Jack Smith’s Trump Investigations Have Already Cost Taxpayers More Than $9 Million
By: Cullen McCue
July 8, 2023 (Updated): Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into former President Donald Trump have already cost taxpayers more than $9 million, according to documents released Friday.
Smith has already charged the former president with 37 federal charges related to handling of classified documents. Additional charges stemming from the documents case may still be coming, according to a report from The Independent. The special counsel is reportedly “ready” to file 45 additional charges if Judge Aileen Cannon tosses the current case.
Smith is also investigating Trump’s strategy for challenging the 2020 election and is expected to file charges stemming from that case sometime this year, insiders have said.
Altogether, Smith’s investigations have already cost taxpayers more than $9 million. The special counsel’s office spent more than $5.4 million on things like employees’ salaries, travel and transportation, rent, supplies and materials as of March, Justice Department statement of expenditures show.
Department agencies spent an additional $3.8 million to support the special counsel. Those expenses include the cost of the protective details for the special counsel’s office as well as hours worked by agents and analysts on the probes, Time magazine reported.
Smith’s investigations are not the first multi-million-dollar probes into Trump’s affairs. The years-long investigation into [bogus] allegations of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian government, which was conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, cost taxpayers a whopping $32 million dollars.
Mueller ultimately concluded that there was “no evidence of collusion” and failed to secure indictments for anything beyond minor process crimes.
In addition to the documents case, Smith has cast a wide net in his probe of Trump’s 2020 election strategy. He has subpoenaed elections officials from key battleground states including Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, demanding any communications with the former president. He has also subpoenaed a number of Trump’s aides and key allies.
Former President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in either case, framing both as politically motivated “witch hunts.”
Source: Trending Politics
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