Several of President Donald Trump’s former personal attorneys who now hold top positions in the White House and Justice Department earned tens of millions of dollars that were paid by Trump’s various fundraising arms, disclosure records show.
From two impeachment proceedings to civil and criminal investigations into his personal businesses, Trump has accrued a long roster of loyal attorneys who have helped him fight his various legal battles over the years. Over the years, Trump’s presidential campaign committees, his political action committees — including his leadership PAC, Save America — and the Republican National Committee have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Trump’s legal bills, with at least $35 million going to attorneys who are now political appointees in Trump’s second administration.
Attorney Todd Blanche, who is Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general, was among Trump’s highest-paid personal attorneys, with his law firms being paid nearly $10 million from Trump’s Save America PAC between March 2023 and December 2024, according to filings.
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Blanche has served as Trump’s personal attorney in multiple capacities since he joined Trump’s legal team in 2023, most notably representing Trump in his New York hush money case in which Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Every day of the trial, at the end of the day’s proceedings, Blanche stood by Trump’s side as Trump addressed reporters in front of the cameras at the Manhattan court house. Trump has said he will appeal the jury’s decision.
During the height of the hush money case, Save America PAC was paying Blanche’s firm, Blanche Law, upwards of $800,000 a month, campaign disclosures show.
Trump’s legal defense team included Emil Bove, Blanche’s law partner at the time, who Trump appointed as principal associate deputy attorney general upon his reelection. Bove has been serving as acting deputy attorney general since Jan. 20 as Blanche awaits his confirmation, during which time he has helped lead Trump’s overhaul of the Justice Department, including identifying agents and employees who were involved in investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol for potential disciplinary action.
PHOTO: President Donald Trump waits for Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House in Washington, Feb. 11, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Trump’s former legal spokesperson Alina Habba was appointed counselor to the president upon Trump’s reelection, after receiving payments from Trump’s political entities while defending him in the media throughout his numerous court battles over the last three years.
As Habba addressed the cameras outside Trump’s court proceedings, appeared on conservative television shows, and took the stage at Trump’s campaign rallies, Habba’s firm Habba Madaio & Associates was paid nearly $9 million by Trump’s PACs from 2022 through 2024, according to filings.
Trump’s White House Counsel David Warrington, who served as general counsel for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, was previously also among the highest-paid attorneys on Trump’s legal team, with his firm Dhillon Law Group taking in more than $13 million from Save America PAC, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee between July 2021 and December 2024.
Together with Dhillon Law Group founder Harmeet Dhillon, Warrington represented the Trump campaign in fights against efforts to take Trump off of ballots in several states last year.
Dhillon, who had served as the Trump campaign’s legal adviser since 2020 — including assisting Trump in his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results — was nominated by Trump as assistant attorney general for civil rights.
And former Missouri Solicitor General John Sauer, who last year defended Trump in the Supreme Court’s landmark presidential immunity case, was named by Trump as U.S. solicitor general after his firm, James Otis Group, was paid $2 million by Trump’s Save America PAC from November 2023 through November 2024.
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Will Scharf, another attorney on Sauer’s team at the James Otis Group, helped represent Trump in the presidential immunity case and in Trump’s federal election interference case, before he was named White House staff secretary following Trump’s reelection.
Stanley Woodward, who represented Trump’s longtime aide Walt Nauta in his classified documents case, as well as numerous defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, saw his firm paid a total of $1.4 million from 2021 through 2024 before he joined Trump’s White House as assistant to the president and senior White House counselor.
Among Trump’s other top nominees, FBI director nominee Kash Patel was paid $400,000 by Save America PAC from 2022 through 2024, with the payments described as “strategy consulting.”
In all, since 2015, Trump’s political action committees, his campaign fundraising arms, and the Republican National Committee have together spent more than $300 million on legal bills that include defending Trump against numerous investigations into him and his personal businesses, and the Republican Party’s various election litigations.
Several new administration officials, formerly Trump’s personal attorneys, were paid millions by his PACs originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
