President Joe Biden is being mocked by the GOP following a report that millions in legal bills for the commander-in-chief were paid by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
In February, a 345-page report detailed that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed" classified documents at his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, and an office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., following his stint as vice president in 2017. The documents were discovered in December 2022 and January 2023.
Special Counsel Robert Hur, who submitted the report, was slammed by Democrats for writing that the president presented himself as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
The DNC used campaign donations to pay more than $1.5 million to lawyers or firms representing Biden, according to campaign finance records reviewed by Axios.
About $1.05 million was paid between July 2023 and February 2024 to Bob Bauer PLLC, the professional limited liability company for Biden's lead attorney, the outlet reported.
The money reportedly went largely towards paying veteran lawyer David Laufman—a former Justice Department official who handled the investigations into Hillary Clinton's email server and Russian interference in the 2016 election—for the probe launched by Hur in 2023.
Monthly payments to another law firm, Hemenway & Barnes, also increased from $15,000 to $100,000 starting last July, per the report. Biden's attorney Jennifer Miller, identified in the special counsel report, works at the law firm though it is unclear if the payments were solely for Miller's work or the firm's services overall.
"Pot, meet kettle," the X account RNC Reseach posted with a link to the report.
"There is no comparison," DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd told Newsweek via email. "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.
"While Donald Trump is beleaguered and broke as a consequence of his mounting legal troubles, President Biden is leading a campaign and Democratic Party that is opening offices in battleground states, recruiting thousands of volunteers, and making smart investments in the campaign infrastructure to win in November."
Newsweek reached out to the RNC and the Biden campaign via email for comment.
A White House spokesperson deferred comment to the DNC and Biden presidential campaign.
Newsmax anchor Jenn Pellegrino wrote on X: "Oh, look at this. ... This as the left has a meltdown over the RNC/Campaign providing any assistance to Trump amid their endless lawfare."
The new reports undermine repeated mockery by the Biden administration and DNC towards Donald Trump and the RNC that campaign donors and the fundraising arm of the GOP are subsidizing Trump's legal fees associated with his various civil and criminal cases.
"Only a con man and grifter like Donald Trump would be so brazen as to take campaign donors' money to pay his mounting legal bills before the financially strapped RNC even gets a cut," Floyd said in a March 21 statement. "His campaign and the RNC are already in financial disarray, and Trump is only making their never-ending problems worse by turning his fundraising operation into a begging cup for his legal debts."
In March, Trump's campaign called for donations from 1 million supporters following the $454 million judgment in his New York civil fraud case.
"KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF TRUMP TOWER!," read a message to supporters from a joint fundraising committee that allocates the money to both the campaign and to a separate political committee that has been paying Trump's legal bills, according to Reuters.
One of Trump's criminal cases is in Florida, where the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee is charged with 40 counts over allegedly keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach after he lost the 2020 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing in the case, stating the documents were personal.
Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Trump's classified documents case, has been at the center of a vitriolic fight between the Justice Department and Special Counsel Jack Smith, and Trump and his legal team.
On Wednesday, Cannon set a May 9 deadline for Trump to reveal what line of defense his team plans to use in the trial—almost seven weeks before the trial is to commence on July 8, frustrating Smith.
Trump came to Cannon's defense in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
"Crooked Joe Biden and his crew of Hacks and Thugs, led by Merrick Garland and Deranged Jack Smith, are working overtime to try to illegally intimidate and harass respected Federal Judge Aileen Cannon," Trump wrote. "They are calling her terrible names, wrongfully threatening her with Impeachment, and disrespecting her, all because they want her to act like the dishonest, politically biased, and conflicted Judges in New York, and not like the fair and impartial Judge that she is."
Update 04/12/24, 3:22 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from the DNC and more information.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
