Former President Donald Trump returns to a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, the second day of his trial for allegedly covering up hush-money payments linked to extramarital affairs. (Photo by JUSTIN LANE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesA fund to support the legal expenses of Donald Trump’s allies spent $478,000 in the first three months of 2024, but barely any of the money appears to have gone toward attorneys’ fees or court costs, according to an IRS filing the group made on Tuesday.
The Patriot Legal Defense Fund launched in July 2023 as a tax-exempt political organization “to raise money and pay for or help defray legal expenses related to defending against legal actions arising from an individual or group's participation in the political process,” per an IRS filing. Shortly after the fund was created, multiple outlets reported that its goal was to pay the legal bills of Trump allies and staffers.
Of the $478,000 the fund spent in the first quarter of 2024, some $465,000—or 97%— went to a firm called HaystackID for “attorney review service.” A computer-forensics and eDiscovery service provider based in Chicago, HaystackID is also who the Trump Organization hired when a judge forced it to obtain an outside firm to ensure the former president’s company was complying with subpoenas from the New York attorney general’s office. The fund also paid its accountants $3,000 and reimbursed Andrea Hanks, a photographer in the Trump White House, $2,500 for an event dinner. It appears just $342 went to an actual law firm, Higgs Fletcher & Mack, LLP in San Diego. (It’s the former firm of attorney turned OAN reporter Christina Bobb, whom the Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed in 2022, the Times of San Diego reported.)
Meanwhile, the Patriot Legal Defense Fund raised $390,000 in the first three months of the year, most of which–$250,000–came from Marlene Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. Other notable donations include $100,000 from a Florida retiree who has the same mailing address as the Patriot Legal Defense Fund and $5,000 from Sen. Steve Daines’ (R-Mont.) leadership PAC.
The fund’s registration in Virginia lists Trump advisers Michael Glassner and Susie Wiles as its directors. Lynne Patton, a one-time assistant with the Trump Organization who later became a senior official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and was barred from federal employment for four years after admitting to violating the Hatch Act, is the finance director of the fund, according to her Twitter profile.
All told, the Patriot Legal Defense fund has raised $1.9 million and spent $877,000. In 2023, the fund disclosed paying a total of $371,000 to two Washington, D.C.-based law firms, Gibson Dunn and Crutcher and Brand Woodward Law. The fund also paid $18,000 to Mar-a-Lago for a banquet.
Glassner, Wiles, Patton, the fund’s treasurer and spokespeople for HaystackID did not immediately respond to inquiries.
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