Contributions to Trump’s Save America political action committee are also being used to pay for lawyers who represent co-defendants and potential witnesses in civil lawsuits against Trump.
By Richard Lardner, Trenton Daniel and Aaron Kessler, Associated PressFrom left, Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert, and Alina Habba attorneys representing the Trump Organization, sit in New York Supreme Court, Oct. 10, 2023, in New York. Donald Trump's political fundraising machine is raking in donations at a prodigious pace, but he's spending tens of millions of donor dollars to pay attorneys.
During the first half of 2023, Save America spent more on legal-related costs, over $20 million, than any other political committee that discloses to the FEC — more than the Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee spent during that period combined.
But the legal jeopardy has become his most potent fundraising tool. Trump’s claim that he’s the victim of a corrupt justice system determined to silence him and his supporters is a primary plank in his platform. And he’s turned the courthouse into a campaign stage to pound that message and fire up his supporters.
The FEC data reveal a pattern that has developed since Trump left office: he gets into legal trouble and responds forcefully, donations from his backers spike, and then millions of those dollars flow to the army of attorneys defending him and others caught up in the drama. In addition to the New York business fraud case and the election case in Georgia, Trump is battling federal felony counts arising from the Mar-a-Lago records case in Florida and the 2020 election subversion case in Washington, D.C. In a separate New York state case, he’s accused of making hush money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep a sexual relationship from becoming public. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges involving the payment.
Kise left the megafirm Foley & Lardner to be one of Trump’s attorneys. His firm, Chris Kise and Associates, received $2.8 million from the PAC. Along with the New York fraud lawsuit, he has a lead role in the Mar-a-Lago records case. Kise has deep ties to Florida’s Republican party. He worked on the transition teams for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.Last year, Kise joined Florida-based Continental PLLC, a law firm that has separately received nearly $2.9 million.
The FEC declined to comment for this story, but it seems unlikely to act anytime soon. The agency is led by six commissioners, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Trump nominated all the GOP commissioners. One of the Democratic commissioners, appointed by President Joe Biden, joined with the Republicans to declare in March the personal use ban didn’t apply to leadership PACs.
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