ATLANTA — Steven Lee, an Illinois pastor charged in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies, is hoping to fund his legal defense, at least in part, with sales of “MAGA honey” bottles shaped like the former president. A higher-profile defendant, Rudy Giuliani, turned to a high-dollar fundraiser at Trump’s New Jersey golf club recently for help paying his lawyers.

Nearly all of the 18 defendants in the case are counting on donations to help with their legal fees in a case that will take months, if not years, to fully resolve. That includes the former president himself, who has raked in millions of dollars from small donors through his political action committee, Save America.

Trump has rebuffed requests for financial help from co-defendants in other cases against him. In the Georgia case, the money the other defendants are able to raise could determine whether they choose to fight their charges or make plea deals. They have been charged with conspiring to overturn Trump’s defeat in Georgia in the 2020 election.

Lee, accused of participating in a harassment effort against a Georgia elections worker, relied on a $3,500 donation from Rochelle Richardson, the pro-Trump internet personality who goes by Silk, to make bail in Atlanta after his indictment in August, according to his lawyer, David Shestokas.

Some third-party groups are also fundraising with the stated goal of helping the defendants.

One such group, Defend the Electors, portrays the Georgia prosecutions as part of a Marxist plot. Another group, the Illinois Family Institute, is promoting the plan to raise money for Lee with the sale of the honey bottles, similar to the popular “honey bear” design, only with a likeness of Trump’s head near the spout.

“You may like or dislike the bottle design, but it’s filled with healthy, pure, raw honey,” the group says on its website.

One of the original 19 defendants, Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, and others may soon choose to fold. Hall, who was involved in a breach of voting software and data at a rural Georgia elections office after Trump’s defeat, was charged with seven felonies; he pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to five years’ probation.

The pressure to cut deals is becoming more palpable with the trial of two of the defendants, lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, set to begin Oct. 23.

The Georgia case is unique among the four criminal cases against Trump in that it includes more than a dozen individuals from all walks of life. Among them are boldface names like Giuliani and Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, but also a retired high school teacher, a publicist and a former county elections supervisor, along with the pastor.

A number of defendants have complained about the financial burdens they could face. So have some of their conservative supporters, in an echo of critiques of big racketeering cases more often heard on the left.

“When you create these intentionally complex cases, part of the strategy is to make it so expensive for these people that it breaks them,” said Josh McKoon, the chair of the Georgia Republican Party, which he said has spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars paying legal bills for three of the defendants.

Trump is in the best position to ride out an extended legal drama. Two weeks ago, as a civil fraud case against him went to trial, he used it as a fundraising opportunity, emailing supporters to give at least $24 to a joint fundraising committee made up of Save America and his presidential campaign.

His legal costs are substantial. Save America has paid more than $816,000 to the law firm of Drew Findling, who represented Trump in Georgia until he was replaced with another high-priced local lawyer, Steven Sadow, in August.

Other defendants have asked for donations on right-wing talk shows. Several are seeking financial help through GiveSendGo, a conservative Christian fundraising platform that has been used by people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The Detroit News reported last week the Michigan attorney general’s office obtained a search warrant in August requiring GiveSendGo to turn over information related to fundraising efforts for fake Trump electors in Michigan, who face charges there.

The online campaigns for the Georgia defendants come with written appeals that tend to portray them as innocent, and even heroic, victims.

“Throughout our history have we seen the rise of Great American Heroes in our country’s most troubling times,” declared a GiveSendGo page for Powell, which had raised $9,081 of a $100,000 goal as of Wednesday.

One of Chesebro’s lawyers, Manubir Arora, set up a GiveSendGo page for his client that says Chesebro is being buried “under a mountain of legal bills.” Chesebro is shown smiling on a beach, hands outstretched. As of Wednesday afternoon, the campaign had raised $20.

Other GiveSendGo campaigns have fared better. One for Harrison Floyd, a defendant accused of participating in the harassment of the elections worker, has raised $328,000. One for John Eastman, a lawyer who is accused along with Chesebro of hatching a plan to have fake electors cast votes for Trump, has raised $547,000.

Meadows does not appear to have a legal defense fund, although one of his allies in Congress, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has hinted that one may be coming. In 2021, Meadows earned nearly $560,000 working for the Conservative Partnership Institute, a policy group, according to its tax filings; the group has received $1 million from Trump’s Save America PAC.

Giuliani appears to be stretched thin. He owes his longtime New York lawyer, Robert Costello, nearly $1.4 million and does not have a lawyer in Georgia.

Last month, Costello and his firm sued Giuliani for unpaid legal bills, leading to a falling-out between the two old friends. Giuliani has also put his Upper East Side apartment up for sale and is “close to broke,” another of his lawyers, Adam Katz, said in August at a court hearing, adding that there “are a lot of bills that he’s not paying, from a $57,000 phone bill to significantly more.”

That Giuliani is in debt is not a surprise, given the avalanche of legal troubles that followed his decision to lead the effort to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election. In court filings, Costello has described three criminal investigations and 10 civil suits against his client, in addition to the House committee investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection and disciplinary proceedings against Giuliani’s law license in Washington and New York.