Trump's PAC spent $1 million in legal fees last month alone: elections documents

On Monday, Axios reported that former President Donald Trump's political action committee, Save America, spent $1 million in legal fees — just in the month of July alone, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission.

"Trump and his allies are involved in several investigations related to the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, New York's attorney general is conducting a civil investigation into the Trump Organization," reported Sareen Habeshian. "Trump's legal bills could go up even higher now that he has filed a lawsuit in response to the FBI's search of his Mar-a-Lago residence this month."

"The PAC paid 12 law firms a total of about $964,433 in July, up from around $555,000 the month before, according to the filings published Saturday," the report continued. "Save America has spent almost $25 million so far this year and has more than $99 million on hand, Business Insider reported. The money is allowed to be used to pay Trump's legal bills due to the lenient rules governing the use of PAC funds, CNBC reported."

This comes despite the fact that the Republican National Committee has also been bankrolling legal bills for the former president, although the organization has made clear to Trump that they will cut this financial support off if and when he declares his 2024 candidacy for president. Previously, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel had warned Trump off forming his own party, which ABC News' Jon Karl wrote in his book he had been close to doing, by noting the legal money goes away in that event as well.

It is not clear whether all these legal fees are to cover services to the former president himself. Another recent report indicated Trump used $2 million in PAC money to provide legal services to witnesses in the January 6 hearings.

Some Republicans believe the rapid pace of Trump's political fundraising — money that could be going into these legal expenses — may be crowding out donations to other Republican candidates, during a political environment that, on paper, should be easy for them to rack up contributions in.