Despite what some on the left might claim, it's all above board. If Trump's legal battles have even a smidge of connection to his election - and guess what, many do - he's in the clear.
From UPI:
Campaign finance data released at the end of January revealed that Save America, a political action committee founded and controlled by former President Donald Trump, spent more than $50 million in 2023 on legal fees resulting from Trump's multiple criminal and civil cases.
OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization tracking campaign funds, found that other Trump-aligned organizations also paid a combined $10 million in additional legal fees for Trump in 2023.
Though I have spent much of my career as a scholar of campaign finance law, I'm not certain whether that use of campaign donations is legal under federal election law. It might be; it might not be. But if it's not, I deem it unlikely that the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, would take any action.
As a general rule, campaign contributions may be used only for election-related expenses. They are not for the personal use of a candidate or federal officeholder. Federal regulations define "personal use" as "any ... expense of any person that would exist irrespective of the candidate's or duties as a federal officeholder." In other words, a candidate cannot use campaign funds to pay her daughter's college tuition or the mortgage on her personal residence.
In several advisory opinions, the FEC has repeatedly allowed campaign funds to pay legal expenses that are connected to an election campaign or officeholder action, such as litigation to get on the ballot or defense against a criminal investigation concerning whether the candidate misused his office.
