The Democratic National Committee helped pay President Joe Biden’s legal fees during the special counsel investigation into his handling of classified documents, Axios reported.
The news outlet attributed the information to two people familiar with the matter and a review of campaign finance records.
Axios, citing the DNC’S financial filings, said the committee paid more than $1.5 million to attorneys representing Biden during the probe.
The news outlet said the payments are at odds with the Biden campaign's recent criticism of former President Donald Trump for spending campaign funds on legal fees.
The report said the DNC's financial filings revealed that from July 2023 to February 2024, just more than $1 million was paid by the DNC to Bob Bauers PLLC, which is the professional limited liability company for Bob Bauers, Biden's lead attorney. Those payments largely were for handling the probe.
And last July, the DNC upped its monthly payments to the law firm of Hemenway & Barnes from $15,000 to $100,000. Special counsel Robert Hur's report identified Jennifer Miller, who works at the law firm, as an attorney for Biden. Its is unclear how much of the additional funds were earmarked for Biden’s legal fee, Axios said.
Hur declined to pursue charges against Biden.
The DNC has blasted Trump for using campaign donations to pay for legal fees.
The Washington Post said that after a recent Trump fundraiser, a deputy campaign manager for Biden called it "a handful of billionaires figuring out how to pay his legal bills."
DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd told Axios: "There is no comparison — the DNC does not spend a single penny of grassroots donors' money on legal bills — unlike Donald Trump, who actively solicits legal fees from his supporters and has drawn down every bank account he can get his hands on, like a personal piggy bank."
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and blasted the lengthy list of felony charges and lawsuits as partisan attempts to upend his presidential bid.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.