The special counsel investigating Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 vote has cost U.S. taxpayers over $10 million so far – including $2 million in security.
Jack Smith was appointed on November 18, and now has a team of 40 to 60 prosecutors, paralegals and support staff working for him.
On June 8, he charged Trump with 37 counts relating to the documents illegally stored at Mar-a-Lago. He is expected to soon bring charges related to interfering in the 2020 election.
Trump repeatedly refers to Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, as ‘deranged’, and has shared on social memes showing him wielding a baseball bat in the direction of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting him over the porn star hush money payments.
Smith, his family and other prosecutors are being protected by U.S. Marshalls, at a cost so far of $2 million.
Jack Smith (left) began work investigating Donald Trump’s election interference and classified document handling on November 18: in the first four months, his team cost $9.2 million
Taxpayers have spent nearly $2 million on U.S. Marshalls protecting Smith and his wife Katy Chevigny (above), plus other prosecutors and staff. Trump has attacked them all online
Trump is seen on April 4 in court in Manhattan, being arraigned on federal charges connected to the hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels
Smith’s wife, documentary filmmaker Katy Chevigny, has also come under attack from Trump after he learnt that she produced a documentary about Michelle Obama, Becoming, and had donated to Joe Biden’s campaign.
The couple lived in the Netherlands until last year, and have a young daughter.
His work, encompassing the January 6 riots, is widely seen as among the most sprawling and complicated cases in history.
At the peak of the Justice Department’s work bringing to justice those behind the riot, many U.S. attorney’s offices and all 56 FBI field offices had officials pursuing leads.
At one point, more than 600 agents and support personnel from the bureau were assigned to the riot cases.
Smith’s investigations, The New York Times reported, are currently on track to cost U.S. taxpayers $25 million.
‘What Jack Smith is doing is actually pretty cheap considering the momentous nature of the charges,’ said Timothy J. Heaphy, former U.S. attorney who served as lead investigator for the House committee that investigated the Capitol assault.
Smith in June filed charges against Trump for wrongfully taking and storing classified documents (pictured, files of boxes found by investigators stashed in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom)
A protester calls for Trump to be jailed for mishandling national secrets. Trump was arraigned on June 13 and will go on trial next year
Smith’s team is significantly larger than that of Robert K. Hur, who is investigating President Biden’s handling of classified documents after he left the vice presidency.
Hur has around 10 to 20 people working for him, and has spent about $1.2 million from his appointment in January through March, which gives a likely annual cost of $5.6 million.
Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia was of a similar scale to Smith’s, but even that was smaller.
Mueller spent $8.5 million in his first six months.
Trump on Sunday said the expenditure was ridiculous.
Trump, seen on Saturday, said on Sunday the expenditure was absurd
‘Every time you see these Radical Lunatics and their partners in the Fake News Media talking about the “Trials and Tribulations” of President Donald J. Trump, please remember that it is all a coordinated HOAX, just like Russia, Russia, Russia, the “No Collusion” Mueller Witch Hunt, the Fake Dossier, FISA Fraud, and all of the rest, in order to STEAL ANOTHER ELECTION through PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT at levels never seen before in the U.S. Deranged Jack Smith has already spent over $25,000,000!!!’
He added: ‘Just think of it! Between Mueller, Deranged Jack Smith, and Congressional Committees, over 100 Million Dollars has been spent investigating me since I came down the escalator in Trump Tower.
‘Biden is a criminal, and almost no money, by comparison, has been spent investigating him.
‘Get smart, Republicans, they are trying to steal the Election from you!’
