Donald Trump has had more than $100 million in legal bills since 2020 for both criminal and civil cases. But he probably hasn’t had to pay a dime yet.
Which is why the ex-president has been able to pay for his legal fees with steady gifts to his campaign. If Trump loses the election next week, though, he might have to start paying for things himself in the long run.
Daniel Weiner, head of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program and an expert on campaign finance, says that Trump would have to start paying and how much he would have to pay would depend on how long his donors are willing to keep giving him money if he loses.
Weiner said, “Many of his donors are people who have seen his legal bills as a campaign cost. I suspect some of them will continue to give out of personal loyalty or to help him get his agenda passed.” “But what if that money runs out? He might have to pay for it himself in the end.”
A message sent to a Trump campaign spokesperson asking for feedback wasn’t answered right away.
One way that Trump’s fate in court is linked to his political future is through the money he gets from his campaigns and the money he needs to pay his lawyers. The presidential election is pretty much a tie right now. Trump has said that he will fire the special investigator who is looking into him if he wins. This would mean that most of his legal problems would no longer be an issue.
Political goals and court bills are linked in a strange way.
So far, Trump’s Save America Leadership PAC has paid for his lawyers to defend him in cases where it is said he illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election results and started rioting at the Capitol, kept secret documents after leaving the White House, and set up hush money payments to make damaging stories about his extramarital affairs go away.
There are also records that show Trump has paid law firms involved in other cases with campaign money. One is a civil fraud case in New York involving loan and insurance applications. The other is a case made by writer E. Jean Carroll who accused Trump of sexual assault and slander.
Many people who supported Trump started the Save America PAC soon after the 2020 election, in part to raise money for him to go to court and fight the results. Campaign finance records show that the PAC raised more than $230 million in total, even though that plan failed.
While traditional campaign funds are limited in how they can continue to raise and spend money after an election, PACs are not nearly as limited.
Leadership: PACS can only get so much money from individual donors, but they can spend the money in a lot of different ways. Trump has pushed the edges of this deal by sending money to Save America from MAGA Inc., a separate super PAC that can raise as much money as it wants. This is something that campaign finance experts say is not common.
“This was definitely not like that,” Weiner said. “The way he has raised money has been pushed to its limits, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he kept doing that.”
While we wait for news about Trump’s campaign and legal-fee war chest, here is the status of the different issues he is facing:
The Capitol riot
The most serious case against Trump is that he is said to have helped try to illegally change the results of the 2020 presidential election and to have started the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Congress was meeting to certify the results that named President Joe Biden the winner.
It’s not clear what will happen with the case since the Supreme Court said this summer that Trump might not be responsible for some or all of the things he did on that day. The judge who heard the case has been told to decide which charges might go forward, if any.
Trump has said that he will fire Jack Smith, the special prosecutor at the Justice Department who brought the case, if he wins the election. This would end the case for good. But if Trump loses, Smith would probably keep pursuing his case.
Documents that are secret
Smith had brought a separate case against Trump in Florida. It was about boxes of classified documents that Trump kept after leaving office and then supposedly refused to give back to the National Archives when they asked him to.
Prosecutors said Trump tried to hide the papers from the FBI, gave some to people who weren’t supposed to see them, and kept them in an unlocked bathroom and closet at his Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago resort.
In July, Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon threw out the case because Smith’s position as special prosecutor was illegal. Smith has since appealed that decision.
To say it again, this case will probably not happen again if Trump wins. But if he loses, it might be brought back to life.
Interference in the Georgia election
State prosecutors in Georgia have charged Trump and 18 others with racketeering for supposedly planning to illegally change the results of the 2020 election in that state. Those charged include former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
The investigation has been put on hold because the defense lawyers are trying to get Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis fired because they say she had a sexual relationship with the lead prosecutor in the case.
The judge said that the lead prosecutor should be fired, but Willis could stay on. Trump and his co-defendants have filed an appeal of this ruling. Some of the first charges that Willis brought have also been thrown out by the judge, but the main part of the case is still there.
The case is still going on in state court, so Trump wouldn’t be able to just stop it if he wins. However, law experts say that if Trump wins, the prosecution will probably stop moving forward.
Get money
The only case Trump has had that was mostly settled was the one brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg about paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and others to hide possibly damaging news stories about relationships with other women.
In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. He is the first past president to ever be found guilty of a crime. Trump could get up to four years in prison, but the judge in charge of the case has put off the sentence until after the election.
This is another state case that Trump would not be able to end easily if he wins. Lawyers, on the other hand, say that even if he gets jail time, he will probably be able to fight the case for years.
Case of civil theft
A civil case found that Trump lied on many loan and insurance applications for his real estate business in order to get better interest rates. Trump is now appealing that decision. He has to pay $454 million in fines because of the case.
When Trump tried to appeal the decision in April, an appellate court lowered the amount of money he had to post as a bond from the full $454 million to $175 million. This stopped New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing his properties. The money was there for Trump, and the case will probably be appealed for years.
