DOJ has spent more than $23M investigating Trump, $6.4M probing Biden

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s two investigations into former President Donald Trump have cost taxpayers more than $23 million — while the Justice Department probe into President Biden’s classified documents case has so far cost about $6.4 million.

The figures, revealed in DOJ expenditure reports released Friday, account for the spending by the respective special counsels between April 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2023, as well as costs incurred by other Justice Department agencies related to the probes.

Smith’s statement of expenditures shows the special counsel has spent more than $7.3 million on compensations and benefits for personnel, travel, rent, supplies, printing and contractual services in the Trump probes.

Other DOJ agencies have incurred expenses totaling $7.2 million assisting Smith with his investigations into the 77-year-old former president, including by providing investigative support analysts and a security detail for the special counsel “when warranted,” the report states. 

The special counsel’s first expenditure report, released in July, showed that Smith and other DOJ agencies had spent more than $9 million on the Trump probes from Nov. 18, 2022 through March 31, 2023, putting the known total amount spent on his investigations at more than $23 million.

Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last November, has led the investigations into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and his alleged efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 election. Grand juries in Florida and Washington, DC, have brought indictments against the former president as a result of both investigations. 

In contrast to the Trump probes, the special counsel appointed last January to investigate Biden’s classified documents scandal only spent $2.8 million between April 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2023, another DOJ report released Friday showed. 

Other DOJ agencies incurred about $2.4 million in additional expenses supporting Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden.

Hur and the agencies supporting the Biden probe previously spent about $1.2 million between Jan. 12, 2023, and March 31, 2023, leading to a total of about $6.4 million in taxpayer money used on the investigation. 

In November, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported that Biden and his longtime aides will likely face harsh criticism but not face criminal charges over the president’s retention of classified material dating back to his time as a US senator from Delaware.

Hur’s team is reportedly crafting a lengthy report on the probe that is expected to be sharply critical of the 80-year-old president and his staff’s handling of sensitive materials, but isn’t expected to charge anyone over the matter. 

Special counsel David Weiss, who is handling the DOJ’s Hunter Biden case, has spent about $183,000 since his Aug. 11 appointment as special counsel, with additional DOJ expenses coming to about $132,000. 

Weiss had been leading the investigation into the first son for five years before being elevated to special counsel.

He has brought tax and gun charges against Hunter Biden in California and Delaware since his appointment.