Democrats and President Joe Biden have bashed former President Donald Trump for using campaign funds for legal fees, but the Democratic National Committee has reportedly helped Biden pay for legal fees related to a special counsel investigation into him.
The DNC paid lawyers and firms representing Biden, while he was under investigation for his alleged mishandling of classified documents by then-special counsel Robert Hur, more than $1.5 million from last year through February, according to Axios and Federal Election Commission filings.
The FEC data show seven payments of $150,000 to Bob Bauer, Biden’s lead lawyer in the investigation, from July 2023 to February 2024, along with payments to the law firm Hemenway and Barnes, which has worked with the DNC but also employs one of Biden’s lawyers for the special counsel investigation, Jennifer Miller.
The special counsel report, released in February, did not recommend charges against Biden for his mishandling of classified documents but alleged Biden has a “significantly limited” memory and expressed concerns about his mental acuity.
Trump has used his campaign funds for legal fees as he faces a flurry of criminal cases in various jurisdictions alongside a heated presidential contest. Democrats, who have been eager to point out where much of Trump’s campaign funds are going, denied any comparison between the two camps and said it does not use “grassroots donors’ money” for legal fees.
“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,” DNC spokesman Alex Floyd said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
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“While Donald Trump is beleaguered and broke as a consequence of his mounting legal troubles, President Biden is leading a campaign and Democratic Party that is opening offices in battleground states, recruiting thousands of volunteers, and making smart investments in the campaign infrastructure to win in November,” he added.
Unlike Trump, Biden does not have a variety of legal cases to deal with as he traverses the campaign trail this year.
