Since January 2023, the DNC has paid more than $1.5 million to the president’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, and the firm Hemenway & Barnes LLP. Axios was the first to report the legal payments, citing two people familiar with the matter and campaign finance records.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show the DNC first paid Hemenway & Barnes LLP $15,000 in January 2023, after the news first broke that classified documents had been discovered.
The first payment of $15,000 to Bob Bauer PLLC came in July of that year, when payments to Hemenway & Barnes LLP increased to $100,000.
The amounts both parties were paid fluctuated until late February, when the special counsel concluded the investigation.
Bauer, who was part of Biden’s legal team that in February decried Hur’s report as “inappropriate” for portraying the president as lacking memory of key life events, was also paid by President Obama in 2009. His law firm made nearly $1.5 million from Obama’s presidential campaign, Politico reported at the time.
The Biden campaign has railed against Trump’s use of campaign donations to pay for the former president’s mounting legal bills, which are much larger than Biden’s, even as he trails in fundraising.
When asked about the payments, the DNC argued that the situation can’t be compared to Trump, who spent roughly $50 million total on legal fees in 2023.
“There is no comparison – the DNC does not spend a single penny of grassroots donors’ money on legal bills, unlike Donald Trump, who actively solicits legal fees from his supporters and has drawn down every bank account he can get his hands on like a personal piggy bank,” DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano has more here.
