The following article by Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy was posted on the Washington Post website October 15, 2017:
President Trump’s reelection committee spent more than $1 million on legal bills last quarter as investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election pressed on through the summer, according to a disclosure filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission.
The filing shows the committee’s “legal consulting” expenditures came to $1.1 million between July and September, including $802,185 paid to the law firm Jones Day, which has represented the campaign. Another $267,000 was paid to attorneys representing the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in the Russia investigations.
Since the beginning of the year, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have spent $2.4 million on legal fees — and the bills appear to be mounting. The latest FEC reports show that the campaign spent more on legal bills over the past three months than it did during the first and second quarters of this year combined.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and multiple congressional committees have active probes into Russian interference. The RNC and the campaign are helping the Trump family and employees pay legal fees incurred by the various investigations, which is permitted under federal law as long as the costs are related to campaign activity. Last month, the RNC confirmed it had directed more than $427,000 to lawyers representing Trump and his eldest son.
Overall, the Trump campaign and two related fundraising committees collected $11.6 million between July and September and spent $5.6 million.
The Trump committee’s payments included $237,924 to Alan Futerfas, a New York defense lawyer who is representing Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump Organization employees in the Russia probes. The campaign also paid $30,000 to the law firm Williams & Jensen, which has been working with Futerfas on matters concerning Trump Jr.
The younger Trump testified for five hours before a closed meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee in early September. During the session, he was asked for details about a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who reportedly promised to provide negative information about Hillary Clinton, his father’s Democratic opponent.
The campaign committee also reimbursed the president’s company, the Trump Organization, $25,800 for legal consulting.
During the first six months of the year, the Trump campaign reported spending $927,171 on legal fees — less than the $1.1 million total spent in the last three months.
The numbers are likely to go higher as Mueller’s team, along with the Senate and House intelligence committees, continue their probes into Russian interference.
The special counsel has focused investigative attention on two former campaign advisers, Paul Manafort, once Trump’s campaign chairman, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. On Friday, the special counsel’s office interviewed Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, for several hours behind closed doors.
Mueller’s team has also expressed interest in interviewing White House counsel Donald McGahn and Communications Director Hope Hicks, according to people familiar with his requests. Neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization responded immediately to requests for comment Sunday.
View the post here.