{"id":149057,"date":"2026-04-17T11:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/17\/trump-pac-deep-in-debt-and-owes-lawyers-over-a-million\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:22:09","slug":"trump-pac-deep-in-debt-and-owes-lawyers-over-a-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/17\/trump-pac-deep-in-debt-and-owes-lawyers-over-a-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump PAC Deep In Debt\u2026 And Owes Lawyers Over A Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arrested Development<\/em> birthed an always relevant meme when Tobias and Lindsay agreed to try an open marriage. After Lindsay asked if an open marriage ever works to solve marital difficulties, Tobias \u2014 always the psychoanalyst manqu\u00e9 (an \u201cAnalrapist\u201d as he described his brand of Analyst\/Therapist) \u2014 explains that it\u2019s a terrible idea that \u201cnever, ever works,\u201d before adding, brightly, \u201cbut it might work for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A whole lot of Trump\u2019s personal lawyers embraced the Tobias logic, with Susan Necheles taking the hardest hit.<\/p>\n

According to a new FEC filing<\/a> first reported by NOTUS<\/a>, Donald Trump\u2019s Save America PAC \u2014 the vehicle he uses to pay legal bills \u2014 is nearly $500,000 in the red, while owing roughly $1.6 million to a roster of 12 different law firms. <\/p>\n

Stiffing lawyers is a time-honored tradition in the Trump orbit. He famously pulled the rug out from Rudy Giuliani<\/a> after Rudy devoted his entire post-mayoral career, law license, and remaining credibility to peddling the Big Lie. Decades of vendors, contractors, and attorneys could have warned Rudy. Trump has been slapped with hundreds of lawsuits, liens, and other legal interventions for non-payment<\/a>. Invoicing Donald Trump is a lot like betting on the Washington Generals.<\/p>\n

\"Arrested
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Susan Necheles \u2014 a serious criminal defense lawyer with a long and respectable career \u2014 decided to join the Trump team to cross-examine Stormy Daniels, the veteran attorney apparently looked at all that history and cheerily muttered: But it might work for us!<\/em> <\/p>\n

NechelesLaw LLP, is owed more than $660,000.<\/p>\n

But while she\u2019s getting stiffed the worst, she\u2019s at least not alone. Wharton Law PLLC, another firm headed by a lawyer who represented Trump in the same trial, is due $112K. Brito PLLC, representing Trump in defamation suits against a variety of media outlets as well as the $5 billion lawsuit against Jamie Dimon for caring about his bank over Trump, is owed $44K. The list goes on. It even drags in Biglaw:<\/p>\n

\n

About $400,000 is owed to Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Trump\u00a0nominated<\/u><\/a>\u00a0one of its lawyers last week to a lifelong U.S. appeals court judge position based in New York. Trump also\u00a0nominated<\/u><\/a>\u00a0a lawyer from James Otis Law Group LLC in February to a federal judicial post. His PAC owes that firm, located in St. Louis, about $1,700.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s the thing\u2026 Trump is paying his lawyers, just not with money.<\/p>\n

Todd Blanche, who sat next to Necheles at the hush money trial, is the Acting Attorney General. Emil Bove is on the Third Circuit. This past Friday, Trump nominated Sullivan & Cromwell partner Matthew Schwartz<\/a> \u2014 who worked on Trump\u2019s criminal appeal \u2014 to the Second Circuit<\/a>. Justin Smith, another personal lawyer, picked up an Eighth Circuit nomination<\/a> earlier this year. Alina Habba\u2019s firm is on the list as well.<\/p>\n

Paying in kind is much cheaper than paying in money. Indeed, it costs Trump nothing at all. The rule of law pays the price.<\/p>\n

And this is where Necheles\u2019s miscalculation comes into focus. She\u2019s shown zero public interest in serving the administration. She just\u2026 did the work for the love of the billable hour. In Trumpland, that\u2019s a critical mistake.<\/p>\n

Save America has done this before<\/a>, burning through donor money on lawyers faster than it could raise it. And the lawyers doing their jobs are left holding the bag. <\/p>\n

Perhaps, someday, lawyers will learn that working for Trump only pays in patronage assignments to jobs they\u2019re questionably qualified to hold. Today is apparently not that day. For now, unless lawyers want a cushy job, they should stop somehow deluding themselves into thinking these gigs are anything but pro bono. <\/p>\n

Or, hey, maybe \u2014 just this one time \u2014 it might work for them. Good luck!<\/p>\n

