(NewsNation) — After becoming the first former president to be indicted, Donald Trump is preparing for what could be an extended and expensive legal fight.
It’s one of many legal troubles following Trump — and his supporters are footing a large part of the bill.
Investigations involving Trump span the country, from New York to Washington, D.C., to Georgia.
The Save America political action committee, formed shortly after the 2020 election, holds a majority of Trump’s cash on hand. That’s cash the former president is using to pay for his attorneys — and there are a lot of them.
NewsNation crunched the numbers, and the total legal fees from the Save America PAC from both 2021 and 2022 add up to $16 million dollars to cover Trump and his associates.
Save America paid nearly $2 million in 2022 to the firm of Trump lawyer Alina Habba and $1.2 million to Ifrah Law, which specializes in white-collar litigation.
The largest payment, $3 million, went to lawyer Chris Kise. Kise joined Trump’s team to represent him when classified documents were seized from the Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. Now, Kise is helping in a fraud suit filed in New York.
Since being indicted in New York, Trump has sent at least six fundraising emails. One shows a new Trump T-shirt design, with the date of his New York indictment on the front. Official charges in that case are still unknown at this point, but Trump’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.
Trump-affiliated groups have brought in almost $2 million dollars since the former president first predicted his own indictment. One Republican strategist said that while the legal probes may rally supporters, they won’t change the minds of others.
“It will galvanize his supporters behind him because they believe he is being maligned and mistreated, but it will do nothing to win back the voters who left him in 2020,” Lisa Camooso Miller said.
Camooso Miller said the money that could be going to his campaign to win back the White House is now likely going to pay for Trump’s legal fees instead.