Donald Trump Faces Cash Crunch To Pay His Legal Fees

Donald Trump may face difficulties paying for his legal battles if he does not fundraise enough or make money in other ways as his trials continue.

The presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 election is facing multiple legal challenges including his high-profile hush-money case involving adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges he attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election by reimbursing his lawyer Michael Cohen for payments to silence Daniels over an alleged affair with the real estate mogul.

With the trial in the case set to last around six weeks, the former president is racking up significant legal fees. He is also facing three other indictments and related trials that could take place this year.

The former president has been paying his lawyers using the Save America PAC which has spent more than $62 million on legal fees since January 2023, Bloomberg noted.

Save America PAC ended March with around $4 million cash in hand and spent nearly $5.4 million on legal bills in February.

While Trump continues to incur legal fees, he will need to mitigate these spends by raising more money or paying for them with alternative sources or he could struggle to pay his bills.

Trump communications director Steven Cheung told Newsweek: "President Trump has established a commanding polling lead and failed president Crooked Joe Biden is on the ropes. His Democrat party allies know it, so they press their ongoing Witch-Hunts, further abusing and misusing the power of their offices in a no-holds barred effort to interfere in the presidential election.

"The American People will not fall for the Biden-directed Witch-Hunts and will hold Crooked Joe and his comrades to account in November. In the meantime, President Trump's lawyers will continue to fight all of these Biden Trials and they will continue to be appropriately compensated for their time and efforts."

Todd Landman, a professor of political science at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, told Newsweek that while "it is not clear that he will run out of money" thanks to accruing donations, Trump will be paying "substantial legal fees" in the next few weeks.

"Trump is managing four legal cases at present, each of which incurs legal fees for preparation of his defence, filing motions, and in the case of the Manhattan trial, representing him at trial four days a week," he said.

"The Manhattan trial is expected to run for five to six weeks in total, which continues this week, where there will be more witnesses for the prosecution and a separate hearing on whether he has violated his gag order.

"He has retained multiple lawyers to defend him, which means that he will have to pay substantial legal fees. It is not clear that he will run out of money, as he has been successful in securing a number of large donations from supporters. However, there are legal constraints on using some of his political organizations and thus [he] needs to keep campaign finance separate from personal legal defense spending. On top of his legal fees, he has outstanding civil judgments against him pending appeal."

Christopher Phelps, a professor of modern American history at the University of Nottingham, added that Trump would use the RNC to fund his legal bills.

"Trump has taken over the RNC and turned the whole of the Republican party, including his own campaign, into a fundraising operation that is tapping other billionaires to bankroll his lawyer bills and legal fees," he told Newsweek. "He won't run out of money."

Newsweek contacted the RNC by email to comment on this story.

Phelps said: "The key question is whether he can do so while also running an effective ground operation in the battleground states, which requires a lot of advertising and personnel."

Update 4/30/24, 9:46 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Steven Cheung.