Trump Trial Could Bankrupt Co-Defendants: Former Official

The 18 defendants indicted alongside former President Donald Trump in the sweeping RICO case in Georgia could go bankrupt trying to afford legal counsel during the criminal trial, former Trump official Michael Caputo said.

Trump's former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis were among those named in the 41-count indictment unsealed on Monday. The criminal charges have set the stage for a lengthy trial that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is proposing to begin as early as March 4.

Speaking from his own experience with obtaining legal counsel in high-profile proceedings, Caputo said the non-Trump defendants in Georgia are likely to face significant economic headwinds trying to defend themselves.

"I spent $300K+ on lawyers in the Clinton Russia Hoax. I was just a witness," Caputo wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. "These 18 additional targets in the GA indictment are in for far more legal expenses. They'll lose their homes, pull their kids out of schools, delay medical care."

Caputo, who served as assistant secretary of public affairs for the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services, was investigated by the House Intelligence Committee as part of the panel's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He obtained former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco as counsel. Caputo has previously said that in order to pay those legal bills, he had to liquidate his children's college funds.

Other users on X pointed out that Giuliani, one of the biggest names in the indictment, is already struggling to pay off his legal fees. Last week, the prosecutor-turned-New-York-City-mayor-turned-Trump-ally put his luxury apartment up for sale, listing the three-bedroom home on Manhattan's Upper East Side for $6.5 million.

"Rudy Giuliani, the mayor who saved NYC, is drowning in legal debt," New York Post journalist Miranda Devine said. "He's spent millions defending against a bogus FBI investigation, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, harassing civil suits funded by deep pocketed Dems. He has to sell his beloved UES apartment. The process is the punishment."

Ellis, who was also indicted on Monday, has spent the last couple of days asking for donations to help fund her legal fees in the Georgia case. Her crowdfunding page on Christian website GiveSendGo has raised over $14,000 as of 4:45 p.m. Wednesday ET.

"Jenna Ellis, former senior legal adviser and personal counsel to President Trump, is being targeted and the government is trying to criminalize the practice of law," the page reads. "Help her fight back and stand for the truth!"

Georgia's Republican Party has also been raising money to help some of the defendants named in the alternative electors scheme pay their legal bills, according to Atlanta-based, pro-Trump conservative activist Debbie Dooley.

"The GA GOP is raising money to pay legal fees of the alternate electors that were indicted," Dooley wrote on X Wednesday. "GA GOP Chair Josh McKoon cancelled his family vacation to deal with the fallout from the partisan witch hunt indictments."