Trump legal fees eat up money that could be spent on other GOP candidates, data shows

Former president has spent millions of political action committee funds on personal legal fees

The nearly 20 major lawsuits and investigations facing Donald Trump are draining millions of dollars away from supporting other GOP candidates, according to campaign filings.

So far, according to election filings tracking spending through the end of August, Donald Trump’s Save America leadership political action committee has spent about as much paying Mr Trump’s legal bills as it has backing Republicans in the midterms.

The group has spent $8.4m on GOP campaigns and committees, while doling out $7m on legal fees and another $2m to nonprofits run by former top Trump officials.

Save America spent $3m on a single check to a Florida law firm representing the former president during the Department of Justice’s investigation into top secret documents kept at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Other expenses have included a $650,000 payment to the Smithsonian Institution for portraits of Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, $245,000 to Trump properties for food and lodging, and $78,000 to the first lady’s former stylist for “strategy consulting.”

Republican voters are being “told they’re pitching in for a fight against Democrats” but are actually “helping Trump fight off his legal problems,” a Republican fundraiser told The Washington Post, which analysed the campaign data.

Mr Trump’s unprecedented attempts to stay in power after the 2020 election have also cost state Republican parties in battleground states like Georgia and Arizona.

The state Republican party in the former paid over $20,000 to represent an official called to testify in the January 6 hearings in Congress, while the Arizona GOP has paid a whopping $127,000 in regards to a January 6 investigation-related lawsuit to access the party chair’s phone records.

That same January 6 committee has scrutinised the former president for his fundraising practices.

Investigators found that the Trump campaign raked in $250m, often telling donors it was going towards an “election defence fund” that didn’t exist which was fighting claims about the 2020 election Mr Trump was warned were false.

Most of the campaign’s money then was transferred to the Save America group.

Some extra funding would be appreciated by Republicans like the scandal-plagued Herschel Walker in Georgia and Blake Masters in Arizona, both of whom badly trail their Democratic opponents in fundraising totals.

The Independent has contacted Mr Trump for comment.

Save America isn’t the former president’s only financial lever in politics, however.

His Make America Great Again, Inc. group has spent $5m in ads for GOP candidate across five states as of the end of last week, the Post reports.