Nevada AG Ford not disclosing cost of 33 Trump lawsuits

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has joined 33 lawsuits against the Trump administration since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, but it’s unclear how much his participation in those cases is costing Nevada taxpayers.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said the costs are minimal, but the office has repeatedly put off requests for documents that could back up those claims.

Since February, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has requested records pertaining to the costs of pursuing the lawsuits, including staff time and expenses and mailing and filing fees. The date for delivery of those records has been delayed multiple times, with the records now promised by Jan. 9, 2026, according to the attorney general’s public records coordinator.

The Democratic attorney general’s lawsuits touch a variety of issues, from challenging Trump’s tariffs to blocking the president’s efforts to cut federal funding for education programs.

John Sadler, communications director for the attorney general’s office, argued that the lawsuits are actually saving Nevada money, pointing to cases Ford has filed to block federal funding freezes.

For instance, Nevada joined other states in challenging the federal government’s attempts to freeze more than $4.1 million in AmeriCorps funding to Nevada; withhold $2.4 million in National Institutes of Health grant funding to UNLV; and cut an estimated $53 million in Department of Education funding, Sadler said.

Ford has seen a number of successes with his legal challenges. He and other states obtained preliminary injunctions halting several of the administration’s actions, including stopping Trump’s executive order to overturn birthright citizenship.

Still, the dozens of lawsuits have been met with criticism from officials on the other side of the aisle. Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo called them “unfortunate” in a March 2025 interview with the Review-Journal.

The attorney general’s office declined to make Ford available for an interview, but he brushed aside cost concerns and defended his legal challenges in a previous interview.

“My office does its work irrespective of cost, point blank. We don’t run around trying to figure out a cost allocation component,” Ford said in an interview earlier this year. “We do what’s necessary to protect Nevadans from any harm or danger, especially from the federal government when they’re breaking the law and/or violating our sovereignty.”

How the attorney general’s office handles the cases

Absent a new interview with Ford, Sadler described the state’s role in the lawsuits and provided information about some costs.

In most cases, Sadler said, Ford signs onto lawsuits with a coalition of other attorneys general, which lessens Nevada’s level of involvement — and costs. When several states sue the administration together, a few states lead the case and other states assist by providing state-specific information to bolster the case, Sadler said.

Responsibilities for drafting briefs and conducting legal research are shared among the states, he said.

Generally, lawyers in the attorney general’s office do not need to travel for the cases, except when leading or co-leading the case, according to Sadler. Nevada is co-leading only one case, a lawsuit with 18 other states attempting to block Trump’s elections executive order requiring proof of citizenship for federal voter registration programs.

In that case, Massachusetts District Judge Denise Casper issued a preliminary injunction to block the administration from enforcing parts of the order. In September, Casper denied the administration’s motion to dismiss states’ challenge to the executive order.

The Review-Journal requested invoices from any third-party attorneys who may have been hired to handle cases against the Trump administration, but Sadler said the attorney general’s office hasn’t hired outside or third-party counsel. Rather, he said, the Office of Solicitor General handles the lawsuits and coordinates with other attorneys in the attorney general’s office depending on the nature of the litigation.

The solicitor general’s base salary for 2024 is $143,940, according to Nevada’s Open Payroll. Total cost of salaries within the attorney general’s office is $41.79 million, 2.43 percent of the state’s total payroll.

The number of staff hours and the cost involved in performing work related to the lawsuits against the Trump administration is among the information sought in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s records requests.

Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said the Review-Journal’s public records requests with the attorney general’s office are routine and should be fulfilled.

“There’s no excuse for the attorney general’s office to violate the requirements of the Nevada Public Records Act,” Cook said. “There is no lawful reason to delay the release of public records for nearly a year.”

Reputation for delays

This is far from the first time Ford’s office has delayed the release of public records, in contrast with more responsive staffs of other Nevada constitutional officeholders.

In May 2023, the Las Vegas Review-Journal requested five months of calendars from the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and controller. Ford’s staff repeatedly pushed back the release of records, while the other agencies released the calendars within a few weeks.

When the newspaper informed the attorney general’s staff in August 2023 that it planned to publish a column about the delays, the office released the records the following day. The request also included visitor logs, but the attorney general was the only office that maintained the logs, which were released with the calendars.

In 2019, the Review-Journal filed requests asking about the attorney general’s office investigation into the UNLV dental school, the office’s probe of corruption allegations over the DMV computer system revamp, and the office’s search for a law firm to handle the opiate litigation. The attorney general’s office repeatedly pushed back the release date of those records for months.

In August 2022, a Review-Journal reporter requested all emails referencing Never Give Up Youth Healing Center, a youth psychiatric treatment center that was the subject of a Review-Journal investigation between 2018 and 2022. Eight months later, the reporter received copies of 10 emails.

In the interview earlier this year, Ford blamed manpower issues for delays and claimed that his office is no different from other public agencies in that regard, “and I frankly think it’s improper to imply that it’s my office that is any different than any other.”

“What I would like to do is to have additional resources allocated to every agency that’s out there to respond to y’all’s multiple public records requests, but also an understanding from the public that we have limited manpower in that regard, as well,” Ford said. “We respond, generally speaking, in order in which records are received, and try to get these out as quick as we can.”

Pro hac vice fee

In some cases, Nevada must submit a “pro hac vice” fee, which allows an attorney not licensed in a specific jurisdiction to participate in a particular case in that jurisdiction. The fees vary by state, and Nevada does not have to pay in each case, depending on whether the attorneys are part of the bar in other states.

The attorney general’s office has spent $4,178 on fees relating to cases involving the Trump administration, according to Sadler, though he did not produce records documenting those costs.

Sadler said Nevada’s participation in the lawsuits ensures the state is entitled to the full relief the courts offer at the end of the litigation, such as releasing grant money that is determined to be unlawfully withheld.

“Under Ford’s tenure as Attorney General, capitulating to unconstitutional and unlawful acts perpetrated by the Trump administration will never be an option,” his office said. “To the contrary, standing up for Nevadans in the face of such acts is part and parcel of the job of the (Office of Attorney General).”

The “What Are They Hiding?” column was created to educate Nevadans about transparency laws, inform readers about Review-Journal coverage being stymied by bureaucracies and shame public officials into being open with the hardworking people who pay all of government’s bills. Were you wrongly denied access to public records? Share your story with us at whataretheyhiding@reviewjournal.com.