New campaign finance records show that Donald Trump’s political action committee paid the legal firm representing the former president’s longtime adviser Boris Epshteyn ahead of his pending criminal trial in Arizona.
The leadership PAC, Save America, made two payments of $40,000 and $10,000 on May 14 to the Phoenix-based law firm Tully Bailey LLP. Named partner Michael Bailey, who was the U.S. attorney for Arizona from 2019 to 2021, has represented Epshteyn in the Arizona case since at least May 9, according to court records.
Epshteyn was among those indicted in April on state charges that he helped orchestrate the alleged fake elector scheme in Arizona to send electors for Trump to the U.S. Capitol to be counted instead of Joe Biden’s electors after the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty.
Bailey, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, represented Epshteyn at his arraignment June 18, which was delayed, by permission of the court and with prosecutors’ consent, because of Bailey’s own obligations to another client outside the state.
It is not clear whether the payment to the firm was directly tied to representation for Epshteyn, but the payments were the PAC’s first disbursements to it.
Since last year, none of the 30 other co-defendants with ties to Trump in Arizona or a related scheme in Georgia appear to have directly received financial support from Save America for their legal expenses.
Epshteyn remains a frequent presence on the campaign trail for Trump. He has led the coordination of the multiple legal teams that have provided counsel for Trump related to his New York hush money trial and three other pending criminal cases, as well as the investigation by the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee.
Save America, which Trump established in November 2020, and Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign have spent at least $90.6 million covering legal-related expenses primarily on his behalf. Filings with the Federal Election Commission dating to 2021 show that nearly $83 million of that amount is attributable to Save America.
The PAC has made payments for “legal consulting” to law firms representing Trump’s co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira in the Mar-a-Lago documents case in Florida. Trump-affiliated political entities are not believed, however, to have paid lawyers representing defendants beyond Trump himself and Epshteyn in either Arizona or Georgia. Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case against Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants is largely stalled pending an appeal concerning her ongoing involvement in the matter.
Asked whether Save America has covered legal expenses for any other co-defendants in Georgia or Arizona, the organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, also did not respond.
In a statement Tuesday night, Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said, “Trump will stop at nothing to maintain his grip on power, including by paying bills for fake electors who tried to steal an election.”
In December 2022, Save America made a payment of nearly $900,000 to McGuireWoods LLP, which has represented former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows both in the Jan. 6 congressional investigation and other, ongoing matters.
In 2021 and 2022, as the Jan. 6 committee sent subpoenas to a web of people close to Trump during the weeks around the Capitol attack, Save America paid roughly $175,000 to the law firm of attorney Stanley Woodward. Woodward represented a number of Trump’s personal aides during the inquiry, including Nauta, Will Russell and Dan Scavino. He has also represented Nauta in the Mar-a-Lago documents case since its investigative phase.
CORRECTION (July 2, 2024, 9:38 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated Save America’s disbursements to law firms representing Trump’s co-defendants in Florida. The PAC has made payments to such firms this year; the end of 2023 was not the last time disbursements were made.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
