How Much Trump Is Paying Hush Money to Trial Lawyers

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Former President Donald Trump’s defense in his ongoing criminal trial is being bankrolled by his supporters—as are his other legal cases—as Federal Election Commission filings show his PAC Save America has been paying millions to the two law firms representing him in his trial over hush money payments, even before the trial proceedings got underway.

Former President Donald Trump appears with his legal team (LR) Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Susan … [+] Necheles at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 15 in New York City.

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Key Facts

Todd Blanche & Emil Bove: Lawyers Blanche and Bove, who are representing Trump at his trial, are both partners at Blanche Law, which FEC filings show has been paid approximately $4 million by Save America between April 2023—right after Trump was indicted in Manhattan—and March 31, the most recent date for which campaign finance data is available.

It’s unclear how those funds were split between Blanche and Bove, and Blanche is also representing Trump in his two criminal cases taking place in federal court, so some of the funds were likely for his services in those cases.

Trump still owes the law firm $50,000 as of the end of March, according to Save America’s most recent FEC filing.

Susan Necheles: Trump attorney Necheles, an experienced defense attorney who previously represented the Trump Organization in its criminal tax fraud case, was paid approximately $1.7 million by Save America between April 2023 and March 31.

Save America has thus paid approximately $5.8 million in total to the law firms in Trump’s hush money case prior to the trial getting underway.

Big Number

More than $50 million. That’s how much Save America—the main PAC paying Trump’s legal bills—has spent on legal fees since Trump was indicted in Manhattan on March 30, 2023. (The case marked his first criminal indictment, with three additional criminal cases then following.) The amount the PAC has paid Blanche and Necheles’ firms is far exceeded by how much the ex-president has paid other lawyers representing him in other cases like Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert and Alina Habba, whose firms have all each been paid approximately $7 million or more, FEC filings show.

What To Watch For

Trump’s hush money trial is expected to continue for another five weeks after opening arguments got underway on Monday. It’s still unclear how much Trump and Save America are paying Blanche, Bove and Necheles now that the trial is taking place every day, as Save America’s spending in April won’t get reported to the FEC until the end of May.

What We Don’t Know

How Trump will keep paying his lawyers. Save America only had approximately $4 million in cash on hand at the end of March, which is only slightly more than the $3.7 million the PAC paid last month in legal expenses alone, not including money that it still owes to lawyers. The PAC’s main source of cash in recent months has been refund payments made by pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again, as the PAC has been refunding $60 million that Save America previously gave to it, largely in $5 million increments. Those payments are set to run out by May at their current rate, making it unclear how Save America will raise cash for Trump’s legal bills going forward.

Surprising Fact

Blanche’s representation of Trump has come under more scrutiny in recent days, following a hearing Tuesday about whether Trump violated a gag order against him that media reports indicate did not go well for the ex-president’s attorney. Judge Juan Merchan repeatedly became testy with Blanche during the hearing as the attorney claimed Trump did not violate the gag order—even telling Blanche at one point that he was “losing all credibility with the court.” Bove has since taken the reins on cross-examining witness David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media, at the trial in the wake of Tuesday’s hearing.

Key Background

Trump has been indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, stemming from reimbursement payments he made to ex-attorney Michael Cohen after the lawyer paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election to cover up her allegations she had an affair with Trump . While in the White House, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of payments made throughout 2017, which prosecutors allege were paid through the Trump Organization and falsely labeled as legal payments. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and his lawyers have maintained that the reimbursement checks were personal expenses that were not business payments. Trump has faced widespread scrutiny for using his donors to pay his legal expenses as criminal and civil cases against him have piled up, with Save America becoming the main vehicle for him to pay his lawyers. The ex-president’s campaign website previously directed supporters to donate to a joint committee that sent 10% of every donation to Save America—website donations now just go to the campaign and Republican National Committee—and a high-dollar fundraiser earlier in April directed donations to Save America even before the RNC. Campaign finance experts have said Trump’s fundraising for his legal expenses falls within a gray area of campaign finance law, but the ex-president is unlikely to face any consequences given lax enforcement by the FEC.