President Joe Biden has been slammed by Republicans for using $2million from donors towards his legal fees.
New figures show the Democratic National Committee (DNC) paid around $1.05m to Biden’s personal lawyer Bob Bauer.
Bauer was part of his legal team during the investigation into his handling of classified documents.
Meanwhile, a further $905,000 was paid to Boston legal firm, Hemenway & Barnes, which had been retained for the documents case.
Federal Election Commission records show Biden paid $2m in legal fees
Reuters
A spokesperson from the Republican National Committee said: “If these corrupt Democrats didn’t have HYPOCRISY, they’d have NOTHING!”
Professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire Christopher Galdieri told The Telegraph: “It makes it tougher for Biden to criticise Trump.
“One difference is the practical implication. As far as we know, this donation was a one-time thing. Trump has turned the Republican National Committee as the fundraising arm of his criminal defence team.”
Payments to President Biden’s lawyers started in January 2023 at the start of the investigation into the classified documents. The cash came from the DNC’s legal account and the sum was about the same spent by the organisation during the Obama campaign.
LATEST ON THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE 2024
Donald Trump arrives at court in New York
Reuters
However, Democrats were quick to respond, criticising the Trump campaign for their handling of funds.
Democrat spokesman Alex Floyd said: “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.”
Trump has already paid $100m to lawyers amid his legal issues according to the New York Times.
This figure does not take into account the damages awarded to E Jean Carroll after he was found liable of defaming the journalist who had accused him of raping her decades ago, nor does it include the bond demanded by the courts after he lost a civil fraud case in New York.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing
PA
Earlier today, the first six jurors were selected to serve on Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial, as the selection process continues to choose a panel of 12 members and six alternates who can be fair to the former president.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump about a decade beforehand.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies an encounter took place. He has called the case, brought by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a partisan “witch hunt” meant to interfere with his campaign to unseat President Biden.
