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.