As Team Trump Lawyers Up, Who's Paying The Attorney Fees? President Trump's re-election campaign paid Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer $50,000. White House lawyers are paid government salaries, by taxpayers, but it's unknown how the private lawyers are being paid.
Lawyers representing former President Donald Trump for his upcoming Senate impeachment trial are being funded by the national Republican party and private campaign funds.
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, a firm founded by longtime attorney Marc Kasowitz, received $2.5 million from Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC. Eric Herschmann, a partner at the firm, was hired by Trump in January to assist on the first legal impeachment defense in 2020.
For the most part, these legal and recount expenses will be covered by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign. The money will likely be drawn from three separate sources.
Lawyers representing former President Donald Trump for his upcoming Senate impeachment trial are being funded by the national Republican party and private campaign funds.
The fundraising committee transferred around $2.7 million into the RNC’s legal account between September and November, campaign filings show according to the report.
The Mueller investigatio n, legal battles over Trump’s t ax returns, and a former campaign staffer’s now-withdrawn defamation lawsuit added up to millions of dollars in legal fees, which were covered by the RNC and the Trump campaign.
A 2014 law began allowing national parties to raise large amounts of money in a separate account for presidential conventions, building renovations, and legal fees. The law has proven beneficial to Trump as the costs of impeachment pile up.
Trump was formally impeached on Jan. 13 by House Democrats and ten House Republicans. His trial now moves to the Senate. If the Senate votes to convict the former president, it will prevent him from running for federal office ever again.
President Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow, center, stands with his son, Jordan Sekulow, left, and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, in the Great Hall of the White House on Jan 28. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Most of the trust money flowed to two Washington law firms: Williams & Connolly and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Elias defended the creation of the legal proceedings account, saying the Democratic Party has used that money to fund lawsuits challenging what it sees as voter suppression tactics around the country.
Donors to the RNC and Trump’s reelection campaign have already covered millions of dollars in attorney fees stemming from the president’s other legal travails: former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, court battles over the president’s tax returns, and a now-withdrawn defamation lawsuit filed by a former campaign staffer.
Starr declined to talk about his legal fees or to comment for this story. Ray, Herschmann and Raskin did not return messages seeking comment.
Trump’s campaign committee is not directly paying impeachment-related legal bills, according to a campaign official, although the campaign does transfer money to the RNC from time to time. Story continues below advertisement.
The Magnitsky Act. The latest Trump associate to hire a lawyer is Donald Trump Jr. Based on his own emails and interviews, he eagerly attended a meeting in 2016 with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who he believed had opposition research on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
When Hillary Clinton ran for Senate in 2000, as her husband was winding down his presidency, her personal financial disclosure showed they owed lawyers somewhere between $2.3 million and $10.6 million. Disclosures in later years indicated the Clintons paid up.
Trump spoke up for his son in Paris last week. "I have a son who's a great young man," the president said. "He's a fine person. He took a meeting with a lawyer from Russia. It lasted a very short period. And nothing came of the meeting."
While the White House lawyers are paid government salaries, by taxpayers, the Trump White House has not indicated how much the private lawyers are being paid, or by whom. This kind of legal representation doesn't come cheap.
True North Law, which led a failed fight in swing state Michigan, was paid over $270,000 for its services in January by the same committee. Harvey & Binnall, which was involved in a failed legal fight in Nevada, received over $300,000 in payments from January through June by the Trump PAC, according to the filings.
Trump’s political action committees spent $7.9 million on legal matters related to the 2020 recount and his impeachment fight.
The checks continued to go to legal firms through Trump’s impeachment trial, where he was impeached for a second time by the House and exonerated by the Senate. Some payments to legal advisors were as recent as June.
Jenna Ellis, one of Trump’s legal advisors during the recount, was paid more than $22,000 for her services.
That firm led failed legal fights in Georgia. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kurt Hilbert , a founder of the firm, was on an infamous January phone call between Trump and the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump urged Raffensperger to overturn then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Trump’s lawyers reaped a windfall during his impeachment trial.
None of the FEC records shows legal service payments to Rudy Giuliani, who has called the president a client and publicly challenged the results of the election.
For the most part, these legal and recount expenses will be covered by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign. The money will likely be drawn from three separate sources.
Second, FEC regulations allow candidates to set up a separate recount account, or a separate authorized committee, subject to the same limits that apply to their campaign ($2,800 from an individual, $5,000 from a PAC). Individual donors who maxed-out to the Trump or Biden campaign during the election may give an additional $2,800 to the Trump or Biden recount account.
Trump has declared an intention to request a recount in Wisconsin and will be on the hook for the recount fees. In Georgia, when the vote margin is less than 0.5%--which appears to be the case for the 2020 presidential race—the state will cover the recount costs.
Only those donors who maxed-out to Trump’s 2020 campaign would see any of their money go to Trump’s recount account.
According to a new report from Business Insider, Donald Trump is furious about the fact that he is currently hemorrhaging money just to pay for all of his legal fees. And by the way, outside of the New York investigation, which of course is the big one, but outside of that one, there are two dozen lawsuits against the former president ...
Trump Is FURIOUS About How Much His Legal Fees Are Costing Him. According to new reports, Donald Trump is fuming over how much money he is having to spend to defend himself from all of the lawsuits that he is currently facing, not to mention the investigation in New York.