Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro spilled that the former president paid about $300,000 of his legal fees, just weeks after the former White House aide was convicted of contempt of Congress.
Navarro, in a fiery interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, said Trump has “certainly helped” him take care of the bills after he was convicted on charges tied to refusing to comply with a House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack.
“About $300,000, my legal fees are well in excess of six [hundred thousand dollars],” Navarro told the MSNBC host on Wednesday.
The former Trump advisor, who said he looks to appeal his conviction and referred to it as “outrageous,” added that it will be “a million dollar case.”
“And Ari, part of the problem here is this lawfare, this notion of if you can’t put me in prison, you can at least bankrupt me. I’m not a wealthy guy. I wasn’t one of the wealthy guys in the Trump administration,” said Navarro, who also asked for donations to his legal defense fund on the air.
“All I ever did was create jobs, save lives and settle labor strikes. And I thought I did the honorable productive service to this country and now I’m stuck with a lot of legal bills.”
It’s unclear what money Trump allegedly used to pay Navarro with although his political action committee reportedly spent over $40 million on legal fees – including on attorneys for former aides – in the first half of 2023.
Other co-defendants in Trump’s Georgia election case, meanwhile, have been “left to figure out” how to come up with money to pay for their legal fees, sources told CBS News earlier this month.
Trump “pushed back” at opening his wallet for his former attorney Rudy Giuliani – who faces legal concerns of his own – before the GOP frontrunner eventually hosted an $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Giuliani at his Bedminster golf club, some sources told CNN.
Ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, a co-defendant in the Georgia election case, publicly went after the former president for falling short on “funding any of us who are indicted.”
“Would this change if he becomes the nominee? Why then, not now? I totally agree this has become a bigger principle than just one man. So why isn’t MAGA, Inc. funding everyone’s defense?,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Navarro, when questioned if he asked Trump for help paying his legal fees, replied “sure, certainly.”
“Look, he’s been a rock on this, OK?” he told Melber.