(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden’s legal fees attached to the investigation into his handling of classified documents were paid for by campaign donations.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) paid more than $1.5 million to lawyers or firms representing Biden, according to the committee’s financial filings confirmed by NewsNation.
The DNC paid $1.05 million to Bob Bauer PLLC, the professional limited liability company for Biden’s lead attorney, from July 2023 to February 2024. Additionally, it increased monthly payments to Hemenway & Barnes from $15,000 to $100,000 starting last July.
The findings come after Biden’s campaign has attacked former President Donald Trump for using his campaign funds on legal fees.
In a statement to NewsNation, spokesperson Alex Floyd said there’s “no comparison” between the DNC’s spending and Trump’s spending.
“The DNC does not spend a single penny of grassroots donors’ money on legal bills,” Floyd said.
The special counsel, Robert Hur, began investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents in January 2023 after papers from Biden’s vice presidency were found at his office and home.
A person familiar with the matter told Axios that Biden’s team debated the DNC covering legal fees after Hur was appointed special counsel — which came after the DNC criticized the Republican National Committee (RNC) for paying for Trump’s legal fees.
Before Trump was a candidate, the RNC paid some of his legal bills for cases in New York that began when he was president, The Washington Post reported. Former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, who was ousted in March, said in 2022 that the RNC would stop paying the legal bills once Trump became a candidate.
Since becoming a presidential candidate, Trump’s Save America PAC has paid his legal fees, and campaign donations are filtered to the PAC before the RNC gets a cut.
Legal spending comprised 85% of Save America’s total operating expenses during the first two months of this year, roughly the same as in 2023, when such expenses were about 89%. It has spent $8.5 million on legal fees so far this year.
Between payments from the Republican National Committee and his Save America PAC, Trump has gotten about $55 million to pay his legal fees.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.