Where the Trump Campaign is Spending Its Legal Consulting Cash
The bulk of the campaign's April legal spending went to Harder LLP, a firm that has threatened and sued media companies on Trump's behalf.
May 21, 2020 at 03:23 PM
4 minute read
President Donald Trump's reelection campaign shelled out more than $500,000 on legal fees last month, spending half of that amount on a boutique law office suing media companies on his behalf and almost $200,000 on Jones Day, the firm of former White House counsel Donald McGahn.
Trump's campaign also directed a relatively meager sum, nearly $6,500, to Consovoy McCarthy, a firm that has defended the president in lawsuits seeking access to his financial records, according to a disclosure filed Wednesday. With that payment last month, the campaign's total spending on Consovoy McCarthy came to nearly $200,000 since October 2019.
The bulk of the campaign's April legal spending went to Harder LLP, a firm that has threatened and sued media companies.
Trump turned to the firm's name partner, Charles Harder, in March for a libel suit against CNN over an opinion piece that said the president's campaign had left open the possibility of seeking Russia's assistance in the 2020 election. Harder is involved in Trump suits against The New York Times and Washington Post for alleged libel, citing opinion pieces that linked Trump to Russia's interference in the 2016 election. In March, the Trump campaign paid Harder's firm more than $450,000, about half of its $900,000 in legal spending that month. Since 2018, the Trump campaign has paid Harder's firm more than $3 million, disclosures show.
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign money continued to flow to Jones Day, the law firm that has long advised the president in connection with his political ambitions. Since 2015, Trump's campaign has spent more than $11 million on the firm, which has fed numerous former partners into high-ranking posts in the administration and, in some cases, seats on the federal bench.
The dip in legal spending, from $900,000 in March to about $550,000 in April, coincided with a plummeting of campaign expenditures overall by Trump and his presumptive Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, as the coronavirus outbreak kept both of them off the trail. Trump's campaign spent $7.7 million and Biden's shelled out nearly $13 million, marking the lowest monthly outlays of the year.
Biden's campaign devoted almost $100,000 to legal services in April, with more than $85,000 spent on Covington & Burling. The campaign hired Covington partner Robert Lenhard, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, last year and has since paid the firm almost $1 million, according to a review of disclosures.
In 2008, the year he joined Covington, Lenhard oversaw the Obama transition team that reviewed the FEC for the incoming Democratic administration.
The new campaign finance disclosures also showed that, a month after ending his presidential bid, billionaire Michael Bloomberg paid Venable nearly $1 million in April. Venable is representing Bloomberg in a case filed by former campaign field organizers.
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, spent another $255,000 on legal consulting from Willkie Farr & Gallagher that month, according to his campaign's latest financial disclosure.
|Read more:
Consovoy McCarthy, Hiring Utah's Solicitor, Is Now Home to 5 Ex-SCOTUS Clerks
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All'Substantive Deficiencies': Judge Grants Big Law Motion Dismissing Ivy League Price-Fixing Claims
3 minute readUS Fifth Circuit Departs From Sister Courts on Copyright Infringement Damages
4 minute readEx-Girardi Keese CFO Christopher Kamon, Shackled and Sniffing, Pleads Guilty
3 minute readTrending Stories
Who Got The Work
Dechert partners Andrew J. Levander, Angela M. Liu and Neil A. Steiner have stepped in to defend Arbor Realty Trust and certain executives in a pending securities class action. The complaint, filed July 31 in New York Eastern District Court by Levi & Korsinsky, contends that the defendants concealed a 'toxic' mobile home portfolio, vastly overstated collateral in regards to the company's loans and failed to disclose an investigation of the company by the FBI. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen, is 1:24-cv-05347, Martin v. Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Arthur G. Jakoby, Ryan Feeney and Maxim M.L. Nowak from Herrick Feinstein have stepped in to defend Charles Dilluvio and Seacor Capital in a pending securities lawsuit. The complaint, filed Sept. 30 in New York Southern District Court by the Securities and Exchange Commission, accuses the defendants of using consulting agreements, attorney opinion letters and other mechanisms to skirt regulations limiting stock sales by affiliate companies and allowing the defendants to unlawfully profit from sales of Enzolytics stock. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr., is 1:24-cv-07362, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Zhabilov et al.
Who Got The Work
Clark Hill members Vincent Roskovensky and Kevin B. Watson have entered appearances for Architectural Steel and Associated Products in a pending environmental lawsuit. The complaint, filed Aug. 27 in Pennsylvania Eastern District Court by Brodsky & Smith on behalf of Hung Trinh, accuses the defendant of discharging polluted stormwater from its steel facility without a permit in violation of the Clean Water Act. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert, is 2:24-cv-04490, Trinh v. Architectural Steel And Associated Products, Inc.
Who Got The Work
Michael R. Yellin of Cole Schotz has entered an appearance for S2 d/b/a the Shoe Surgeon, Dominic Chambrone a/k/a Dominic Ciambrone and other defendants in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The case, filed July 15 in New York Southern District Court by DLA Piper on behalf of Nike, seeks to enjoin Ciambrone and the other defendants in their attempts to build an 'entire multifaceted' retail empire through their unauthorized use of Nike’s trademark rights. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, is 1:24-cv-05307, Nike Inc. v. S2, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Sullivan & Cromwell partner Adam S. Paris has entered an appearance for Orthofix Medical in a pending securities class action arising from a proposed acquisition of SeaSpine by Orthofix. The suit, filed Sept. 6 in California Southern District Court, by Girard Sharp and the Hall Firm, contends that the offering materials and related oral communications contained untrue statements of material fact. According to the complaint, the defendants made a series of misrepresentations about Orthofix’s disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting and ethical compliance. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez, is 3:24-cv-01593, O'Hara v. Orthofix Medical Inc. et al.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250