area of expertise), social, and geopolitical issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
IMO, the more interesting thing is that this implies that Trump is not confident about being the Republican nominee. His Save America PAC would have donated to a generic “2024 Presidential Campaign” fund only because he expected to be able to use that money for *his* campaign; clawing it back indicates he’s worried that some other candidate may wind up controlling that money.
Bonus observation: the linked CNN article doesn’t name the PAC(s) or Fund(s) or whatever that is/are being asked to refund that money; I did a short google search, and found nothing which names them. Rolling Stone article specifically states “It is unclear which PAC received the $60 million, and how much of it was ultimately refunded, if any.”
Our political “system” is broken…
The political system does not serve our needs nor do the politicians in DC it elects. Congress is obviously seen by presidents these days as more of a nuisance than anything else. We live in a purgatory in which the two sides refuse to compromise and so we are stuck with little getting done and presidents attempting to government by executive orders.
I am so sick of the dysfunction. I want all new candidates for 2024.
If you think that the “system” is broken and dysfunction is endemic, then new candidates will not solve the problem. The system has become dysfunctional and we need some bipartisanship to deal with that. Current candidates are operating under the current system…new candidates would be as well.
We need a bigger (more representative) House of Representatives, we need to address the Electoral College (not sure whether it can be abolished or just tweaked), we need campaign finance reform and shorter campaign windows, we need judicial ethics reform up and down the line, we need a new Voting Rights Act, and …. what else?
Until we address the issues…we will not have better candidates or better governance.
Any changes to the Electoral College would require a Constitutional Amendment – ergo, not gonna happen.
Real Campaign Finance reform will be impossible as long as the two main Parties are mostly funded by Zillionaires.
IMO, the first step is Ranked Choice Voting, making it possible for other Parties to develop without the “spoiler” problem. RCV can be implemented at the State level (see Maine & Alaska).
elkern,
I agree that wider use of ranked choice voting may be a way to break out of the two party stranglehold.
You wouldn’t be referring to Biden with the miserable ass remark would you?
Biden is the most popular president ever. 81 million ballots. Barack, of course, knew nothing about those bribes from Ukraine, or China. Thank goodness there is no report on Yahoo about the laptop, I mean Devin Archer’s wonderful testimony that will, like Ollie North’s, be used to ensure there’s no prosecution of the non-crooks.
Meanwhile “climate change is real” The planet is boiling (UN reference). Even the Gulf of Mexico is …. hotter than the air temperature! (My brother heard that on CNN). Oh my! I’m sure when the Dutch and Irish get done killing cows we’ll all be safer. I for one am very glad my ancestors managed to kill off all those buffalo. Can you imagine how hot it would be if they were still roaming around farting out planet killing gasses? (science!)
Biden will save us though. What’s his re-election policy: Climate Change, Mandatory Vax (don’t think side effects), Immigration reform (don’t look now, but the border is secure- like Ukraine’s), Student Loan Payoffs (not for you who paid your debt), Diversity Equity Inclusion, maybe Abortion? Or better yet:
Bidenomics 2024. With Kamala too! As the ads once said: What’s in your wallet? Mine’s got a whole lot less money. Better get me some free money Joe, there’s an election coming …..
Biden: Trust the science!
Trump: Truss up the scientists!
Sunak: Truss no more!
All three: Plunder, blame, aquire, hoard, bludgeon!
This morning the NY Times reported that Biden & Trump are neck n neck according to the polls they consulted. I’m not sure if they even cover the Biden’s alleged corruptions. Lap top coverage was censored, and “intelligence” officials signed a letter which claimed it was Russian disinfo, which it wasn’t. IOW they lied so he’d be elected. I’m not a fan of Trump’s. It’s become a question of the messiest of two evils.
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Baturina also wired $3.5 million to a Hunter-linked company, in what her brother, Viktor Baturin, tells the Daily Mail was “a payment to enter the American market.”
While former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer spills the beans about Burisma, Joe, and the Biden family dealings, the Daily Mail revealed on Monday that Hunter Biden’s real estate firm received a $40 million investment from a Russian oligarch, Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of the former mayor of Moscow.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-met-moscow-mayors-wife-35-million-wire-hunter-devon-archer
Devon Archer testimony to Congress (under oath):
“Joe Biden NEVER discussed any business with Hunter and his associates”.
“There was no bribe from Burisma to Joe or Hunter”.
Devon Archer testifies, Trump gets indicted. How’s the weather? I heard that’s what all those phone calls were all about. Anyone else in those meetings call their dad?
