The summary covers spending through March and includes “the cost of protective details for the Special Counsel when warranted,” the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department also released cost summaries for its two other special counsels over the past six months — Robert Hur, assigned to investigate whether classified documents were mishandled in President Biden’s home and a former office, and John Durham, tasked during the Trump administration to investigate the FBI’s investigation of Trump and 2016 election interference by Russia.
Hur, who was appointed in January, spent significantly less, just $615,962 in the two-and-a-half months covered by the summary. Durham spent $1.1 million between October and March, as he was winding down his investigation. The Durham probe has cost about $7.6 million since he was formally appointed a special counsel in 2020.
By comparison, the roughly two-year special counsel investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference efforts, whether Trump’s presidential campaign was involved in that effort, and whether Trump obstructed that investigation, cost about $32 million. About half of the funding covered special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s office and staff, while half covered resources from other parts of the Justice Department.
Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr spent more than $52 million investigating President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, while the five other independent counsels appointed to look into various Clinton-related matters during the 1990s spent more than $100 million.
Since then, the law authorizing independent counsels has expired, and the Justice Department has shifted toward special counsels to oversee high-profile, politically sensitive investigations.
Special counsels are prosecutors who are appointed directly by attorneys general in “extraordinary circumstances” in which senior officials decide that it is important to have a particular case handled with an extra degree of independence from the Justice Department’s politically appointed leadership.
Attorney General Merrick Garland inherited one special counsel — Durham — and appointed Smith and Hur, a sign of how politically fraught cases have come to play an increasingly large role at the Justice Department since the consequential actions of the FBI and Justice Department in the 2016 presidential race.
For Smith’s office, the 2020 election results probe is a more sprawling investigation than the classified-documents case, according to law enforcement officials, with many more potential witnesses and tranches of potential evidence.
However, the indictment of Trump and an aide last month in the classified-documents case will likely lead to a public trial, which would mean significant additional costs, particularly for security.
