US President Donald Trump is using money donated to his re-election campaign and the US Republican National Committee (RNC) to pay for his lawyers in a probe of alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election, two people familiar with the matter told reporters.
Following a Reuters exclusive report on Tuesday, CNN reported that the committee last month paid more than US$230,000 to cover some of Trump’s legal fees related to the probe.
Committee spokesperson Cassie Smedile confirmed to Reuters that Trump’s lead lawyer, John Dowd, received US$100,000 from the RNC and that the RNC also paid US$131,250 to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, the law firm in which Jay Sekulow, another of Trump’s lawyers, is a partner.
The committee was yesterday scheduled to disclose its spending for last month. The Trump campaign is due for a disclosure on Oct. 15.
The US Federal Election Commission allows the use of private campaign funds to pay legal bills arising from being a candidate or elected official.
While previous presidential campaigns have used these funds to pay for routine legal matters, such as ballot access disputes and compliance requirements, Trump would be the first US president in the modern campaign finance era to use such funds to cover the costs of responding to a criminal probe, election law experts said.
Smedile said the RNC payments to Trump’s lawyers were “from a pre-existing legal proceedings account and do not reduce by a dime the resources we can put towards our political work.”
It was not clear how Trump’s legal costs related to the Russia probe would be allocated between the campaign and the RNC, one of the sources said.
Dowd declined to say how the president’s legal bills were being paid, adding: “That’s none of your business.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking at possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election and whether Trump might have obstructed justice by firing former FBI director James Comey, among other actions.
Moscow has denied meddling in the US election, and Trump has denied any collusion or obstruction.
Reuters could not determine how large a legal bill Trump has incurred to date from his lawyers on the Mueller investigation.
Trump hired his long-time New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz to head his defense team in May, but Kasowitz stepped down in July, with Dowd taking over the lead role, according to people familiar with the situation.
Special White House counsel Ty Cobb, who is a salaried staff member, is also working on the matter.
The Trump campaign has paid law firm Jones Day almost US$4 million, campaign filings showed, mostly for routine campaign legal expenses such as ballot access disputes, vendor contracts, human resources, and compliance with state and federal laws.
It has also responded to Russia-related inquiries on behalf of the campaign by, for example, providing documents to US Congress.
The reason Trump is able to tap into his campaign funds for legal expenses is because over the past decade US presidential candidates have abandoned public financing for their campaigns. Instead, they have built networks that collect millions of dollars from private donors, a move that comes with less restrictions on how the money is spent.
Former US president Barack Obama was in 2008 the first to eschew public financing for his campaign, and all the major party candidates followed suit in 2012 and last year, campaign filings showed.
Trump also filed for re-election the day he took office in January, two years earlier than any previous president, ensuring a fund of millions in campaign cash would remain at his disposal.
According to its most recent filing to the commission, Donald J. Trump for President Inc had almost US$12 million on hand by the end of June, an increase of more than US$4 million since January.
Adav Noti, a senior director at the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group that describes itself as nonpartisan, said public campaign funds — as opposed to the private funds Trump has raised — cannot generally be used for expenses arising from criminal investigations, or for any expenses that arise after the campaign is over.
Former US president Bill Clinton, who ran two publicly funded campaigns, had supporters start legal defense funds and used his own insurance to help pay legal bills during the Whitewater investigation. He still wound up with millions of dollars in personal debt, which he paid off through speaking fees he earned once he left office.
Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran a privately funded campaign, paid millions to campaign lawyers at Perkins Coie to handle routine legal matters, campaign filings showed.
Her campaign made no payments to the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, which represented her in the probes of her use of a private e-mail server when she was the US’ top diplomat.
Her lawyer, David Kendall of Williams & Connolly, declined to comment on how he was paid.
Campaigns also have discretion to pay legal fees for others besides the president.
According to a July filing, the Trump campaign paid US$50,000 to the law firm of Alan Futerfas, who is representing Donald Trump Jr.
Futerfas did not respond to requests for comment.
A number of other current and former Trump staffers have also recently hired lawyers.
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