Ledger · Between terms · № 159
Promises to pay January 6 defendants' legal bills
Never delivered“[paraphrase] Trump said he was looking at paying the legal fees of January 6 defendants and told a Bedminster fundraiser he would contribute to their legal fund.”
- Promised
- , Interviews and a September 2022 / 2023 fundraiser for January 6 defendants at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster
- Re-promised
- 4 times with a fresh deadline
- Topic
- Justice & the courts
- Era
- Between terms
What happened
FEC records showed that through the first half of 2021 Trump's committees had paid none of the January 6 defendants' legal costs, despite sitting on roughly $100 million; HuffPost calculated he could have funded every defendant's defense at about $156,000 each and had spent zero. His alleged co-conspirators in other cases also reported never being paid. After returning to office he pardoned or commuted January 6 sentences in January 2025 and talked about federal "reimbursement" instead of personal payment; defendants are now pursuing Federal Tort Claims Act payouts.