Campaign funds used to pay Biden legal bills in classified documents inquiry

Review shows that the DNC paid more than $1.5m to Biden’s lawyers during the investigation by special counsel Robert Hur, right. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Campaign donations to Joe Biden were used to help pay legal bills during the special counsel investigation of his retention of classified information when out of office, Axios reported on Friday.

Citing a review of campaign finance records and two unnamed sources “familiar with the matter”, the site said filings by the Democratic National Committee showed it paid more than $1.5m to lawyers or firms representing Biden during Robert Hur’s investigation.

The news opens the Biden campaign to charges of hypocrisy, given its own attacks on Donald Trump and his campaign for using donations to pay legal bills.

But the two candidates’ legal situations – and legal costs – are vastly different.

Trump faces 88 criminal charges (for election subversion, retention of classified information and hush-money payments) and multimillion-dollar penalties in civil suits over tax fraud and defamation, the latter arising from a rape claim a judge said was “substantially true”.

Denying wrongdoing but seeking to delay trials until he can retake power next year and dismiss them, Trump has fought prosecutors at every step, appealing all the way to the US supreme court. Nonetheless, Trump’s first criminal trial – in the hush-money case and the first criminal trial ever to involve a former president – is scheduled to begin in New York on Monday.

The New York Times has reported that Trump’s legal bills since leaving office have topped $100m.

Biden was investigated for retaining classified information after his 36-year stint as a US senator from Delaware and eight years as vice-president to Barack Obama. Unlike Trump, he cooperated with the special counsel throughout. Unlike in Trump’s case, the special counsel declined to bring charges – though he did deliver a controversial report.

Hur’s investigation began in January last year. Axios said DNC filings showed payments of $1.05m to a company run by Bob Bauer, Biden’s lead attorney, between July 2023 and February 2024 and “largely” relating to the special counsel’s investigation.

Asked about those payments and others, the DNC declined to tell Axios exactly how much was spent on matters concerning the special counsel. Bauer did not comment.

Axios pointed to recent statements by Biden campaign officials aimed at Trump’s methods of meeting legal costs, including “We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers” and a hit at the Republican for relying on “a handful of billionaires figuring out how to pay his legal bills”.

Alex Floyd, a DNC spokesperson, said: “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.”