In the first four months of his investigation into the alleged misuse of classified materials by former President Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith shelled out a staggering $5.5 million.
A 37-count indictment against Trump was unveiled by Smith in June in connection with the materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022. To all charges, Trump has entered a not guilty plea.
Smith was appointed by Merrick Garland, the attorney general, in November 2022, not long after Trump declared his intention to run for president in 2024. He spent a total of $5,428,579 on the case between then and March of this year, according to Fox News. Of that sum, “contractual services” took up more than $1.8 million. While this was happening, more than $2.6 million was spent on paying employees and benefits.
A mere $615,962 has been spent by special counsel Robert Hur, whom Garland appointed in January to investigate President Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials.
The FBI launched its investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign without any supporting evidence, according to a report by special counsel John Durham, whose years-long case led to its publication. Durham’s investigation cost a total of $7,683,839 over the course of the entire investigation.
The Trump camp has expressed concern about Smith’s apparent zealous prosecution, with one of his attorneys, Jesse Binnall, claiming that the special counsel has ulterior political motives.
“I will say that Jack Smith, I think, absolutely wants to rain hellfire down on this president and his supporters–not just people in his orbit, but also his supporters. And he’s gonna stop at nothing,” he said on the Thursday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “This is not a good guy… Unfortunately, the people that he tends to work with are zealots.”
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