The main political expenditure and fundraising organization that backs Donald Trump has already spent more than $40 million (£31 million) on legal expenses this year.
This sum of money, which will be verified in a financial disclosure on Monday, has been utilized in numerous legal proceedings to support the former president and his friends.
Over the course of 2021 and 2022 combined, Save America will spend more than twice as much on legal fees.
The costs will only increase as Mr. Trump’s court battles progress.
He is awaiting trial in federal court for allegedly handling confidential documents improperly, in state court in New York for a hush-money investigation, and in a defamation case brought by author E. Jean Carroll.
In the meantime, charges against Mr. Trump, 77, for attempting to rig the 2020 election are soon anticipated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and state prosecutors in Georgia.
A political action organization (PAC) called Save America was started and is run by Mr. Trump. According to the Washington Post, his campaign manager Susie Wiles chooses whose legal expenses should be paid for.
According to the Post, it is providing legal representation for Mr. Trump and individuals entangled in the many investigations involving him who have asked for assistance from his staff.
This includes Walt Nauta, his close personal assistant, and Carlos de Oliveira, his Mar-a-Lago resort’s property manager, who are both accused in the case involving the secret materials.
The campaign has called it protection from “unlawful harassment”.
Spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that the DOJ “has continued to go after innocent Americans because they worked for President Trump and they know they have no legitimate case”.
Covering their legal fees, he said, will “protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed”.
But the $40 million amount is considerably above any other expenditure Save America made during the 2024 presidential race.
And the majority of grassroots Trump supporters from around the nation, whose small-dollar donations account for the great majority of Save America’s funding, are covering those legal costs.
After leaving office, Mr. Trump asserted that the 2020 election had been rigged and pleaded with supporters for months to give money to Save America in favor of him.
He received almost $100 million in donations last year, of which he spent over $16 million on legal bills and about $10 million on personal expenses. His campaign and its backers were never able to demonstrate significant electoral fraud.
As part of their criminal probe into the 2020 election, DOJ prosecutors asked for information on how the PAC was established and is run last year.
Trump only allocated one penny of every dollar received online at the beginning of his 2024 campaign to Save America.
But earlier this year, he started shifting a bigger chunk of money—10 cents of every dollar—away from the campaign and onto the PAC.
By taking contributions that directly pay for his legal costs, the candidate might be breaking federal election regulations, according to Jason Torchinsky, a campaign finance specialist with the Holtzman Vogel Law Firm.
“It is not unprecedented for a campaign committee to pay legal fees,” Mr Torchinsky told BBC News.
“But the issue is that Trump is a federal candidate, with a third party to pay his legal bills, that really do amount to a gift to the candidate that exceeds federal contribution limits.”
Despite his escalating legal issues, national surveys consistently have Mr. Trump in the lead for the Republican nomination; nonetheless, some of his 2024 rivals have criticized the spending.
A spokesman for Mr Trump’s chief rival, Ron DeSantis, accused him of spending this year “on two things: falsely attacking Ron DeSantis and paying his own legal fees, not a cent on defeating Joe Biden”.
“He’s going to middle class men and women in this country and they’re donating $15, $25, $50, $100 because they believe in Donald Trump and they want him to be president again,” Chris Christie, another candidate, said in a June interview on CNN.
“They’re not giving that money so he can pay his personal legal fees.”
But Republican senator from Ohio JD Vance, who has endorsed Mr. Trump’s most recent run for president, justified the action on Saturday.
“I have good friends who did nothing wrong who had their legal fees paid by Save America PAC,” he said. “Would you rather they throw all of their employees under a bus?”
There is some evidence that Mr. Trump’s campaign organization is being hampered by rising expenses.
The New York Times reports that Save America has asked for a return on a $60 million donation it made to another organization backing Mr. Trump. It’s unclear whether or even how much of the money was repaid.
According to US media, Trump advisers plan to establish a separate legal defense fund to cover the costs of defending anyone involved in investigations into the former president.
However, Mr. Torchinsky, the expert in campaign financing, drew attention to the fact that, unlike in the case of Save America, such a fund would not be required to make public the amount raised and its intended use.
And with more indictments expected and preparation for trials imminent, he said: “I would expect the fees to go up exponentially.”
“It was $40m in the first half of the year. It wouldn’t shock me if the next six months rack up $60m.”
