The political action committee that former President Donald Trump is using to pay his legal bills faced such staggering costs this year that it requested a refund on a $60 million contribution it made to another group supporting the Republican front-runner, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The decision signals a potential money crisis for Trump, who has so far refused to pay his own voluminous bills directly and has also avoided creating a legal-defense fund for himself and people who have become entangled in the various investigations related to him.

It comes as Trump runs a campaign while under indictment in two jurisdictions and, soon, potentially a third, while also paying the legal fees of a number of witnesses who are close to him or who work for him.

It is unclear how much money was refunded.

But the refund was sought as the PAC, Save America, spent more than $40 million in legal fees incurred by Trump and witnesses in various legal cases related to him this year alone, according to another person familiar with the matter.

The numbers will be part of the Save America Federal Election Commission filing that is expected to be made public late Monday.

That $40 million was in addition to $16 million that Save America spent in the previous two years on legal fees. Since then, Trump has been indicted twice and has expanded the size of his legal team, and his two co-defendants in the case related to his retention of classified material work for him. The total legal spending is roughly $56 million.

The $40 million figure was reported earlier by The Washington Post.

The PAC was the entity in which Trump had parked the more than $100 million raised when he sought small-dollar donations after losing the 2020 election. Trump claimed he needed the support to fight widespread fraud in the race. Officials, including some with his campaign, turned up no evidence of widespread fraud. (New York Times)