A little-noticed nonprofit founded by Trump donors has been raising millions of dollars to provide legal assistance to the president’s allies, including those who may want to sue the government over claims of unjust prosecution.
The pot of money, called the Lawfare Defense Fund, has raised at least $36 million to support those who consider themselves unjust victims of the legal system with grants to pay for litigation. The fund, which is registered as a charity, has operated in relative obscurity, with no public-facing presence or communications.
Over the past week, President Trump has retreated from a highly divisive plan for a $1.8 billion government-backed fund to compensate people who claim they were inappropriately targeted for prosecution, potentially including Jan. 6, 2021, rioters. Unlike that pool of money, which was set to come from taxpayers, the charity is funded by private donors.
Still, the two efforts have strikingly similar viewpoints, focusing on “lawfare,” or the idea that under prior administrations, the civil courts and criminal justice system were used to target people and corporations on political grounds. To that end, the Lawfare Defense Fund could boost Mr. Trump’s efforts to aid supporters, especially as his administration’s plan founders.
Charles Gantt, the treasurer of the Lawfare Defense Fund who represents several Trump-related entities, did not respond to a list of questions. But The New York Times has obtained a recent filing submitted by the group to the Internal Revenue Service that provides some information.
The group was originally formed in Florida in April 2024 as a type of nonprofit that can engage in political activities but without the benefit of allowing donors to make tax-deductible contributions. This March, the fund successfully filed an application with the I.R.S. to change its designation to a charity, which restricts it from political advocacy but allows donors to deduct contributions from their taxes.
In its application, the Lawfare Defense Fund said that it was not engaged in political activity and was “promoting the public good and achieving lasting improvements to society” by defending “individuals and organizations against criminal prosecutions, civil litigation, investigations and other legal actions that L.D.F. believes to be abusive.”
To date, the fund has raised at least $36 million. That money came in four large donations, one of which, $15 million, came in 2024 from a different Trump-linked nonprofit called Securing American Greatness. The other three donors have not been identified.
Decisions on whom to fund are made by L.D.F.’s board of directors, which includes some of Mr. Trump’s biggest donors: John Paulson, a Wall Street titan; José Fanjul, a Cuban-born sugar magnate known as Pepe; and Lenny Curry, the former mayor of Jacksonville, Fla., who now works at a Trump-linked lobbying firm.
Kelly Loeffler, who is now Mr. Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration, served on the board beginning in July 2024, according to her personal financial disclosure. By May 2025, she was not listed as a board member on a document filed with Florida regulators.
In its filings, L.D.F. acknowledged sending $700,000 to a group called the Ballot Freedom Fund about a week before the 2024 election. That group was set up to help Robert F. Kennedy Jr. get his name on ballots during his presidential run. The donation was described as assisting in “the defense of a third-party candidate who was unjustly denied ballot access because of lawfare.”
The group said that this was its only grant to date. However, court documents indicate that some of the group’s funds were also disbursed to Jason Miller, a lobbyist and former aide to Mr. Trump.
In a statement, Mr. Miller said that “any payment that my firm may have received from the Lawfare Defense Fund would have been for communications consulting services.”
