A spokesman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s presidential campaign is criticizing former President Donald Trump after a new report alleged that his super PAC spent more than $40 million in legal fees.
The Washington Post reports that Trump’s Save America PAC will disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a Federal Election Commission filing on Monday, which the DeSantis team notes is “more than the $36 million Trump’s campaign has brought in since he has been a candidate.”
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What that number doesn’t surpass, however, is the $69.5 million that the campaign and PAC have raised together since launching the campaign in the final quarter of last year, according to FEC filings.
“Trump has spent over $60 million this year on two things: falsely attacking Ron DeSantis and paying his own legal fees, not a cent on defeating Joe Biden,” DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “Governor DeSantis’ sole focus, by contrast, has been campaigning for this country’s future, defeating Biden, and reversing the decline of America.”
“Ron DeSantis and his campaign are disgustingly siding with Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, and the January 6th Unselect Committee. They would rather defend Crooked Joe Biden and his weaponized Department of Justice than the innocent people who are being targeted by these political witch-hunts,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign. “Only desperate idiots and un-American morons would take the position the DeSantis team has taken.”
Federal law prohibits presidential campaigns from communicating with super PACs, nor can such entities fundraise together. The Trump campaign and Save America PAC handle all financial matters separately, but the latter has funneled donations toward paying down the former president’s exorbitant legal costs. Since launching in November of 2020 after his election loss through the second quarter of this year, Save America has spent $56 million on legal costs, according to the report.
Trump faces 40 counts in the Justice Department’s classified documents case against him, which special counsel Jack Smith said in May were related to “felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.” Smith is separately investigating the former president over his handling of his 2020 election loss, and is reported to be considering charges in that case.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump in late March on charges related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty and a trial has been scheduled for March of next year.
Trump also faces legal exposure from an unrelated criminal investigation by Atlanta prosecutors. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is examining the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his subsequent role in the Capitol riot. Charges in that case are expected later this year.
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Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the hush money and documents matters and vowed to fight both sets of charges. He has also maintained his innocence in the state and federal investigations of his handling of his 2020 election loss.
On the civil side, Trump is fighting author E. Jean Carroll’s expanded defamation suit, which is based on his continued denials of her accusation that he raped her in a New York City department store dressing room in 1996.
