Donald Trump is continuing to rake in the cash from supporters while shrugging his shoulders at the people who failed to secure him a second term.
Despite boasting a war chest of more than $100 million, Trump is reportedly refusing to extend any help to his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who is now struggling under a mountain of legal fees that could leave the former New York mayor entirely broke. According to The New York Times, Trump raised a whopping $102 million in the first half of 2021. Salon reported last month that he has been relatively frugal in his spending habits, opting to not direct any of the money toward his election conspiracy efforts, including the GOP-backed recounts in Georgia, Pennsylvania, or Arizona.
On Sunday, Maggie Haberman reported that Trump's fiscal conservatism appears to apply even to his closest allies – and namely, one of his most loyal election objectors: Rudy Giuliani.
"Giuliani allies are looking at the Trump $ - even if it isn't $82 million," Haberman tweeted, adding that the ex-lawyer's friends say "he is close to broke."
"Trump aides have been clear they see no mechanism for paying Giuliani's legal bills that isn't problematic for Trump, and they think Giuliani took actions a lawyer should have known were problematic, even if the client wanted it," Haberman continued. "But this is of note in the context of Trump having had a previous lawyer who pleaded guilty and then cooperated with an investigation into Trump."
The report comes amid two major legal setbacks for the former mayor.
Currently, Giuliani is steeped in a federal investigation alleging that he worked as an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine, pressuring Ukrainian officials to launch a probe in President Biden and his son Hunter by threatening to withhold U.S. military aid. The ex-attorney is also the subject of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over his baseless claims that the company's equipment was compromised in President Biden's favor.
Earlier this month, the Daily Beast found that Giuliani had managed to raise a "paltry" $9,798 for his legal defense fund – about $4,990,202 short of his goal. To boot, the Trump loyalist was also recently suspended from practicing law in the state of New York, significantly crippling his ability to make any personal income.
But even on the brink of apparent bankruptcy, Giuliani doesn't appear to be particularly fazed.
Last week, the ex-attorney told NBC New York that everything he's done over the past several years came as part of an effort to defend his client, Donald Trump. "I'm more than willing to go to jail if they want to put me in jail," Giuliani said in a Friday interview. "And if they do, they're going to suffer the consequences in heaven, I'm not. Because I didn't do anything wrong."
Trump's refusal to extend Giuliani aid appears to be part of a broader effort by the former president to distance himself from the ex-attorney.
Back in January, The Washington Post reported that Trump "instructed aides not to pay Giuliani's legal fees and "has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president's behalf to challenge election results in key states." Trump also privately "expressed concern" about some of Giuliani's moves in attempting to overturn the election and was put off by the ex-attorney's $20,000 daily fees.
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