Confronted by US justice in various cases, Donald Trump has had to pay several million dollars in legal defense expensesand now you are faced with the possible depletion of funds from your campaign to take back the White House.
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The former Republican president is collecting, if anything, a lot of money. His fundraising committee brought in more than $54 million in the first half of the year, more than his rivals in the primaries.
But according to some critics, recent campaign finance documents show the extent to which his legal troubles have taken a toll on his coffers.
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Legal expenses have not been earmarked for television advertising, rallies or campaign trips. Its fundraising committee (PAC) revealed this week that he had only $4 million left at the end of June, a paltry sum for a US presidential campaign.
“Save America” has already spent more than $20 million in court costs for the former president.
“If you give money to Trump, it will go almost exclusively to his personal legal expenses,” said lawyer and conservative columnist AG Hamilton.
“This means that they will have virtually nothing left to spend on encouraging people to vote and go one-on-one with Democrats in battleground states,” he estimated.
Millions of dollars
Furthermore, the recent indictment for his alleged attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election will only further strain his finances.
Its various political bodies They have about $32 million in bank accounts ahead of the first Republican primary in Iowa in January.
Most of the funds raised by Trump go directly to his presidential campaign, and only 10% to his PAC, which has covered the legal expenses of almost all the personalities of the billionaire environment implicated in his various accusations.
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Save America, which raises most of its funds through small donations, told the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that it has paid $21.6 million this year to law firms defending Trump and his allies, five million more than in 2021 and 2022 combined.
Former reality show star, who according to Forbes, he has a fortune of 2,500 million dollars, he arrives at the primaries with 78 felony charges against him in three different criminal cases.
He is scheduled to go to trial in New York in March 2024 in the case of suspicious payments to a former porn actress. Two months later, he will also do so before a federal court in Florida for the alleged mismanagement of confidential White House documents.
Trump will also appear in Washington on Thursday for a preliminary hearing on his alleged attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election. This could lead to another indictment, this time in Georgia, on similar charges.
ethical issues
Trump launched “Save America” after losing the elections to Joe Biden and raised some $250 million in two months from supporters whom he asked to contribute to an “electoral defense fund” to challenge the result.
But not a single penny went to counting the votes or filing legal appeals, while most of its funds were divided between the Republican Party and the tycoon’s accounts.
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According to a report from the legislative committee investigating Trump’s conduct in the run-up to the election, the candidate and his campaign “they cheated their supporters”.
While the use of funds raised in 2023 for legal purposes does not raise any legal issues, it does raise ethical issues.
The Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantisTrump’s main rival for the Republican nomination, has pointed this out directly.
“Trump has spent more than $60 million on two things: falsely attacking DeSantis and paying his own legal fees; he hasn’t spent a dime to defeat Biden,” commented the governor’s campaign spokesman, Andrew Romeo.
Trump’s campaign team has not responded to AFP’s inquiries, but had already explained that the money used for legal expenses has been used to help “protect these innocent people from ruin”, in reference to the relatives. of the former president entangled in his legal affairs. In addition, they added, to “prevent their lives from being completely destroyed.”
AFP
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