Trump biographer raises questions about his wealth as campaign donors foot the bill for his many lawyers

Former President Donald Trump’s PACs have spent about $50 million in donor money on his legal bills last year, sources told The New York Times.

The “staggering sum” spent by Trump on his legal fees and investigation-related expenses is about the same amount his lone remaining GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley raised across all her committees last year, the Times’ Maggie Haberman and Shane Goldmacher write. Federal Election Commission filings this week are expected to detail the full extent of Trump’s “enormous financial strain,” they added.

Trump, who has a penchant for relying on campaign donations to pay his lawyers if he actually pays them at all, has used his Save America PAC to cover his legal costs. When the PAC ran low on cash last year, Trump asked for an unusual refund of $60 million that had been transferred to the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. PAC. Trump has also been directing 10% of donations raised through Save America to a PAC that primarily pays his lawyers, according to the Times.

  • BoofStroke
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    814 months ago

    How is it legal to use campaign funds for personal legal costs?

    • SuperDuper
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      944 months ago

      Because laws that are not enforced are nothing more than friendly suggestions.

      • @Blue_Morpho
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        4 months ago

        Over ten years ago Colbert showed how PAC money could be legally transformed into a personal slush fund. It was a hilarious segment that he did over an entire season to show how the Citizens United law allows anonymous money to go right into politicians’ pockets. He won a Peabody award for it.

          • @Nudding
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            -54 months ago

            It’s payback for the genocide and slavery, probably.

        • @[email protected]
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          134 months ago

          Stephen Colbert: ‘I am a Super PAC and So Can You’

          YT / Piped

          Making a better tomorrow… tomorrow.

          Wish I could find the original announcement. Here’s a follow up from his show (YT / Piped). I’d forgotten about Ham Rove!

    • partial_accumen
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      4 months ago

      The Emoluments Clause has entered the chat

      Emoluments Clause: “I’m interested in that answer too”

      • @Feirdro
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        94 months ago

        I think you mean the Emoluments No-Claws

    • @[email protected]
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      174 months ago

      It’s legal if you accurately specify where the funds will be going. Iirc, his website states that funds will go to legal challenges or whatever.

    • nfh
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      104 months ago

      This is Donald J. Trump. Since when has something being illegal ever stopped him?

    • Tony Bark
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      74 months ago

      Republicans always turn a blind eye to their own.

    • @[email protected]
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      64 months ago

      They aren’t campaign funds. They are funds donated to a Political Action Committee (PAC).

    • @shalafi
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      54 months ago

      The funds are coming from a PAC. I’m hearing the rules are different from normal campaign contributions.

      • @The_v
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        4 months ago

        A PAC is a fancy name for Bribe Collection Fund.

        It’s not illegal if you run it through the correct laundering methods.

        It’s what happens when the rules are being made by the recipients of the bribes.

        • Optional
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          74 months ago

          Anthony “my son gave Trump 250 Million dollars, also money is speech and corporations are people” Kennedy is laughing at us.

    • @[email protected]
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      44 months ago

      I think it’s technically not, but there’s a million loopholes.

      Even if it is illegal, what are you gonna do? Charge him? Get in line.

    • @[email protected]
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      34 months ago

      Pretty sure you can use raised funds for anything as long as you disclose what you’re using it for. The questionable part is when he sends an email from his campaign saying “Trump needs your help to stop the woke mob” or whatever and then in the fine print says “money goes to [some ambiguously named PAC called like 'USA Defense” which was created just to pay Trump’s legal bills)"…he technically didn’t say it was for his political campaign.

  • @AllonzeeLV
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    704 months ago

    A white nationalist and their money are soon parted.

      • admiralteal
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        344 months ago

        Close to $2B, as I recall, but they’re already sold to the Saudis.

          • athos77
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            44 months ago

            Remember, the bathroom had a copier in it - they could be sold infinite times! [Not to mention cellphone cameras.]

