'Textbook right-wing MAGA grift': Ex-Trump lawyer accused of cashing in to tune of $145M

The evangelical lawyer who defended Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial has made $145 million from his association with the former president and right-wing causes— and the cash is still rolling in, according to a new report.

Jay Sekulow and his family are now chasing donations for a campaign to keep Trump on state ballots.

In the past few years, the attorney’s nonprofit legal group has been involved in Supreme Court fights that have led to the defeat of Roe vs. Wade, gun control issues, ending affirmative action at universities and halting student debt forgiveness.

Meanwhile, since 2001 more than $145 million has gone to Sekulow, his family and their businesses, according to records kept by the watchdog group Accountable.US and reported by Rolling Stone.

“Jay Sekulow is the latest case of textbook right-wing MAGA grift,” Accountable.US’ president Caroline Ciccone told the publication. “These extremists will stop at nothing to force their radical, unpopular agenda on everyday Americans while personally profiting — this time to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.”

“Basically, what this guy has done is he’s used a charity to make himself rich,” said Bob Lord, a senior adviser on tax policy at Patriotic Millionaires, a nonpartisan group that focuses on inequality. “To me, this one screams of a problem.”

Sekulow's most recent legal action was petitioning the Supreme Court on behalf of the Colorado Republican Party to overturn that state’s decision to ban Trump from its ballot.

A Trump lawyer since his first months in office, Sekulow co-led the then-president's defense in the first impeachment trial in 2020 involving dealings with Ukraine. The president was acquitted.

Sekulow, who was raised Jewish but converted after attending a “Jews for Jesus” event, began working with televangelist Pat Robertson at the American Center for Law and Justice in 1990.

The ACLJ is associated with a tax-exempt charity called Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, with Sekulow sitting on the boards of both.

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The two groups have paid $28 million in salaries to Sekulow and members of his family since 2001, the Rolling Stone report states.

They have also paid tens of millions of dollars to the companies associated with his family members, Accountable.US’ research found.

“Since 2003, ACLJ has paid nearly $81 million to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, a law firm co-owned by Sekulow, according to Accountable.US. CASE paid another $2.3 million to the firm for legal, TV, and radio production services between 2003 and 2005,” Rolling Stone reported.

“ACLJ’s 2022 tax return lists $8.4 million in payments to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group. That document, filed in August 2023, says Sekulow owns 50 percent of the firm. ‘This entity has been reviewed by an expert independent third party, and the fees were found to be reasonable for the type of services provided to the organization,’ the document states.”

Case has also paid $21 million to a Sekulow-owned company that produces his radio show, and another $14 million to a company owned by his sister-in-law, according to Rolling Stone.

“The financial arrangements between ACLJ, CASE, and other entities have been reviewed by outside independent experts and are in compliance with all tax laws,” an Associated Press report previously quoted a Sekulow spokesperson as saying.

IRS regulations state that charities must not operate for the benefit of private individuals.

“In my view, anytime you see that number of related-party transactions, and you see a large amount of assets going to the same person or the same family over a considerable period of time, that is something the IRS should review,” Marc Owens, a lawyer at Loeb & Loeb LLP who previously worked at the IRS, told Rolling Stone.