What Rudy Giuliani Is Really Spending His Legal Defense Fund On

Rudy Giuliani’s legal defense fund has spent $1.2 million throughout the 2026 election cycle—but the vast majority of it hasn’t gone to legal fees.

Instead, the former Trump adviser has spent his money on fundraising consultants, blowing $442,000 on a contract with the Texas-based fundraising service provider American Caging and $227,000 on a contract with the Virginia-based Rockwell Solutions, The Washington Sun reported Friday.

Just $57,700 was paid to Gessler Blue Law in March, according to listed PAC expenditures.

Nearly all of the fund’s donors are retirees, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Giuliani was once a beloved fixture of the Big Apple, earning the title “mob-buster” as a vicious U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s. He later gained the moniker “America’s mayor” for seeing the city through the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But the fading star lost a lot of that adoration when he saddled his political dreams on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential race, closely aligning himself with the MAGA movement and its myriad political conspiracies.

Since then, Giuliani has served as an interchangeable mouthpiece to communicate Trump’s whims—a choice that has bled him dry. He spread baseless accusations of ballot manipulation about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother-daughter duo of election workers in Georgia, in the wake of the 2020 election. That decision cost Giuliani $150 million in damages (which he tried and failed to worm his way out of), his Manhattan penthouse, and his Mercedes convertible, and almost forced him to give up his Florida condominium.

Giuliani was also indicted—and pardoned—for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia and Arizona. Over the course of 2024, the former Trump attorney unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy, lost his accountant over his insurmountable debts, was legally disbarred, and had his WABC radio show canceled for spewing 2020 election lies.

He also begged Trump for help settling his seven-figure legal fees, though Trump reportedly refused.

Giuliani even started his own coffee brand, “Rudy Coffee,” in an effort to funnel in some extra cash to offset the enormous costs of his unwavering MAGA allegiance. He ultimately lost his bankruptcy case due to his outlandish spending habits, with the presiding New York judge branding the former city mayor a “recalcitrant debtor.”

The 82-year-old was on a mechanical ventilator in a Florida ICU earlier this year after being diagnosed with pneumonia. He recovered and was released in May.

The president’s once-unassailable ice maiden is melting.

As Republicans brace for a midterm election blue wave, Donald Trump is looking for someone to blame. Enter: Susie Wiles. The White House chief of staff is reportedly on the brink of losing her job, according to insiders that spoke with Zeteo Friday.

One top Trump adviser told the progressive news outlet that Wiles is “in some deep shit.”

The confirmation follows reporting from Politico, which revealed in its morning newsletter Thursday that Trump has been ringing his allies for their opinions on Wiles’s potential successor—and the reviews of Wiles’s performance have not been good.

“She’s burned a lot of people,” a Republican operative close to the White House told Politico.

One senior elected Republican official who fielded Trump’s call told the digital newsroom that the president had raised “the first honest questions about Susie.”

Possible replacements include deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller or—as a left-field option—Randy Levine, the president of the New York Yankees, insiders told Politico. Other options extend to U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, real estate developer turned federal housing director Bill Pulte, and ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Still, Trump shied away from committing to the turnover, ardently defending Wiles in a statement.

“TOTAL FAKE NEWS Politico doesn’t care about facts, integrity, or honest journalism—it’s why I kicked them out of the White House!” the president told Politico. “Susie Wiles is my loyal and longest serving Chief of Staff—there is a reason for that. She has been with me since the beginning, is my trusted advisor, and has my COMPLETE confidence.”

Trump reportedly “blew up” after his “human printer,” Natalie Harp, printed out copies of the Politico report for him later Thursday. The briefing sent the president into a full-blown “freakout,” according to three sources that spoke with Politico afterward. Wiles and her team “burn[ed] up phones around town” attempting to settle the situation.

“The White House is in a state of panic. Susie is looking over her shoulder, trying to solicit people to go out and say good things about her and her team and make it seem like everything is fine. It’s not,” a person close to the president told Politico.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may have exposed U.S. troops to foreign intelligence.

