Trump owes 'army of lawyers' more a $1,000,000 — but he might never have to pay up

Donald Trump commands what might be the largest "army of lawyers" of any president in U.S. history, but according to a new report from MS NOW, he owes these legal warriors well over a million dollars in fees, but might end up getting away with not paying them himself.

MS NOW reporter Hayes Brown broke down the situation in a piece published on Friday, noting that Trump "has retained a veritable phalanx of personal attorneys" in recent years, in addition to those working for him in his official capacity as president, all working to fight his personal legal battles in court and to stop challenges to his corrupt policy agenda. All of that "legal firepower doesn’t come cheap," however, and according to recent Federal Election Commission filings, Trump is running "very, very low" on the funds that he has been using to pay his lawyers.

"Trump spent much of his time between presidential terms fending off a string of civil and criminal cases," Brown explained. "Despite the mounting threats, he remained loath to spend out of his own deep pockets to cover the equally mounting legal fees. Instead, Trump routed money from the donations pouring into his political action committees, primarily Save America PAC. Some of the money diverted toward legal fees also came from Make America Great Again PAC, the reskinned shell of his 2020 re-election campaign."

In 2023 alone, it was reported that those PACs paid out around $50 million in legal fees, and now that Trump is not actively running for president, the money they have to work with is dwindling fast. Save America, per the FEC filings, has only $1.19 million in cash on hand, while owing $1.6 million in legal fees. Despite a $1.6 million transfer from Save America in January, MAGA PAC has a paltry $28,087 in cash on hand, against its debts of around $763,000.

Brown noted that these shortfalls could eventually be covered by funds from yet another Trump PAC, Never Surrender, which filings show has around $50 million kicking around. This thinking, he argued, is "beside the point," as it would still mean that Trump himself would not be on the hook for his own never-ending legal battles.

"It is only thanks to a gaping hole in campaign finance law, such as it is, that not a single penny of those payments will come from the president directly. Instead, those debts will all likely be covered courtesy of his loyal donors, many of whom were never told exactly where their contributions would be going," Brown wrote.

He concluded: "Trump has managed to convince his devotees that his personal life and political life are so intermingled that political attacks on him are attacks on them as well. It follows then that even as the money they’ve sent him in response has gone toward supporting Trump’s lawlessness, his criminality and his avaricious quest to siphon ever more money into his own pockets, the response has been to shrug, pull out their wallets and add more dollars to the collection basket."

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