The former president could face even higher legal costs this year.
Amid mounting court battles, former President Donald Trump’s legal fees cost his political fundraising committees more than $50 million in 2023, leaving his leadership PAC that once boasted a $100 million war chest with just $5.1 million in the bank entering 2024.
And those 2023 legal bills came before Trump last week was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019. Trump is appealing both the jury verdict of defamation and the subsequent penalties imposed by a second jury.
In a separate case, a New York Judge is also weighing whether to fine Trump as much as $370 million plus interest in the former president’s civil fraud trial.
As Trump’s legal battles ramped up in the second half of last year, so did his legal spending – with his political action committees reporting a total of $34 million in legal expenditures in the second half of last year compared to roughly $26 million in the first half, according to the former president’s latest campaign disclosures.
Spend more
Yes. For best legal results, he needs to max out his spending. Underspending is self-sabotage, in his case, as a famous former president.
It’s so weird because usually you spend that much money and have that much of a spending imbalance, it means you’re going to have a massive advantage legally speaking as well. The person with the most money has a massive advantage in all legal matters and frankly can usually just outlast the opposition. But Trump is such a whack job that he negates that advantage. It’s amazing he’s such a liability but no amount of money makes him safe. It’s fascinating