More than one-fifth of the $3.9 million that President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign has spent this year has gone to legal fees, the campaign’s latest quarterly Federal Election Commission filing shows.
About $835,000 in payments for “legal consulting” were made to eight firms and the Trump Corporation, with the most – $347,000 – going to Jones Day. Another $185,000 went to the firm Larocca Hornik Rosen Greenberg & Blaha. About $24,000 went to the Trump Corporation.
The steep legal bills come amid a probe into whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as a legal battle with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In the first two months of 2018, the campaign paid $93,181.25 to the firm of Charles Harder, the attorney representing Trump in the Stormy Daniels case.
Trump’s campaign raised $10.1 million in 2018’s first three months and has $28.3 million in the bank, the campaign finance report shows.
Trump’s campaign has also spent about $150,000 at Trump businesses, including the legal fees, per the FEC report. That includes about $68,000 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, to cover costs including event rental space, hotel stays and parking.
The campaign spent another $58,000 on costs listed as “rent” divided between three recipients: Trump Plaza, Trump Restaurants and Trump Tower.
Trump’s former personal aide John McEntee received $22,000 in payments from the campaign starting on March 23, the FEC filing shows. McEntee was fired from the White House amid a Department of Homeland Security investigation into possible financial crimes, a source told CNN after he was dismissed. After news of his firing broke, the Trump campaign announced it had hired McEntee as a senior adviser for campaign operations.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s consulting firm was the largest single recipient of campaign cash, receiving $1.7 million for digital and advertising services.