          • AFK BRB Chocolate
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            14 months ago

            Except Bob was a really good lawyer, he’d never work for Trump. Trump would hire Barry Zuckerkorn, who was incompetent and unethical.

    • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres
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      24 months ago

      Aren’t there a ton of easements on it where any new owner would be required to maintain it as a historic property and commercial country club? I think that’s why the value in the trial was set low.

      Like Trump (or maybe a previous owner) essentially donated parts of it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and got tax breaks in exchange for agreeing to preserve everything. So, you’re essentially buying a country club business run in a future Trump Museum that you don’t really own (but still have to maintain).

  • @KazuyaDarklight
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    404 months ago

    But do the costs really matter if you never pay your bills?

  • NotAFuckingBot
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    404 months ago

    Fuck off, Pumpkin Tits - you broke-ass, loser motherfucker.

  • @bfg9k
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    334 months ago

    So sick of seeing this CUNT getting away with this shit

    FUCK YOU

    • @AngryCommieKender
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      4 months ago

      He has neither the warmth nor depth to be called a cunt. That’s insulting to productive cunts.

  • @DandomRude
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    304 months ago

    How can Trump still be a presidential candidate? I’ve been asking myself that for years now. I just don’t get it.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil
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      4 months ago

      He’s got an enormous base of support in the party with a majority in the parts of the country that get to decide who the President is.

      • @DandomRude
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        4 months ago

        How can anyone think Trump should get a second term? I realize, of course, that neither the interests of the people nor common sense are a factor in the States, but even the most unscrupulous businessmen should realize by now that Trump is not an option. I mean, someone who manages to squander even such an exorbitant inheritance without any significant returns can’t be considered a smart businessman or any good for business. The only way I can explain the support for Trump is that many influential people backed the wrong horse and are now committed - just the way these people handle their share transactions. But hey, I am not a US-American and so I can’t help but get the impression that you all have lost your minds (even for thinking that this is in any way acceptable). How such a ridiculous circus can be possible in a so-called constitutional state is simply beyond me.

        • @[email protected]
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          144 months ago

          Donald lowered their corporate taxes to nothing. They had three years of stock buybacks on the back of the strong economy Obama set up. Then in the pandemic, instead of being held accountable for raiding the coffers and needing to put money back in, they were given trillions more in handouts. And now they are recording record profits and blaming inflation on Biden.

          The influential people make serious bank at the expense of the public every time a Repub gets power. Somehow the economy crashes, people lose their jobs and homes, but it is the wealthy receiving billions or trillions in handouts. So these influential people run propaganda networks to make sure low information voters can be tricked into voting for Repubs.

          As for how it can happen, my opinion is because we have FPTP voting. If we had score voting, Donald never would have been selected. Dem voters and Independents all would have ranked every functioning adult higher than Donald.

          Also the Electoral College means everyone’s vote is valued less than a Wyoming vote. That violates the spirit of the 14th Amendment IMO. But Donald being able to run violates the letter of the 14th Amendment so what do I know.

          • @DandomRude
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            14 months ago

            I realize most that, but why risk the comfortable status quo? Perhaps it really is megalomania in the form of wanting to return to monarchy-like conditions in which the law not only pretends to apply to everyone, but is actually a law “by the grace of God”. I can well imagine this, given everything that is apparently negotiable in America.

        • @samus12345
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          4 months ago

          This is a case of the inmates running the asylum. The Republicans in power who know he’s an idiot are stuck with him because he has such a large base of hateful assholes (whose votes they have been courting for decades) who think he’s the second coming. Their votes are the only chance they have at winning, and they have only themselves to blame.

          • @DandomRude
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            14 months ago

            That’s clear, but I don’t understand why there is a need to deviate from business as usual all of a sudden. It can’t be in the interests of the rich and powerful to draw attention to how very wrong things have been going in the so called US democracy for decades. I think that’s extremely dangerous - and if there’s one thing big business wants to avoid at all costs, that’s probably this.