Love how leaked testimony instantly is awarded quotation marks.
trump doesn’t share. he runs his campaign just like he’s run his businesses (& his administration) throughout his career – as a criminal enterprise.
The two party system is broken and has been for decades. Both parties are run by, and for, the ultra rich. The culture wars raging on both sides are nothing more than a distraction from the fact that the millionaires in Congress are doing nothing more than funneling money to themselves and their types at the expense of the working and middle class in this country. As usual, the grass roots on both sides are more than happy to beat each other silly over nonsense whilst the ultra rich in both parties rob them blind. We continue to fight over the scraps they choose to leave us. We are an oligarchy, in every sense of the word. As George Carlin said, government and those who control it are a big club, and YOU arent in it.
Carlin was clairvoyant. He was savvy on the corner-drugstore/big-pharma opioid scam fifty years prior to the CDC finally jumping onboard.
He has been dead how long and he still had it down. Imagine the take he would have on either of our political front runners today? It is all a big joke, yet the vast majority of Americans happily play along. Neither Biden nor Trump arent worth much at all. I would say if they are the best this country has to offer then we are in serious trouble. But they are not meant to be. Our leaders and their agendas are meant to keep the average person thinking about culture wars, men in dresses, songs about small towns, so we dont figure out we are being fleeced by both sides. Neither side really care about these issues. Who, in their right mind picks someone like Trump to lead a so called “conservative” party? There is not a conservative bone in that man’s body, not in his personal life, not in his private life nor in his very limited role in government. Nope, it is meant to keep people upset and angry, at the wrong people. I still remember how Trump was so close to the liberal elite in NY. They are all the same.
I don’t think the Parties are the same… other than being driven by the upshot of $ Uber Alles in our political sphere + the players aging out at the top.
the critical differentiator at the current time is the rise of armed, organized militias having the blessings of Jesus to make things right, on the right, led by a guy who has proven willing to sacrifice anything & anybody to his own urges. a novel situation, at least in the USA.
You make my point for me. You think the GOP shotcallers care their policies and rhetoric are helping to fuel this? Nope. As long as the middle class and working class are at each other’s necks the 1% will be able to continue to rob them blindly. The last thing the leaders from either party want is for people to wake up and realise that their future, and that of their children, is being robbed by the elite in this country. So the “culture wars” is the perfect way to keep people from realising what the real issues are.
Stefan, I think we are approaching the issue from distinct POVs. I see a crisis that’s at the point of organized violent insurrection. I happen to believe its style is found deep in American character. our nation’s character is fueled by exceptionalism + appeal to carrying out God’s Will. this has yielded destructive popular reaction to the forces of modernity. & we easily resort to violence, privately & en masse (lengthy thesis insertion required here). the Founder’s addressed this by fusing democracy (freedom! liberty! privacy! personal weaponry!) w/ representative gov (“a republic, if you can keep it”). tapping into that nature (by mob or manipulation) can destroy the American Experiment in enlightened, pragmatic self-government. the GOP has surrendered its role as adult supervisor for power at any cost. including nihilism & hate. playing w/ fire that risks burning down the house. the Constitution (w/ its many flaws) provides some relief, a la 19th Century, but that piece of paper has been gamed more than honored, as you well point out. I am most focused on staunching the outbreak violence in the near term at this juncture. more so than Marxist style critique of long-term macro-economic class struggle (which tends to overlook emotion & qualitative influences – imo, one of its blind-spots). as “true & useful” as ideological models may be… for academics, ideologues & fervent revolutionaries … America faces a clear & present danger that calls for saving the Experiment, right now. this is why I have advocated a Constitutional Convention to provide our polity a buffer for the angst to be processed. better than a battlefield.
{& as to our 1% overlords, sure, the GOP has failed the nation there too, wholesale. the Dems? they’re in retail & may well see their party over soon too.}
cheers!
The most effective militia, on the ground, I see in the US is anti-fa led by the teaching of Allinsky/Gramsci.
MAGA has no use for the RNC/Senate/House campaign committees and by extension the state Republican Parties. So MAGA applauds that no money is going to them.
I wonder if Trump will call on Steven Sund, the ex Capitol Police chief, in his defense.
ZH has an article with extracts from an interview Sund gave to Tucker Carlson on J6 before TC was canned by Fox. It never aired. In it Sund says he was exasperated by the lack of NG support for over an hour and then speculates “Could there possibly be actually… they kind of wanted something to happen?”. Sounds to me like the guy in charge of the Capitol Police on the day is coming over to the Reichstag fire hypothesis that many of us crazy conspiracy theorists cling to.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/everything-appears-be-cover-capitol-police-chief-challenged-j6-narrative-never-aired