Trump campaign finance report shows millions being spent in legal expenses

Campaign officials for polls-leading Donald Trump said Wednesday they hauled in a GOP field-leading $45.5 million during the third quarter. That total would be far ahead of the $15 million pocketed by the former president's closest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"In an impressive testament to the overwhelming grassroots support behind President Trump that will lead to dominating victories, close to $36 million of the total cash on hand is designated for the primary," the campaign said in a statement.

Trump, however, has a significant spending handicap — the legal bills piling up from a series of civil cases and four sets of criminal felony counts. The litigation was front-and-center before the American public when Trump spent the start of week alternately stewing in a New York courtroom and publicly berating the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump left the $250 million civil trial on Wednesday afternoon seething, reportedly saying the state's judicial system is "corrupt" and calling New York Attorney General Letitia James a "political animal." James was having none of it, vowing she would not "be bullied” and calling Trump's attendance at the proceedings a “political stunt" to help him raise money.

How much Trump spent on legal bills during the three months ended Sept. 30 wasn't clear. The campaign statement suggests $8 million was spent, with $37.5 million remaining on hand.

The third quarter was active for candidate Trump as he held a series of campaign rallies, media interviews and airing commercials — all apparently proving effective with the Republican rank-and-file.

The average of polls in which only GOP voters were surveyed, and tallied by the political website FiveThirtyEight, showed Trump with a 40-percentage point lead over DeSantis, 54.8% to 14.1%, as of Sept. 30. But the website also shows that Trump remains unpopular with the general public, with an unfavorable rating of 56.5% versus a 40.6% favorable standing, a 15.9-point gap.

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Previous financial disclosures listed line items related to legal woes

A breakdown of previous financial reports suggests that Trump's lengthening legal liabilities are racking up large bills for the former president, and his political action committee has picked up a significant share of the costs.

After the second quarter filings this summer, the Save America PAC was down to fewer than $4 million cash on hand after spending tens of millions of dollars on legal fees the past two years, according to federal election disclosures.

Save America listed line-item expenditures identified as legal fees and for Trump's staff in its midyear federal fundraising disclosure reports. Included in the list were payments made to dozens of different law firms nationwide marked as "legal consulting" or "reimbursement for legal fees."

The purpose of the midyear reports covering the time period from January to June are part of federal campaign disclosure laws and reveal how much fundraising a presidential campaign has garnered and where it is spending its money.

Legal fees were main cost item identified in Trump Save America reports

Based on Save America's Federal Election Commission reports as of June 30, the PAC spent a total of about $25 million since the beginning of this year, with about $19.6 million listed as "legal consulting fees," about $872,000 booked as "reimbursements for legal fees," about $577,000 cited as "reimbursement for legal expenses" and about $480,000 categorized as "legal consulting and travel expenses."

The approximately $4 million in non-legal spending appears to have been on campaign ad funding or payroll.

Some of the reported payments went to lawyers who were directly on Trump's payroll, such as Lindsay Halligan, who has been representing Trump against the classified documents charges, and to other Trump aides and associates, including Walt Nauta, who is a named co-defendant in that case.

For a guy said to be having trouble finding legal representation, the Save America PAC report seems to list payments to a lot of law firms across the United States.

The ledger named about 50 law firms in disbursements from Save America PAC's federal report. These law firms include the Dhillon Law Group in San Francisco, which was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who ran against Ronna McDaniel unsuccessfully in her bid for Republican National Committee chair.

Classified documents, legal perils: A year ago, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago. Since then, Trump has been indicted three times.

What is the difference between Save America PAC and Make America Great Again, Inc.?

Trump's Save America PAC has a different role from the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again.

The Save America PAC is meant to raise and spend money to elect and defeat candidates, and it is a committee that is controlled by Trump but has a contribution limit of $5,000 per year per individual.

The Make America Great Again super PAC is not controlled by Trump and is able to gather unlimited funds from people and organizations. It can help finance travel and events but can't specifically coordinate money to the campaign or to a candidate.

That's where the world of Trump's political campaign and his legal troubles come together, in the shifting of funds between Save America and Make America Great Again.

The federal reports covering the first six months of 2023 showed that the pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., marked a total of $12.25 million as a "contribution refund" to Save America. This money was not disbursed all at once, but in a series of payments that began four months ago — $1 million on May 5, $5 million on May 9 and $5 million on May 31, with an additional $1.25 million on June 29.

It's unknown when Save America would have requested a refund and for what purpose, and the line items do not specify more about why any contribution refund was requested.

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Where cash started and ended for Trump's Save America PAC

Save America PAC's cash on hand started the year with about $18 million but reported just under $4 million at the midyear mark on June 30.

It's not unusual that the Save America PAC faced a lot of spending in the first six months of the year, especially given that Trump was facing two indictments within that period. However, it does show that the legal issues Trump is facing could be causing these money shifts and have dramatically brought cash-on-hand numbers down.

DeSantis's fundraising in the third quarter dropped from the $20 million he raised in April, May and June. DeSantis spent more than $8 million of his second-quarter fundraising in the first few weeks after his fumbled campaign launch on X, formerly Twitter, which raised concerns he was spending money too quickly and prompting staff layoffs.

Reporting by Zac Anderson of the USA Today Florida Network was used in this story.

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump Save America PAC down to under $4 million after paying legal fees