Americans can celebrate the holiday season by feeling green around the gills about how much taxpayer money that could have been better spent has been wasted on the endless Mueller witch hunt which is only weeks away from stretching out until 2019 with no end in sight.
The sainted special counsel and his team of partisan elves are singing joy to the world as they continue to be given a blank check by a dysfunctional Justice Department which has taken upon itself the job of giving the Democrats a huge gift in terms of opposition research that will soon end up dealt out between committees who will be conducting dozens of inquisitions into President Trump and his associates.
According to a just-released DOJ report, Mueller’s sweeping probe has already burned up $25.2 million but those figures are only good through the end of September or before the ex-FBI boss really started ramping up with the ballyhooed recent deal with Trump’s rat of a former attorney Michael Cohen that has liberals salivating over things to come.
Via The Washington Examiner, “Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has cost taxpayers $25.2 million and counting”:
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election cost $8.5 million from April through September, bringing the total probe price tag to $25.2 million, according to a Justice Department report released Friday.
During the six-month span, expenses for the special counsel’s office neared $4.6 million, while Justice Department components supporting Mueller’s investigation cost $3.9 million, according to the report.
The cost of compensation and benefits for Mueller’s team was roughly $2.9 million, which includes $1 million for employees of the special counsel’s office and $1.9 million for Justice Department employees working with Mueller. Rent, communications, and utilities cost taxpayers $942,000.
The special counsel’s office also shelled out $580,000 for travel and transportation from the beginning of April until the end of September.
With absolutely zero oversight and Mueller having been given wings and a halo by the anti-Trump media, you can expect the burn rate of taxpayer moola to accelerate as this abomination that is more befitting of a despotic police state is practically a slam dunk to run all the way up until when voters go to the polls in 2020 and possibly longer if Trump is reelected.
The spinmeisters are working overtime as if they are toiling in Santa’s workshop with their predictable defenses of Mueller like this one which claims that the investigation is actually a money-maker.
Via Yahoo Finance, “Mueller Investigation Cost $25 Million So Far, Report Says. It’s Pulled in $48 Million From Tax Cheats”:
Robert Mueller’s investigation has cost just over $25 million in the first 16 months of its investigation, according to CNBC.
The Special Counsel’s Office released new an expenditure report Friday which revealed that the six months between the beginning of April through September cost about $4.5 million. More than half of the total cost is attributed to personnel compensation and benefits.
Since beginning the probe in May 2017, investigating whether Russia was linked to the Trump presidential campaign, Mueller has filed more than 100 criminal charges.
Though the investigation comes with a hefty price tag, it may have actually paid for its own investigation, with its probe leading to monetary estimated gains of up to $48 million for the government through the tax evasion the investigation has revealed.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was sentenced for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in September. As part of his plea deal, Manafort agreed to forfeit assets that amount to between $42 million and $46 million, including about $22 million in property, CNBC reports. The case revealed how Manafort avoided paying more than $15 million in taxes by laundering $60 million from pro-Russian Ukrainians, CNN reports.
Pay no mind to the fact that it’s the business of the I.R.S. to catch “tax cheats” but as we saw during the Obama years when the agency was unleashed on the president’s political enemies, it clearly has better things to do.
How much will this all cost taxpayers by the time that it finally closes down? You may be able to buy a heckuva good border wall and have change left over.
