President Trump is paying his own legal bills related to the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election after months of the Republican National Committee (RNC) covering the costs, Reuters reported Friday.
The legal bills are for Trump’s personal lawyers, who are helping the president navigate the investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey earlier this year.
John Dowd, a defense lawyer for Trump, told Reuters that the president wants to make the party “even.”
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Trump’s team and the RNC have, at times, seized on the Russia investigation and surrounding controversy to raise money, sending out fundraising pleas amid developments in the case. Earlier this year, the campaign saw a surge in donations the same day that Robert Mueller was appointed to lead the criminal investigation into Moscow’s election meddling.
The Trump administration is also working to establish a fund to help current and former staffers pay their legal bills related to the special counsel’s probe. That fund would be subject to rules prohibiting staffers from receiving pro bono legal services or gifts, according to Reuters.
Dowd said that the president is worried about staffers who have hired good lawyers to represent them, but whose services they cannot afford.
Reuters first reported earlier this year that Trump was using money from the RNC and his own reelection campaign to pay some of the legal bills accrued amid Mueller’s investigation. In August, the RNC payments totalled $231,250.
The Federal Election Commission allows candidates to use campaign funds to cover legal costs that may come as a result of running for public office or being an elected official.
Trump has denied repeatedly that his campaign coordinated with Russian officials or representatives, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has similarly said that Moscow played no such role in the U.S. election.
But Mueller’s investigation, as well as probes being carried out by multiple congressional committees, have cast a shadow over Trump’s first year in office. And the U.S. intelligence community says that Russia did seek to influence the election.
Earlier this month, the special counsel unveiled the first charges in his investigation, indicting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate of his over alleged money laundering and tax evasion, among other charges.
That same day, it was revealed that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian representatives. The White House has sought to distance the president from the accused in recent weeks.