Taxpayers foot bill for $23M in DOJ investigations into Trump, $6.4M Biden probe
The US Department of Justice spent approximately $23 million on investigations involving former President Donald Trump and his aides, and $6.4 million on a long-running investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden related to their dealings in Ukraine.
The Policital Edison Group, a government transparency group, obtained documents from the Department of Justice that revealed the total costs of investigations carried out by the department between January 2020 and September 2020. Among the investigations is Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, as well as probes into Trump’s allies.
The documents showed that the total cost of all the investigations involving Justice was approximately $299 million, of which $23 million was spent on investigations involving Trump and his aides. That includes costs relating to the Mueller probe, which cost approximately $17 million. In addition, the DOJ spent around $6.4 million on the investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, which began in 2019.
The majority of the total cost for the DOJ investigations during that time was related to the Mueller probe, which cost an estimated $29.4 million. Other significant expenses included those related to the investigations into Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort ($13 million), former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn ($3.6 million), and former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone ($2 million).
In contrast, the cost of the DOJ investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine was relatively minor in comparison. The documents show that $6.4 million was spent on the investigation, which was reportedly closed in October 2020 without any criminal charges being brought.
Overall, it would appear that taxpayers have footed the bill for a substantial number of investigations involving Donald Trump and his aides, and a comparatively smaller amount of money was spent on an investigation into Joe Biden and his son.