Former President Donald Trump spent $50,000 in campaign contributions on legal fees to the firm representing a codefendant in Fulton County’s election interference case who later pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.
Trump’s Save America PAC directed the sum on Sept. 22 to Atlanta-based Chilivis Grubman, which represented attorney Kenneth Chesebro after he was charged with devising a plan to use GOP electors to overturn Trump’s defeat.
Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony county of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in October, halting what could have been a months-long criminal trial.
Scott Grubman, Chesebro’s attorney, declined to comment on the spending, which was listed as “legal consulting” in financial disclosures released this week.
The PAC also spent another roughly $75,000 in legal fees with Chaiken Ghali, the firm that represented Boris Epshteyn, a Trump aide and attorney who could be called to testify at the Fulton County trial. A message to the firm wasn’t immediately returned.
The expenditures are part of a surge of legal spending from Trump, whose campaign committees spent more than $50 million in 2023 on legal bills linked to the criminal indictments he faces in Fulton County and three other jurisdictions, as well as other pending investigations.
The complex racketeering case in Fulton County has left Trump’s codefendants with massive bills.
Trump headlined a fundraiser last year to help float court costs for Rudy Giuliani, his one-time attorney. But others have had less luck tapping Trump for financial aid. The Georgia GOP spent more than $1.3 million in legal fees in 2023, most of it to represent three pro-Trump electors indicted in August.
And Jenna Ellis was among the codefendants who turned to the Christian-based crowdfunding site GiveSendGo for donations after venting that Trump wouldn’t help pay her fees. She pleaded guilty to a felony charge in October and tearfully renounced Trump.
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