Donald Trump once tried to pay off $2 million in lawyers' fees with a horse: book

A lawyer at a prestigious firm was once offered a stallion as payment for at least $2 million in legal fees, wrote David Enrich.

• Trump once tried to pay an attorney's legal fees with a horse, per David Enrich's upcoming book.
• The offer comprised a deed to a stallion in exchange for $2 million in fees, Enrich wrote.
• Trump said what he offered was "something more valuable," the New York Times reporter wrote.

Former President Donald Trump once tried to pay off some $2 million in legal fees with a deed to a horse, according a new book by David Enrich, a business investigations journalist with the New York Times.

This anecdote was publicized on Monday ahead of the book's publication by The Guardian, which obtained an advance copy of the work titled, "Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice."

As reported by the outlet, Enrich's book states that the offer was made in the 1990s, when Trump had racked up around $2 million in legal fees with a prestigious law firm. 

Enrich wrote that Trump had "refused to pay" and that the lawyer eventually lost his patience and made an unannounced visit to Trump Tower, per The Guardian.

"Someone sent him up to Trump's office. Trump was initially pleased to see him – he didn't betray any sense of sheepishness – but the lawyer was steaming," Enrich wrote, per the outlet. He noted that the lawyer was "incredibly disappointed" and couldn't see any reason why Trump, who was a real-estate businessman at the time, hadn't paid up. 

"Trump made some apologetic noises. Then he said: 'I'm not going to pay your bill. I'm going to give you something more valuable.' What on earth is he talking about?' the lawyer wondered," Enrich wrote, per The Guardian.

Per the outlet, the Times reporter added that Trump said, "I have a stallion. It's worth $5 million." According to Enrich's book, Trump then began looking through a filing cabinet and pulled out a "deed to a horse."

According to Enrich, the lawyer was initially too stunned by the offer to speak but eventually retorted: "This isn't the 1800s." Per The Guardian, Enrich noted in his book that Trump paid "at least a portion of what he owed." 

A representative at Trump's post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Earlier reports suggest Trump has a history of not paying the lawyers around him.

In 2021, for instance, a book by Michael Wolff titled "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency," revealed how Trump was annoyed that Rudy Giuliani asked to be paid for his work, which was billed at some $20,000 a day.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has been helping Trump to pay his legal bills but said it would stop doing so should he kick off his 2024 campaign. In 2021, the RNC committed to spending nearly $2 million on Trump's legal fees, although it is not bankrolling his lawsuit over the FBI's raid on his Mar-a-Lago home last month.