Trump’s PAC Is Paying the Legal Bills for Key Classified-Docs Witnesses, and There’s Definitely Nothing Slippery About That, No Siree

Quick thought experiment for the group: Let’s say you were under investigation for murder, and investigators had identified two key witnesses who could shed considerable light on the matter. Depending on what these people say, you could either (1) go to prison for the rest of your life or (2) go about your merry way. Would it be cool for you to pay the legal fees these people incur as part of the investigation, which could add up to many thousands of dollars that they would otherwise have to foot themselves? Or would that be a mild to major conflict of interest given that it could potentially influence them to say exactly what you wanted them to say? If you’re Donald Trump, the answer is apparently: No, that’s totally fine!

The Washington Post reports that the ex-president’s Save America PAC is currently footing the legal bills for “some key witnesses involved in the Justice Department investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified documents, obstructed the investigation or destroyed government records,” according to sources familiar with the matter. One of those witnesses is said to be Kash Patel, who has testified before a grand jury and is considered crucial to Trump’s defense. Prior to the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August, but after it had become clear that Trump had taken documents with him to the for-profit club and private residence that he was not supposed to, Patel said in interviews that Trump had declassified government documents before leaving office, and that he was present when the then president chose to do so. While Trump himself has insisted that he declassified everything he took to Mar-a-Lago—and also that he had the ability to declassify things just “by thinking about it”—former aides have dubbed that claim “ludicrous,” “ridiculous,” and “complete fiction.” According to the Post, while testifying before the grand jury, Patel was asked by prosecutors about his comments re: declassification and “was also questioned about how and why the departing president took secret and top-secret records to Mar-a-Lago, his part-time residence and private club in Florida.”

The other, perhaps even more consequential witness reportedly having his legal fees paid by Trump’s PAC is said to be Walt Nauta, a valet for Trump, according to the Post, seen as “a potentially critical prosecution witness.” In October, The New York Times reported that Nauta had been captured on camera moving boxes out of a Mar-a-Lago storage room “both before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of all classified documents.” Nauta is said to have been interviewed by the DOJ on “several occasions,” with those interviews starting “before the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8,” according to the Times.

Both Patel and Nauta are being represented by Brand Woodward Law, which public records show has been paid more than $120,000 by Trump’s PAC. (In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told the Post, “We don’t comment on any vendor payments, and everything the group spends on is publicly reported and in accordance with the law.”) Perhaps not surprisingly, Stan Brand, the top lawyer at the firm, told the Post that there is nothing inappropriate about the PAC paying the witnesses’ legal bills. “There’s no bar against third parties paying for legal fees as long as it’s disclosed to the client. The ethical obligation of the lawyer is to the client,” he said. “This is a tempest in a teapot and another cheap shot at these people because of who they work for.”

On the other hand, not everyone agrees! Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor, told the Post that the payments quite obviously raise concerns about whether the financial arrangement will influence how the witnesses testify. “It looks like the Trump political action committee is either paying for the silence of these witnesses, for them to take the Fifth or for favorable testimony,” Walden told the outlet. “These circumstances should look very suspicious to the Justice Department, and there’s a judicial mechanism for them to get court oversight if there’s a conflict.” As the Post notes, the PAC itself, which has paid the legal bills of loyal Trump aides in the past, is currently under investigation for its fundraising tactics related to false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.