Donald Trump has reportedly spent years refusing to set up a legal defense fund because, he said, only guilty people have legal defense funds. But, just as he said that only guilty people and the Mob would ever plead the Fifth and then went on to plead the Fifth, now that he’s been charged with dozens of federal crimes, with more charges expected, here comes the legal defense fund. The Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc. will be led by Trump advisers and aides. It will supplement the more than $40 million one of his PACs, Save America, has already spent on legal fees so far in 2023.
That $40 million has covered Trump’s own prodigious legal bills as well as those of dozens of witnesses and co-defendants. But now Save America is running low on money—money mostly raised on lies about the 2020 election having been stolen—and has already had to ask another Trump PAC to return a $60 million contribution. Trump has also started directing more of the money from his campaign fundraising into the PAC. It now gets 10 cents out of every dollar the campaign raises. Enter the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, Inc.