Last month, President Donald Trump, without citing any documentation, accused Mueller of “wasting more than $40,000,000” on an “illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt” that has “shattered so many innocent lives.”
On Sunday, the president again complained about the cost of the Mueller probe, and also without documentation, claimed the investigation has cost more than $30 million, instead of $40 million.
The new numbers reported by the Department of Justice on Friday cover expenditures from April 2018 through September 2018, including compensation for prosecutors, rent, travel and transportation.
CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images, FILEFBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Capitol, June 19, 2013.
Mueller’s team spent $4.6 million from the special counsel’s budget, and the Justice Department chipped in an additional $3.9 million for the investigation during the last six month period, bringing the total to $25 million. This is a 15 percent decrease from the previous six-month reporting period between October 2017 and March 2018, when the special counsel and the Justice Department reported spending $10 million in support of the investigation.
(MORE: Mueller has spent $17 million over course of investigation: DOJ)
The biggest portion of the expenditures went to personnel compensation, $2.9 million, while Mueller’s team spent nearly $1 million on rent, communications and utilities and more than $580,000 on travel and transportation.
As ABC News has previously reported, investigations of this nature can take years to resolve and can run into the tens of millions of dollars. And as a part of the investigation, Mueller team is expected to bring in money for the U.S. government through fines and sales of forfeited properties from individuals who have pleaded guilty to the special counsel.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, FILEPaul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington D.C., Feb. 14, 2018.
This includes $22.3 million in forfeited real estate properties from Paul Manafort’s plea deal with the government. The one-time Trump campaign chairman, who in August pleaded guilty to evading taxes on more than $60 million of income earned working for Ukrainian politicians, also faces up to $500,000 in fines.
(MORE: The ‘lavish lifestyle’ Paul Manafort gave up in deal with Robert Mueller )
Others who have pleaded guilty to the Mueller investigation, including Michael Cohen and George Papadopoulos, have been sentenced to a total of $79,500 in fines to the special counsel’s office.
(MORE: Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says Trump knew it was wrong to make hush-money payments during campaign )
Since his appointment as special counsel in May 2017, Mueller has indicted 33 individuals and three Russian businesses on charges ranging from computer hacking to conspiracy and financial crimes. Those indictments have led to seven guilty pleas and four people sentenced to prison.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
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