Trump campaign spending on legal fees surges as Russia inquiries widen

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President Trump’s campaign spent over $1.1 million on legal fees in three months.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times 

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s campaign spent more than $1.1 million on legal fees over the last three months — a sharp increase that coincided with the escalation of investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The spending was revealed in reports filed on Sunday with the Federal Election Commission detailing the campaign’s finances from the beginning of July through the end of last month.

During that period, legal fees represented more than 25 percent of all spending by Mr. Trump’s campaign. The legal spending was nearly twice as much as the campaign spent during the preceding three months.

The report underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump’s team has been consumed by investigations being pursued by congressional committees and the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian meddling in the presidential election, and connections between Russia, Mr. Trump and his associates.

The White House has retained lawyers to respond to the inquiries. And Mr. Trump and many current and former officials from his campaign and administration have retained personal lawyers to help them respond to questions. For instance, Reince Priebus, the former White House chief of staff, was interviewed on Friday by Mr. Mueller’s team.

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The campaign has also been busy responding to requests from congressional investigators and Mr. Mueller’s team, reportedly turning over more than 20,000 pages of documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, and beginning to hand over documents to the special counsel soon after.

The biggest share of the legal payments revealed on Sunday by Mr. Trump’s campaign and the joint committees it formed with the Republican Party — $830,000 — went to Jones Day, the law firm representing the campaign in connection with the investigations.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/us/politics/trump-campaign-legal-fees-russia.html

 

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