Legal fees eat into Donald Trump’s funds as Joe Biden ups campaign spend

Details from the FEC filings show that Mr Trump’s political committees have spent $16.7 million on legal fees this year, with more than $50 million from Trump-supporting Maga Inc, which was earmarked for campaigning, being transferred to help Save America meet the legal bills.

The impact of the Trump cash crunch will also be felt by Republican candidates with the Republican National Committee prioritising Save America – now used exclusively for legal fees – ahead of the needs of candidates in congressional races.

Spending by the respective campaigns in recent months has illustrated the extent of Mr Trump’s difficulties.

His team spent $6 million on media advertising since the beginning of the year, compared with $45.2 million by the Biden team.

While Trump campaign spending has slowed down, Biden’s has increased sharply with, for example, $6.9 million being poured into a text-messaging blitz.

Evidence from former fixer

Mr Trump will be the centre of media attention on Monday with the start of the hush money trial, investigating allegations he falsified business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Much will hinge on the evidence from Mr Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who was jailed for his part in the alleged scheme to pay off Ms Daniels.

The 77-year-old former president has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges.

Alan Dershowitz, who defended Trump in his impeachment trial, said that the 12 jurors selected for the case did not bode well for the former president.

“This is a bad jury for Donald Trump,” he said, arguing that the “best he’s likely to do is a hung jury”.

“I think it’s too much of a New York Times, TikTok jury. This is maybe the best you can do with a New York jury pool, but it’s not a good jury for Donald Trump.”