The post Trump PAC Deep In Debt\u2026 And Owes Lawyers Over A Million<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Arrested Development<\/em> birthed an always relevant meme when Tobias and Lindsay agreed to try an open marriage. After Lindsay asked if an open marriage ever works to solve marital difficulties, Tobias \u2014 always the psychoanalyst manqu\u00e9 (an \u201cAnalrapist\u201d as he described his brand of Analyst\/Therapist) \u2014 explains that it\u2019s a terrible idea that \u201cnever, ever works,\u201d before adding, brightly, \u201cbut it might work for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A whole lot of Trump\u2019s personal lawyers embraced the Tobias logic, with Susan Necheles taking the hardest hit.<\/p>\n

According to a new FEC filing<\/a> first reported by NOTUS<\/a>, Donald Trump\u2019s Save America PAC \u2014 the vehicle he uses to pay legal bills \u2014 is nearly $500,000 in the red, while owing roughly $1.6 million to a roster of 12 different law firms. <\/p>\n

Stiffing lawyers is a time-honored tradition in the Trump orbit. He famously pulled the rug out from Rudy Giuliani<\/a> after Rudy devoted his entire post-mayoral career, law license, and remaining credibility to peddling the Big Lie. Decades of vendors, contractors, and attorneys could have warned Rudy. Trump has been slapped with hundreds of lawsuits, liens, and other legal interventions for non-payment<\/a>. Invoicing Donald Trump is a lot like betting on the Washington Generals.<\/p>\n

\"Arrested
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Susan Necheles \u2014 a serious criminal defense lawyer with a long and respectable career \u2014 decided to join the Trump team to cross-examine Stormy Daniels, the veteran attorney apparently looked at all that history and cheerily muttered: But it might work for us!<\/em> <\/p>\n

NechelesLaw LLP, is owed more than $660,000.<\/p>\n

But while she\u2019s getting stiffed the worst, she\u2019s at least not alone. Wharton Law PLLC, another firm headed by a lawyer who represented Trump in the same trial, is due $112K. Brito PLLC, representing Trump in defamation suits against a variety of media outlets as well as the $5 billion lawsuit against Jamie Dimon for caring about his bank over Trump, is owed $44K. The list goes on. It even drags in Biglaw:<\/p>\n

\n

About $400,000 is owed to Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Trump\u00a0nominated<\/u><\/a>\u00a0one of its lawyers last week to a lifelong U.S. appeals court judge position based in New York. Trump also\u00a0nominated<\/u><\/a>\u00a0a lawyer from James Otis Law Group LLC in February to a federal judicial post. His PAC owes that firm, located in St. Louis, about $1,700.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s the thing\u2026 Trump is paying his lawyers, just not with money.<\/p>\n

Todd Blanche, who sat next to Necheles at the hush money trial, is the Acting Attorney General. Emil Bove is on the Third Circuit. This past Friday, Trump nominated Sullivan & Cromwell partner Matthew Schwartz<\/a> \u2014 who worked on Trump\u2019s criminal appeal \u2014 to the Second Circuit<\/a>. Justin Smith, another personal lawyer, picked up an Eighth Circuit nomination<\/a> earlier this year. Alina Habba\u2019s firm is on the list as well.<\/p>\n

Paying in kind is much cheaper than paying in money. Indeed, it costs Trump nothing at all. The rule of law pays the price.<\/p>\n

And this is where Necheles\u2019s miscalculation comes into focus. She\u2019s shown zero public interest in serving the administration. She just\u2026 did the work for the love of the billable hour. In Trumpland, that\u2019s a critical mistake.<\/p>\n

Save America has done this before<\/a>, burning through donor money on lawyers faster than it could raise it. And the lawyers doing their jobs are left holding the bag. <\/p>\n

Perhaps, someday, lawyers will learn that working for Trump only pays in patronage assignments to jobs they\u2019re questionably qualified to hold. Today is apparently not that day. For now, unless lawyers want a cushy job, they should stop somehow deluding themselves into thinking these gigs are anything but pro bono. <\/p>\n

Or, hey, maybe \u2014 just this one time \u2014 it might work for them. Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arrested Development birthed an always relevant meme when Tobias and Lindsay agreed to try an open marriage. After Lindsay asked if an open marriage ever works to solve marital difficulties, Tobias \u2014 always the psychoanalyst manqu\u00e9 (an \u201cAnalrapist\u201d as he described his brand of Analyst\/Therapist) \u2014 explains that it\u2019s a terrible idea that \u201cnever, ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":149034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-17-at-11.23.20-AM-888x1024-6JZeXq.png?fit=888%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}