            • @samus12345
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              54 months ago

              It’s the natural progression of big business cozying up to conservatism since it’s profitable to do so. As soon as Republicans starting allying with far-right groups, they were all in bed with fascists. Instead of risk losing profits short-term, they’ll pretend that everything is fine until it’s not possible to any more.

              • @DandomRude
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                44 months ago

                Yes, that’s probably how it went. Fascism is, of course, a perspective that promises profit and power for such people - it worked excellently for the profiteers in Nazi Germany, nowadays also in Russia (in a slightly different disguise) and elsewhere. The only question that remains is whether the Americans will resist. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really look that way to me at the moment. So perhaps the very unscrupulous have bet on the right horse after all. We’ll have to wait and see.

    • @CharlesDarwin
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      14 months ago

      There are just a lot of overly emotional and very stupid people, unfortunately.

  • @taanegl
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    284 months ago

    You ever get the feeling that Trump so desperately wants to win so he can change the laws in his favour? Because if he loses, in the polls, in the electoral college, in the courts, at that point there’ll be a crater where he once stood.

    And deservedly so. We can only hope.

    • @Tyfud
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      It’s not a feeling, it’s literally what he said he’d do the first day in office as a dictator for a day. Literally. There’s no hyperbole there.

    • @paddirn
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      104 months ago

      It’s basically his Get-out-of-Jail free card that he can use to try to wipe away all of his problems. His arguments for total presidential immunity are ludicrous when he’s not in office, but I’m sure if he were to actually be in office again, they wouldn’t be laughed off as much. He has to go all in on this or he’s basically finished. Although I remember thinking this last election too and here we are again, so maybe if Trump loses we’ll still see him running for the 2028 Presidential election (how somebody that unhealthy is still living is beyond me, better men than him have died so much earlier). Not to mention all of Russia’s hopes in turning around their war against Ukraine are riding on this election as well, if they can get Trump back in, they can kick the legs out from under Ukraine in one fell swoop, as with every presidential election, there’s a lot riding on this.

      • @samus12345
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        34 months ago

        He’s gonna keep running until he either wins or is dead, that’s for certain.

  • Optional
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    274 months ago

    Maggie Haberman can bite my shiny metal ass. She did nothing but normalize and excuse every single thing he did for millions of people. Get her out.

  • @chiliedogg
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    204 months ago

    Why is it even legal for them to spend political donations on legal expenses completely unrelated to politics. It’s a stretch, but I can almost see it for the January 6th or maybe even the documents cases, because they’re at least related to his political career.

    But sexual assault, defamation, and fraud cases definitely shouldn’t count. They’re cases related to actions he took prior to entering politics.

    • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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      34 months ago

      Let’s create a hypothetical candidate that has followed a blameless, honest (moneyless) path. His/her opponents decide to take that candidate down with frivolous lawsuits. How else can they be defended?

      • @chiliedogg
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        64 months ago

        That’s a SLAPP issue, not a campaign finance one, and a perfect example of why we need federal ant-SLAPP laws.

        • @Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In
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          24 months ago

          Agreed. I’m just saying campaign finances could be one solution to SLAPP lawsuit problems.

          To be clear, Trump’s are not SLAPP related.

  • @btaf45
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    174 months ago

    Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump is broke and needs your money to stay out of prison.

    • @PrettyLights
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      24 months ago

      He was never convicted of that, it was a civil trial not a criminal one.

      He was found liable.

      • @Tyfud
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        Right, the primary difference being that a criminal trial would be that the statue of limitations would restrict what a prosecutor can achieve, while there is no such limitation for civil suits.

        The amount of evidence and the case proceeding would be largely similar in both.

        So while you are technically correct for calling that out, I just want to be clear that had this been a criminal trial, the result would very likely have been the same from the jury.

        • @PrettyLights
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          Maybe he would have been, I’m not a lawyer or judge.

          I just believe in America and innocent until proven guilty, and he wasn’t proven guilty of that offense.

          His actions and responses around the allegations are gross and unbecoming for sure.

