President Biden used campaign donations to help pay his legal bills last year during the special counsel’s probe into his handling of classified documents, according to two people familiar with the matter and an Axios review of campaign finance records.
Why it matters: The payments, made through the Democratic National Committee, are at odds with the Biden campaign’s recent attacks on Donald Trump for spending his campaign funds on legal fees.
Driving the news: The DNC — which has been collecting the biggest donations to Biden’s re-election effort — paid more than $1.5 million to lawyers or firms representing Biden during the probe, according to the committee’s financial filings.
- In January 2023, special counsel Robert Hur began investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after papers from Biden’s vice presidency were found at his office and home.
- From July 2023 to February 2024, the DNC paid $1.05 million to Bob Bauer PLLC — the professional limited liability company for Biden’s lead attorney, Bob Bauer.
- Those payments were largely for handling the special counsel probe, including bringing on veteran lawyer David Laufman. He’s a former Justice Department official who previously oversaw the politically fraught probes into Hillary Clinton’s email server and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
www.axios.com/2024/04/12/dnc-covered-biden-legal-bills-special-counsel-probe