Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tore into Donald Trump over a report that the former president has been using campaign contributions to pay his personal legal fees.
Trump is “the cheapest SOB I’ve ever met in my life,” Christie, who is challenging Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told Politico. “What Donald Trump is good at is spending other people’s money.”
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Trump has quietly increased the amount of money diverted from his campaign donations to the political action committee he is using to pay for legal fees.
That’s led to about $1.5 million since spring redirected from his campaign to expenses related to his growing legal problems, including civil lawsuits, a federal criminal indictment and ongoing probes into his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Christie said Trump ― a billionaire ― should be able to pay his own legal fees, and demanded that he stop sticking donors with the bills.
“He should take a pledge today to instruct his campaign to no longer spend any public money on his legal fees,” Christie told Politico. “He is the richest candidate in this race, yet he is using public money to pay his legal fees. He should be ashamed of himself.”
The Republican Party had been paying at least some of Trump’s legal fees, but cut him off once he announced his latest run for the presidency.
“We cannot pay legal bills for any candidate that’s announced,” Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel told CNN last year.
The Times report said Trump initially sent 99 cents of every dollar raised to his political campaign, with a penny going to the PAC paying his legal fees. But at some point in February or March, he increased the amount going to legal fees tenfold, with 10% of donations now funneled toward lawyers.
Trump’s legal fees are likely to grow further. Along with the charges and lawsuits already underway, he may face additional federal legal indictments related to his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and a potential criminal case in Georgia related to his efforts to overturn the election.
Despite all that, Trump remains far and away the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.