"Hemorrhaging cash": Trump PAC "nearly broke" after lawyer bills and may have violated election law

Former President Donald Trump's leadership PAC is running low on cash after shelling out millions on legal bills amid his mounting indictments and court cases.

The New York Times reported that Trump's PAC, Save America is now "nearly broke" after reporting less than $4 million in its account. The PAC began last year with more than $105 million in the bank.

The struggling PAC has even requested a refund of a $60 million donation previously made to pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc. Federal records showed that Make America Great Again Inc has sent back nearly $13 million to the group covering Trump's legal fees, closely mirroring the amount the super PAC raised from donations in the first half of 2023. 

The Republican frontrunner has seen his legal costs balloon in recent months. The ex-president has been twice indicted, found liable of sexual abuse and defamation, and likely faces other impending criminal charges in connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and efforts to overturn the 2020 election in D.C. and Georgia.

Save America had also seemingly found its way around a loophole stipulating that it could not directly spend money on Trump's campaign when it donated the $60 million to the super PAC, which is permitted to spend on his candidacy. The Times reported that though it is not evident when Save America requested the refund, filings show that the super PAC sent it back in installments, several of which were timed to Trump's various legal debacles. A person close to the matter told The Times that another sum was sent back to Save America in July, implying that the super PAC's continued refunds could be covering Trump's legal fees as they bubble up. 

"I don't know that calling it a refund changes the fundamental illegality," said Adav Noti, a former lawyer for the Federal Election Commission's litigation division and leader of watchdog group, Campaign Legal Center. As the Times noted, "the pro-Trump super PAC and Trump-controlled PAC must be independent entities and are barred from any coordination on strategy."

"So for the super PAC and the Trump PAC to be sending tens of millions of dollars back and forth depending upon who needs the money more strongly suggests unlawful financial coordination," Noti added.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung denied Noti's implication.

"Everything was done in accordance with the law and upon the advice of counsel. Any disgusting insinuation otherwise, especially by Democrat donors, is nothing more than a feeble attempt to distract from the fact that President Trump is dominating this race — both in the polls and with fund-raising — and is the only candidate who will beat Crooked Joe Biden," he told the Times.

But CNN's Phil Mattingly noted that the filings underscore that Trump's "political operation has significant money issues."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

"To put context on this, last year at the start of the year, it had $105 million. That's a ton of money. The beginning of this year, $18.3 million. What does he have right now? As of the latest filing that came out last night, less than $4 million. That's hemorrhaging cash," he said.

"While they're trying to get around this by calling it a refund, there's no precedent for a ... refund being this large," he added. "Trump's campaign says they've done everything according to the law, everything legally, but this is new, this is different and this is very clearly an effort to try to add liquidity when they have a very clear crunch despite the fact it's never really been done before."