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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
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Legal costs remain its top expense, with the Donald Trump Presidential Leadership PAC dealing with the fallout from the former president’s loss in a civil fraud case and preparing for the start of a historic criminal trial in Manhattan. spent the same amount of money. court.
Save America, the political action committee that underwrites much of Mr. Trump’s legal costs, spent nearly $3.7 million on legal fees in March, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday night. However, this amounted to nearly $3 of the $4 raised. And the committee ended this month with an additional $886,000 in unpaid legal fees, most of it for representing Mr. Trump and his family in a corporate fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. was paid to Robert & Robert Co. The case ended in February with a staggering $355 million judgment against him, not including interest.
Initial arguments are scheduled to begin Monday in the hush-money criminal trial brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges. Save America paid a combined $1.14 million in March to Blanche Law and Nechereslaw LLP, whose principals sided with Mr. Trump in court during jury selection in recent days.
Saturday’s filing highlights how much financial base President Trump must build as the general election race heats up. President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee expanded their financial advantage over President Trump and the Republican Party in March.
Mr. Biden’s main campaign committee entered April with $85.5 million in its war chest, while Mr. Trump’s main campaign account had $45.1 million.
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The amount Save America spent last month on legal fees alone is comparable to the $3.7 million total spent by Trump’s campaign committee in March as he pursued his third bid for the White House. This marks a significant slowdown in the former president’s campaign spending.
By contrast, the cash-rich Biden campaign reported spending more than $29 million last month. Approximately $22 million was spent on creating and running campaign ads.
Save America relies on tens of millions of dollars recovered from President Trump’s super PAC, MAGA, to survive. The super PAC sent an additional $5 million to Save America in March, bringing the total refund to $57.25 million, according to new filings.
However, this funding source quickly dries up. Leadership PAC has donated a total of $60 million to MAGA Inc. and cannot seek any further refunds.
Trump’s political team plans to tap another cash pipeline to replenish dwindling resources. Under a recently signed joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee and dozens of state political parties, Save America will raise $5,000 each from individual donors who participate in high-ticket fundraisers. And the agreement prioritizes payments to Save America over donations to the RNC, according to the fine print on the invitation obtained by CNN.
The Trump campaign said the first major event under its new fundraising committee, a dinner at the billionaire investor’s home in Florida, raised a record $50.5 million.
This week’s filing also points to the economic benefits of running for the White House independently for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate. His campaign received a $2 million donation from Nicole Shanahan in March and raised more than $3 million more that month, according to campaign reports.
Mr. Kennedy also ran out of cash in March, burning through $4.5 million. That’s an increase from February, when the campaign spent about $2.9 million, as the campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on consulting, events, advertising and payroll. Kennedy’s campaign ended in March with about $6 million in cash.
Shanahan is an independently wealthy technology executive and the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Politicians can donate unlimited amounts of their own funds to support their campaigns.
CNN’s Aaron Perish contributed to this report.
