Donald Trump is running out of cash to pay his legal fees

Former President Donald Trump is running out of money to pay his lawyers according to a recent report from USA Today that found his political action committee is nearly broke. 

The Save America political action committee (Super PAC) reportedly started off the year with $105 million dollars according to a report at the end of July by the New York Times. 

However, this number dwindled all the way down to just $4 million after Trump used the fund to pay for months of legal bills for himself and the people caught up in his troubles. 

The former president’s Save America Super PAC was in such dire straits that it had to request the refund of a $60 million dollar donation it made to another Trump Super PAC. 

Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc. Super PAC refunded $12.3 million according to filings reported on by The New York Times but that likely won’t be enough to pay for the former president’s growing legal bills. 

There are currently four cases looming over the former president’s head and the cost of Trump’s defense in each could end up in the millions according to some legal experts. 

Former federal prosecutor and current South Florida defense attorney Brian Udolf told USA Today that elite lawyers would either charge a flat rate or a daily trial rate between $10,000 and $30,000 dollars. 

“I can’t see most top-level white-collar lawyers doing it for less than $2 or $3 million,” Udolf said, and this isn’t taking into account the number of lawyers the former president would need for his defense. 

Sarah Kropf is a partner at a criminal defense firm in Washington D.C. and she told USA Today that top lawyers in her area charge an hourly rate of $2000 dollars, a number that would really add up considering the complexity of the former president’s cases.

Kropf said Trump’s legal cost would “easily” reach into the millions and added her figure was “for each separate case. And we’re talking about four indictments,” she explained. 

“You’re easily in the tens of millions of dollars. It’s kind of staggering, honestly, to think about how much he would be spending,” Kropf continued. 

The big question then is how will the former president pay for his legal bills if the Save America Super Pac is running out of money? The obvious answer would be that he’d need to break out his own wallet but some are questioning if Trump is actually broke. 

Newsweek reported that the former president’s use of a bail bondsman in Georgia to deal with the cost of his bail in Fulton County signaled alarm bells about his finances.

Trump’s bail bondsman paid $20,000 dollars of the former president’s $200,000 bill but the reasons behind why Trump would use such a service likely had nothing to do with his finances according to New York area bail bondsman Ira Judelson.

Judelson told Business Insider that wealthy individuals often hire bail bondsmen even when they can afford the costs because they want to make sure the process goes off smoothly and to ensure they don’t violate the terms of their bail. 

I have skin in the game," Judelson said. "So I worry about my clients and making sure the bail process is moving along smoothly."

Forbes recently estimated Trump’s net worth to be somewhere in the $2.5 billion range, so the former president could certainly afford to post his own bail if that figure is true.