How much did the Russia and Hillary Clinton email probes cost taxpayers?
Taxpayers were left to foot the bill for investigations that cost millions
President Trump announced Tuesday evening that he has “fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents" related to the Russia investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server surrounding a 2012 attack that occurred in Benghazi that took the lives of four Americans.
According to biannual reports released by the special counsel’s office, Mueller and his team spent $12.3 million in direct spending between his appointment on May 17, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018. The office also said it incurred $12.9 million in “indirect” Justice Department spending, a category it described as “neither legally required” for disclosure, nor reported in filings by previous special counsels.
Mueller’s office said the indirect expenses did not amount to additional taxpayer expenditures since these resources would have been devoted to other cases, such as personnel at the FBI, if there had been no special counsel investigation.
In total, the investigation up until Sept. 30 2018 amounted to roughly $25.2 million. On average, the office spent roughly $8.4 million per each six-month period.
However, the report for October 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 shows the final eight months of the probe cost about $6.56 million in additional taxpayer funds, putting the final tally at nearly $32 million. About $4.12 million of that was spent through the special counsel’s office directly, and $2.44 million came from DOJ components that supported Mueller’s office.
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In comparison, the two and a half-year Benghazi investigation led by the House Select Committee on Benghazi spent more than $7 million in total, according to financial documents on the Committee on House Administrations website.
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Fox Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report