Mueller probe spent $4.5 million from
October to March: Justice Department
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[June 01, 2018]
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel
Robert Mueller's team investigating suspected Russian interference in
the 2016 U.S. election spent $4.5 million between October last year and
March 2018, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.
In addition, other Justice Department "components" spent $5.476 million
on activities supporting the investigation, the department said in a
published report. Mueller's office is also looking into possible links
between President Donald Trump's election campaign and Russia.
Even with the additional costs, the official figure is significantly
less than what Trump has said the Mueller inquiry is costing taxpayers.
In a Twitter post earlier this month, Trump called the Mueller
investigation a "$20,000,000 Witch Hunt". Five days earlier, he
estimated the cost of the probe at $10 million.
The largest direct expenditure by Mueller's office for the period Oct.
1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 was $2.738 million in salaries and benefits
for its employees, the Justice Department report said.
Mueller's office spent $886,000 on rent, communications and utilities
and $264,000 on "contractual services," most of which involved
information technology, according to the report.
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after briefing members of the
U.S. Senate on his investigation of potential collusion between
Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S.,
June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Last year, Mueller's office reported that in its first months from
May 17 to Sept. 30, 2017, it spent a total of $3.2 million. Not
counting additional spending by the Justice Department, Mueller and
his team have spent a total of $7.7 million since his appointment
just over a year ago.
The last time a special counsel was investigating a White House
occupant, President Bill Clinton between August 1994 and February
1999, then counsel Kenneth Starr's office spent $52 million in the
4-1/2 years.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Grant
McCool)
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