Elections LLC has received more than $1.6 million this year, including $1 million that Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC paid in May to an entity called E LLC Iolta, which shares a Washington, D.C. address with company, shows a recent deposit. The Daily Beast first reported the $1 million payment in May to E LLC Iolta. CNN has requested comment from Elections, LLC. CNN’s tally looked at the legal fees paid out this calendar year by Make America Great Again PAC and Trump’s main political vehicle, Save America PAC. The filings do not show which specific lawyers at the firm received payments, and the filings do not explain what the law firms did for the Trump committees beyond the broad description of “legal advice” or “legal fees.” It’s impossible to tell from filings with the Federal Election Commission whether the payments to those companies specifically covered work representing witnesses before the Jan. 6 panel.

Law firms represent key players

Other firms paid by Trump-aligned committees include Abel Bean Law, which represented current Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich, and JPRowley Law, which represented conservative attorney and Trump ally Cleta Mitchell, as well as his former adviser of the White House Peter Navarro, one of the President’s staunchest supporters. Navarro has been charged with contempt of Congress for failing to comply with the committee’s Jan. 6 subpoena. He pleaded not guilty. Abel Bean has been paid more than $241,000 this year by Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America. In a statement to CNN, Abel Bean Law co-founder Michael Abel would neither confirm nor deny that the money was used for Jan. 6 witnesses. “In cases where a third party may pay all or some of the legal fees on behalf of a client we represent, we provide independent legal advice to our client, we are loyal to our client and we always serve our client’s best interests,” Abel told the CNN. CNN has confirmed that the work of one firm, the Garber Group, is connected to the January 6 committee. According to federal records, that company took more than $91,000 from Trump’s political groups this year. “The PACs are paying The Garber Group for the legal fees of witnesses who cooperated with the committee’s investigation,” a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The law firm of Timothy Parlatore, who represents Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner who was ousted by the commission, was paid $25,000 by Trump’s Save America PAC. Parlatore told CNN that the payments to his company were not used to pay for legal services related to the commission’s investigation, but declined to say what they were for.
“I’m a private attorney and I get paid for legal work,” Parlatore said in an interview. “It is not on my behalf that I am representing anyone before the January 6 committee.”
CNN also sought comment from JPRowley Law, which has received more than $97,000 in payments this year from Trump committees. Moves by Trump’s political establishment to open its substantial post-war war chest to witnesses in the Jan. 6 probe have raised questions about the former president’s ability to influence testimony as the committee delves into his conduct.

January 6, committee members ask questions

CNN previously reported that Trump’s team was also involved in discussions about a legal defense fund, set up by the nonprofit arm of the American Conservative Union, to support aides targeting the House panel. ACU President Matt Schlapp said he has worked with the former President’s aides to determine which people subpoenaed by the select committee should receive help from the fund. “We talked about the hundreds of millions of dollars that the former President raised,” California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who sits on the committee, told CNN recently. “Some of that money is being used to pay for attorneys for witnesses. And it’s not clear that this agreement is unenforceable for some of those witnesses.” Some members of the Jan. 6 panel have singled out the legal representation of Hutchinson, a former White House aide who switched lawyers in early June. After the change, Hutchinson stepped up her cooperation with the panel and delivered bombshell testimony about the former President’s conduct on Jan. 6 at an in-person hearing. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a panel member, called Hutchinson “a prime example of someone who decided to get a new lawyer and then come back and testify.” “If there are witnesses out there who believe their lawyer is working at cross purposes with their obligation to tell the truth, they should work to correct that,” the Maryland Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper.