Trump’s PAC spent $230k a day on legal fees in February, records show

Donald Trump’s legal bills are outpacing the money coming into one of his chief political action committees, underscoring the strain of his many courtroom battles, lawsuits and criminal charges on his presidential campaign.

Fundraising committees tied to the Republican former president have routinely relied on his trial losses and the mountain of criminal charges against him to ask his supporters for money while casting him as a victim of a political conspiracy from his Democratic rivals.

His Save America leadership PAC spent nearly $5.6m in February while raising $5m, according to campaign reports to the Federal Election Commission. The PAC ended the month with roughly $4m in the bank.

Mr Trump’s attorney Alina Habba, who represented him in a blockbuster fraud case and a defamation trial that have left him on the hook for more than half a billion dollars in penalties, was also due to receive more than $530,000.

All together, Mr Trump’s legal fees through Save America reached nearly $7m in February, or the equivalent of roughly $230,000 a day.

Since the beginning of the year, Save America has spent $8.5m on Mr Trump’s legal bills, while his own campaign has spent less than $2m.

Last year, his campaign spent more than $55m on attorneys and legal fees, before a single one of his criminal trials began, with government filings revealing that he paid out millions of dollars to almost 50 firms.

MAGA Inc, another Trump-aligned super PAC, took in $12.7m in February, including a $5m boost from hotelier Robert Bigelow, among wealthy Republican donors courted by Mr Trump’s campaign while he pumps millions from small-dollar donors with fundraising messages that overwhelmingly use his legal drama to ask for cash.

Mr Trump’s campaign