Trump stiffs lawyers as legal money machine wallows in red ink: report

More than a few members of the army of lawyers Donald Trump has deployed to sue his enemies and keep him out of courtrooms due to lawsuits are waiting hat in hand to be paid with the Save America PAC the president used to pay them now wallowing in red ink.

According to MS NOW's Hayes Brown, Trump's fundraising machinery has hit a wall now that he's no longer actively running for office. "

According to recent Federal Election Commission filings, the funding stream Trump has been using to pay out millions to law firms is running "very, very low on cash," Hayes is reporting.

The numbers tell a story of financial collapse, the report notes. Save America PAC has only $1.19 million in cash on hand while owing $1.6 million in unpaid legal bills. That debt exists even after the committee has already spent nearly $2.3 million on legal fees so far this year. Make America Great Again PAC is in even worse shape: only $28,087 in cash against $763,000 in debts.

Trump's legal bills have been astronomical. Between the two PACs, Trump funneled $50 million toward his legal fees over the course of 2023 alone. Rather than paying from his own pocket, billionaire Trump has instead diverted MAGA fans' cash into his political committees to cover his mounting legal costs.

The law firms owed the most money are NechelesLaw LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

The report singled out Susan Necheles, lead partner at NechelesLaw, who represented Trump in the 2024 New York "hush money" case that resulted in Trump being convicted on 34 counts of fraud. She's still waiting to be paid.

Save America transferred an additional $1.6 million to MAGA PAC since January in a desperate attempt to keep both committees solvent. Despite the infusion, MAGA PAC's cash position remains tenuous after spending another $1.3 million on legal fees in just the last quarter.

Hayes suggested Trump has exploited a gaping hole in campaign finance law to avoid personal liability, writing, "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."

He added, "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."