The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General issued a report Wednesday calling out the failure to protect sensitive communications and location information, saying there are major security weaknesses in the Pentagon’s $2.67 billion cell phone contracts, The Daily Beast reports.

The Pentagon didn’t check if phone companies were protecting data that could reveal soldiers’ locations and who they were speaking with, the report found. DOD officials also didn’t review the companies’ security checks before renewing contracts. The independent oversight agency concluded that hackers had the ability to “map entire communication networks within the [Department of Defense], pinpoint sensitive locations like safe houses or command posts, and expose operational vulnerabilities, significantly compromising national security.”

The office’s investigators found that DOD officials were aware of security vulnerabilities regarding text messages sent to and from military phones, and the possibility that bad actors could intercept them. Despite this, the department “had not issued policy for protecting text messages.”

In response to the report, Democrats in Congress have raised concerns about the Pentagon’s security issues with cell phones.

“I remain concerned that our servicemembers remain at risk from the military’s insecure communications and look forward to seeing what else the Inspector General finds,” Senator Ron Wyden told The Daily Beast. “I’ll continue to watchdog DOD to make sure they follow through on the Inspector General’s findings and finally secure their communications.”

The report found that the DOD has not yet addressed the security vulnerabilities, arguing internally over whose responsibility it is and failing to offer explanations about what it is doing to implement solutions. Maybe Hegseth and other top DOD officials should be focused on these security risks rather than pushing out trans service members, making bad workout videos, or obsessing over hormones.

Elon Musk has settled a class action lawsuit over allegations that his shady super PAC offered President Donald Trump’s supporters a chance to win $1 million—when the winners had already been handpicked.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Musk’s America PAC offered to “randomly” give away $1 million each day to registered voters in several battleground states if they signed an online petition to support “free speech and the right to bear arms”—and forfeited their personal information in the process.

In response to a legal challenge in Pennsylvania, Musk’s attorney Chris Gober revealed that the recipients weren’t chosen randomly at all but were picked based on their personal story and “suitability to serve” as spokespeople for the super PAC.

Considering that the petition was not an illegal lottery scheme, the judge allowed the payments to continue. But after the elections, multiple lawsuits were filed against Musk and America PAC.

A one-page filing announced that the parties had reached a settlement agreement, HuffPost reported Thursday. The exact details of the settlement, such as how much Musk will owe the plaintiffs, was not immediately published.

Dozens of Israeli settlers beat and robbed veteran Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine Friday during an attack on an olive tree grove in the West Bank.

The Israelis, masked and dressed all in black, beat the Palestinian villagers harvesting olives while chasing out a group of journalists there to document the work. The settlers descended from a nearby hilltop settlement, hurling rocks at the gathering before setting the grove aflame.

Levine was caught in the mix. She was in a vest that read “PRESS” on the front and the back, but the attacking Israelis did not care to differentiate her. Instead, they knocked Levine to the ground, kicked and beat her, and then stole her cameras and phone, reported the Post.

The settlers also threw tear gas into the crowd, according to video footage captured by independent journalist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy. Israel’s military, the Israel Defense Forces, were nearby in vehicles but did not intervene.

Levine told the Post that she was overtaken by the settlers. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” she told reporters.

Khrzhanovskiy said that settlers beat Levine with sticks while the villagers retreated. Levine was taken to a nearby hospital after the incident.

“This morning, a Washington Post photographer, Heidi Levine, was attacked by Israeli settlers while reporting in the West Bank. She was wearing visible markings clearly identifying her as a journalist,” the executive editor of the paper, Matt Murray, wrote in a statement Friday morning. “While we are relieved that Heidi has received medical care and is safe, we are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow-through from authorities.”

Israel has attacked dozens of journalists throughout its assault on Palestine, violating international law in the process. The attack on Levine came less than two weeks after settlers assaulted AFP photographer Jaafar Ashtiyeh. Israel has also killed at least 247 media workers since the conflict began three years ago, according to a September report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. At least 192 of those individuals were Palestinian journalists working in Gaza.