Florida Taxpayers Could Pay for Donald Trump's Lawyers Under New Proposal

Florida's chief financial officer floated a plan that would potentially see former President Donald Trump's legal fees paid for by taxpayer dollars, sparking a backlash on social media.

Speaking at the Florida Republican Party's Freedom Summit on Saturday, Jimmy Patronis suggested setting up a legal defense fund to help any Florida presidential candidate "targeted by politically motivated prosecutors."

Patronis made the suggestion as a way to fix what he called the "double standard of justice" faced by Trump.

"Imagine if we could fix the double standard of justice at the federal level," Patronis said during his speech at the summit.

"If we could fix the double standard of justice that doesn't lock up a Hunter Biden but does everything possible to prosecute a President Donald Trump.

"Here's where I'm going with this. I think we need to set up a new legal defense fund for any Florida presidential candidate to use when they are targeted by politically motivated prosecutors, by the Department of Justice."

Both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also running for president, attended Saturday's summit. During Trump's speech, he called to the stage several Republican Florida lawmakers who switched their endorsements from DeSantis ahead of the event.

Trump, the frontrunner in the polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing 91 felony counts in four separate criminal cases, two filed in federal court in Washington and Florida, and two in state courts in New York and Georgia.

The Washington and Georgia cases are related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, while the Florida case alleges he mishandled classified documents. The New York case charges him with falsifying business records, charges stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to bury allegations of extramarital sexual encounters.

Trump is also set to testify Monday in New York as part of a civil fraud trial in which he is accused of deceiving banks and insurers by exaggerating his wealth on his annual financial statements. Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases and said he was a victim of political persecution.

Patronis said that Florida is in "the best fiscal health" in its history, and that it "wouldn't hurt" to set aside some of the state's budget surplus to cover the legal fees of presidential candidates.

"When these men and women are brave enough to put their name on the ballot, we should protect them," he said.

"Are you with me? We need to fund this. Our state right now is in the best fiscal health we've ever been in the history of the state, so it wouldn't hurt to take a little bit of our budget surplus, set it aside. We can use this to protect any Floridian who wants to defend themselves and make sure that these politically motivated prosecutors don't magically appear during election cycles. It's just wrong... We could even call it to the Defending Florida Fighters Fund."

Patronis shared a clip of his remarks on X, formerly Twitter, prompting a wave of criticism.

Others called for state funds to be used to fix issues Florida is facing, including high insurance premiums, rather than to pay the legal fees of political candidates.

"The CFO of Florida just proposed using state money (taxpayer funds) to help pay Donald Trump's legal bills," one person wrote on the platform. "A man who collected $millions from donors & claims to be a billionaire. Instead of paying teachers, fixing infrastructure, etc your CFO says Trump deserves the tax dollars."

Another wrote in response to Patronis: "Perhaps Florida's CFO should concern himself with his job responsibilities, since our insurance premiums are the highest in the country, and it's driving folks out of their homes."

And another wrote: "Words cannot express the vitriol for such asinine concept. Floridians are currently paying more for home insurance and are losing their homes and you want us to pay for a legal defense fund for presidential candidates?"

Some also said that defendants who cannot afford legal representation can have public defenders appointed to represent them.

"An attorney can be appointed to represent any defendant unable to pay for an attorney. No need for special funds," one person wrote.

"As corrupt of the FL Republican Party is, I still can't believe the state's Chief Financial Officer yesterday proposed taking tax dollars to fund Trump legal defense against criminal indictments," Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of the liberal media outlet MeidasTouch, wrote on X.

"Every time I think they can't shock me, there's always something worse coming."

Newsweek has contacted Patronis' office for comment via email.