Michael Flynn is reportedly planning on launching a legal defense fund

Michael Flynn.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

For just a few cents a day, you can support a disgraced former national security adviser as he pays his mounting legal bills.

Michael Flynn, the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who became one of President Trump's top advisers during the campaign, is setting up a fund to raise money to pay the legal fees that come with being investigated by multiple agencies, a person close to Flynn told Bloomberg. After the inauguration, Flynn lasted just a few weeks as Trump's national security adviser, with the administration saying he was forced out after it came to light that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence regarding discussions he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the transition.

Flynn — whose duties on the campaign trail included introducing Trump and leading crowds in chants of "Lock her up!" — is a focus of the investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller into whether members of the Trump campaign worked with Russian officials to sway the election. "It is mighty expensive to get investigated these days," attorney William Jeffress told Bloomberg. "The problem here is you have not only the Mueller investigations, but congressional investigations, people who will have multiple subpoena and interviews on multiple subjects. That adds up to a lot of legal work."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Even if Flynn isn't charged with a crime, Jeffress said, his legal bills could easily top $1 million. So far, Trump's campaign organization has only paid the legal fees of one person: Donald Trump Jr., with election records through the end of June showing his lawyer was paid $50,000.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.