          Edit:

          Right, the primary difference being that a criminal trial would be that the statue of limitations would restrict what a prosecutor can achieve, while there is no such limitation for civil suits.

          There’s also the vast difference in burden of proof required for a criminal conviction vs a civil trial. It’s not only the statute of limitations that was at play here.

          • @Tyfud
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            24 months ago

            Innocent until proven guilty is not a mantra.

            It is how the legal system needs to work. It does not mean that your are innocent into proven guilty in the eye of the public, or historical records. It’s purely about setting expectations for a working justice system that needs that presumption to function.

            That does not mean that a person is innocent and everyone should treat them as if they’re innocent until the verdict comes down.

            This is an important distinction to make.

            • @PrettyLights
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              24 months ago

              Sure, but there’s a difference between feeling someone is guilty and stating they were convicted. We shouldn’t knowingly be making factually incorrect statements.

              It feeds the right when people are so TDS that they are okay with spreading mistruths or fake news.

              • @Tyfud
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                24 months ago

                That’s true and fair.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
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        34 months ago

        American justice system in a nutshell.

        Guy can be found to have done sexual assault, but criminal prosecutors wouldn’t touch him because he did it in a city where his close personal friend was the mayor. It took 30 years to reach a judgement against him, and even that was for a relatively piddly sum given the time and effort involved in the pursuit. The thing that really got Trump in trouble wasn’t the act of physical and sexual violence. It wasn’t the defamation that followed. It was the way he and his lawyer were shitty on the stand in a second trial resulting from his remarks on the results of the first trial.

        This is what it takes to bring a rich man to something approaching the possibility justice in America. And even after all this bullshit, there’s almost zero chance that a Florida court or Sheriff’s Department will assist Carroll in collecting on the damages because… Trump is close personal friends with the governor.

        • @samus12345
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          14 months ago

          Trump is close personal friends with the governor.

          They’re definitely not friends. They just follow the same hateful ideology and will put their differences aside for it.

          • @UnderpantsWeevil
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            24 months ago

            Now that Trump’s the inevitably nominee, Ron’s falling back into brown-noser mode and will do everything in his power to get Trump to like him. And even if DeSantis wasn’t bending over backwards to please the party’s kingpin, he wouldn’t be terribly inclined to aid a New York feminist and advice columnist in pursuing legal action against The Don.

            • @samus12345
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              14 months ago

              Yup, he’s putting his dislike of Trump aside for the sake of advancing the Christofascist agenda.

  • @Dkarma
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    124 months ago

    Biden woke

    Trump broke

    • @Nudding
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      -64 months ago

      Let’s not get crazy

      • @Thteven
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        144 months ago

        Good thing it’s not legal for cops to execute drug addicts in the street.

      • partial_accumen
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        84 months ago

        George Floyd was a drug addict

        So was Rush Limbaugh, but what does drug addition have to do with anything we’re talking about?

        • @Tyfud
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          14 months ago

          These people always want to make it about something else other than the fact that they’re racist bigoted assholes.

          And if you call then that, they get all defensive and “I was just trying to…” crap. It’s all in bad faith. They’ll just keto moving the goal posts until you give up.

      • @Tyfud
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        54 months ago

        Good thing being a drug addict isn’t illegal or something you can be killed by police on the streets for, right?

      • @RememberTheApollo_
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        54 months ago

        Because someone did something bad in their life we should always view them as nothing better than that.

      • @UnderpantsWeevil
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        14 months ago

        Gotta wonder why the Minnesota PD never put a boot on Jordan Belfort’s neck.

  • @UnderpantsWeevil
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    104 months ago

    My man is literally always begging for money. He brags about how successful he is at begging for money. And he’s created an enormous cult of personality full of people who will just give him their money as soon as he asks for it.

  • @[email protected]
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    84 months ago

    Trump could have extorted billions out of Putin and/or the Saudis on Inauguration Day. He’s such a manbaby that he can only take money from people who are much, much weaker than he is.