Donald Trump's legal defense fund is running short of money as his political action committee doles out financial lifelines to aides and allies caught up in his various prosecutions, the New York Times reported.
The former president has been charged with 91 counts in four jurisdictions, and many individuals who have worked for him have also been charged or questioned in those cases. His lawyers have offered to represent them or help defray the cost of their legal expenses, reported the New York Times.
“It’s my understanding that you got a grand jury subpoena,” said Trump lawyer John Rowley to a former Mar-a-Lago employee in a voicemail message provided to the newspaper. “Would you please give me a call at your first opportunity?”
Prosecutors have raised questions about possible conflicts of interest involving Trump lawyers and his former employees, and some witnesses and co-defendants have decided they're better off hiring their own attorneys.
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One key witness in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, Yuscil Taveras, replaced his PAC-paid lawyer, who also represented Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta, with a federal public defender and agreed to cooperate with investigators after prosecutors questioned his first attorney's potential conflicts of interest.
Trump seeded the Save America PAC with fundraising pleas based on his false 2020 election claims, and it has paid some legal bills for at least two dozen individuals who cooperated with the House Select Committee investigation and criminal prosecutions.
But the former president has been shifting those payments away from the PAC as his own legal bills have piled up, the Times reported.
Save America paid more than 30 law firms and additional legal consultants before it began to pull back in recent months.
The PAC had more than $100 million on hand in early 2022 but transferred $60 million to MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. It made a refund request for that donation.
MAGA Inc. has been sending back money, according to a person briefed on the matter, and the PAC could continue to pay legal bills for Trump and possibly others if that money is routed back to Save America.
