04-13-2024, 02:39 AM
https://wapo.st/3Q18DKJ
The Democratic National Committee has helped cover some of the legal fees that President Biden incurred over the last year amid a special counsel probe into his handling of classified documents, according to recent federal records.
Throughout the investigation, which special counsel Robert K. Hur concluded last month without bringing charges, Biden was represented by his longtime counsel Bob Bauer and several other attorneys. Bob Bauer PLCC, a firm set up by Bauer, has so far been paid $1 million by the DNC, according to Federal Election Commission records. The committee has also increased its payments to Hemenway & Barnes, a firm that employs Jennifer Miller, another attorney who worked on the case for Biden.
Bauer was paid $150,000 almost every month starting in July 2023, the records show, while Hemenway & Barnes was paid $100,000. Both Bauer and the law firm have done other work for the DNC on a range of issues, including voter protection, and both are likely to continue doing so. Given that, it is unclear whether all the recent payments are related to the Hur investigation or whether that total legal bill has been paid.
In recent weeks, some Biden allies have noted derisively that a significant portion of the money raised by the campaign of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is going toward his legal fees rather than to his reelection effort. While Biden’s legal bills are dramatically lower than those Trump has paid from campaign donations, the president’s use of political funds, which was first reported by Axios on Friday morning, could undercut some recent assertions by Biden’s surrogates.
“Every single dime that you give to the Biden-Harris reelection campaign, we spend talking to voters,” Rufus Gifford, the campaign’s finance chairman, said over the weekend during an interview on MSNBC. He added later: “We are not spending money on legal bills.”
Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesman, said that Gifford was referring only to spending by the Biden campaign and not that of the DNC, a party entity that supports the president and jointly raises money with him but is not officially part of his campaign.
The Democratic National Committee has helped cover some of the legal fees that President Biden incurred over the last year amid a special counsel probe into his handling of classified documents, according to recent federal records.
Throughout the investigation, which special counsel Robert K. Hur concluded last month without bringing charges, Biden was represented by his longtime counsel Bob Bauer and several other attorneys. Bob Bauer PLCC, a firm set up by Bauer, has so far been paid $1 million by the DNC, according to Federal Election Commission records. The committee has also increased its payments to Hemenway & Barnes, a firm that employs Jennifer Miller, another attorney who worked on the case for Biden.
Bauer was paid $150,000 almost every month starting in July 2023, the records show, while Hemenway & Barnes was paid $100,000. Both Bauer and the law firm have done other work for the DNC on a range of issues, including voter protection, and both are likely to continue doing so. Given that, it is unclear whether all the recent payments are related to the Hur investigation or whether that total legal bill has been paid.
In recent weeks, some Biden allies have noted derisively that a significant portion of the money raised by the campaign of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is going toward his legal fees rather than to his reelection effort. While Biden’s legal bills are dramatically lower than those Trump has paid from campaign donations, the president’s use of political funds, which was first reported by Axios on Friday morning, could undercut some recent assertions by Biden’s surrogates.
“Every single dime that you give to the Biden-Harris reelection campaign, we spend talking to voters,” Rufus Gifford, the campaign’s finance chairman, said over the weekend during an interview on MSNBC. He added later: “We are not spending money on legal bills.”
Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesman, said that Gifford was referring only to spending by the Biden campaign and not that of the DNC, a party entity that supports the president and jointly raises money with him but is not officially part of his campaign.