United States: Democratic funders paid out more than USD 1 million in legal fees to lawyers defending President Joe Biden in a yearlong special prosecutor investigation of his loss or mishandling of sensitive records.
Criticism and Response
The campaign’s decision to use money from party funds to cover Biden’s legal bills is not without precedent and complies with the rules of campaign finance law. Still, it may pose a problem for Biden, who has vowed to keep arguing the case of former president Donald Trump, whose use of donor funds to cover legal bills was far more substantial.
Contrasting Approaches
The ex-president has already managed to collect more than USD 100 million from supporters for his legal fund, which is primarily being used to finance various lawsuits, including his upcoming trial in New York for the hush money scandal and the current investigations on his role in the events of January 6 and his refusal to hand over top secret documents to the federal authorities after leaving office.
Biden’s aides and advisers have slammed Trump and Republicans on this point for almost a year now for the money they spend on legal defense issues for the former President. This, in turn, has left Republicans without reserves and forced them to use those diamonds elsewhere.
“We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers,” Biden campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford told MSNBC last week.
Disclosure
Such payments to attorney Bob Bauer and law firm Hemenway and Barnes were revealed in the usual campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission. Two sources who are currently aware of this issue, speaking on the condition of anonymity regarding the investigation, said that the sum went to investigate that case. Axiom was the first to publish the news.
The funds that the Democrats’ legal team is getting from are the Democratic National Committee’s legal account, per the people. This account, however, has a major funding source: the high-dollar donors who exceed the federal contributions limits with the party’s political activities.
“If these corrupt Democrats didn’t have HYPOCRISY, they’d have NOTHING!” the Republican National Committee said in a post-Friday on X.