Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations involving Trump cost more than $9 million

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Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into President Donald Trump’s retention of classified records and efforts to return the results of the 2020 election cost more than $9 million in the first few months, according to documents released Last Friday.

The special counsel’s office spent more than $5.4 million on things like employee salaries, travel and transportation, rent, supplies and materials from Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith in November 2022 through the end of March, the statement of expenditures of the Justice Department shows.

Justice Department agencies spent another $3.8 million to support the special counsel. Those costs include the cost of protective details for the special counsel’s office as well as the hours worked by agents and analysts on the probes.

Trump was indicted last month on 37 felony counts alleging that he illegally kept classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and refused government requests to return them. Trump and his valet Walt Nauta who were indicted along with the former president have both pleaded not guilty.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and criticized the prosecution as an attempt to hurt his bid to retake the White House in 2024.

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Smith also takes a dig at efforts by Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden’s election victory.

Since Smith’s appointment, he has cast a wide net in soliciting interviews and testimony related to fundraising, Trumps rally that preceded the riots at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and communications between Trump associates and election officials in battleground states.

In December, Smith subpoenaed local election officials in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania, seeking communications with or involving Trump, his 2020 campaign aides and a list of allies who involved in his efforts to try to overturn the election results.

The Justice Department also released details Friday about spending on the investigation led by former Maryland US Attorney Robert Hurinto into documents with classified markings found at President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware and an office in Washington. . The Hurs team spent about $600,000 and another $570,000 in Justice Department support costs in the first roughly two months of that investigation.

By comparison, Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to tilt the outcome of the election in his favor cost about $32 million, according to Justice Department documents. The Mueller investigation has resulted in about three dozen criminal charges, including convictions of half a dozen Trump associates.

Meanwhile, Special Counsel John Durhams recently concluded a four-year investigation into possible government errors and misconduct in the investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign costing more than $9 million. Durham’s report, released in May, said the FBI rushed its Russia investigation and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence. The Durham investigation led to prosecutors securing a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee but lost the only two criminal cases they brought to trial.

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