Cash-strapped Trump diverts donations from RNC to pay mounting legal bills after angry denials

Former President Donald Trump’s new fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee diverts a portion of donations to a PAC that pays his legal bills before any money gets to the party, according to The New York Times.

The Times flagged an invitation to a major upcoming dinner for the new Trump 47 Committee asking donors to contribute up to $814,600 to attend. The invitation shows that the first $6,600 of the donation will go to Trump’s campaign, the next $5,000 would go to the Save America PAC that paid over $50 million in legal bills last year, and the next $413,000 go to the RNC, followed by dozens of state parties.

The agreement comes as Save America is burning an average of $5 million a month in legal payments for Trump and his co-defendants and allies. It also comes after Trump’s allies, including daughter-in-law Lara Trump, took over the RNC and purged dozens of officials.

Trump officials previously “angrily pushed back” on claims that the RNC would help defray Trump’s legal costs, the Times noted.

Conservative attorney George Conway pointed out that the “funds are not going through the RNC at all; they’re just being diverted away from it and directly into the PAC paying the legal fees, even though presumably the RNC is playing a central role in raising the money.”

Trump is also directing 10% of every dollar his campaign raises to his PAC, up from 1% earlier in his campaign.