Trump and his sons plan ‘candlelight’ dinner at Mar-a-Lago to raise money for co-defendants: report

Donald Trump is hosting a candlelight dinner fundraiser with his sons at his Mar-a-Lago resort this fall to help cover legal costs for co-defendants in his four separate criminal cases, sources familiar with the matter said The messenger.

The exact details and date of the dinner for the Patriot Legal Defense Fund are still being determined, two sources familiar with the planning told veteran Florida reporter Marc Caputo, but the event could raise between $500,000 and $1 million. The dinner will also be “very intimate and exclusive,” an anonymous Trump official added.

The Patriot Legal Defense Fund, created in July to support Trump’s co-defendants and witnesses in his ongoing trials, is working with his Save America PAC, which primarily addresses his legal fees, the detailed sources said. Until this summer, Save America covered nearly all of the legal fees for the former president, various employees, former associates, consultants and partners caught up in its series of investigations, with the committee spending at least $22 million on legal fees in the first half of the year 2023, according to the Federal Election Commission’s documents.

“Save America wasn’t really designed to be a legal defense fund. As the legal landscape evolved, so did this effort,” a Trump official with knowledge of the event planning told The Messenger. “The fact is that the Justice Department is trying to bankrupt people and drown them through proposed legislation, but Donald Trump won’t let it happen.” Trump’s range of litigation has proven lucrative: 10 percent of every dollar raised through donations goes to Save America. Most recently, he raised about $10 million after posting the mugshot he received in the Fulton County Jail online, meaning the mugshot earned him $1 million for legal defense.