Data shows Mueller’s probe cost about $25M in its first 18 months

WASHINGTON — In roughly its first year and a half, special counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation cost the government a little more than $25 million, according to expenditure data released Friday.

Mueller’s total tab increased about $8.4 million from April 1 through Sept. 30 — bringing his total to about $25.1 million, the data shows. That figure includes both what Mueller’s office itself spent, and what Justice Department components spent on things attributable to his investigation.

President Donald Trump has periodically complained about the cost of Mueller’s probe to taxpayers. In a tweet late last week that seemed to exaggerate the publicly known price tag, the president claimed the investigation came with “a cost of over $30,000,000,” and had found, “NO COLLUSION!”

Analysts say that Mueller’s budget is not out of line with previous independent counsels. Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, for example, spent more than $52 million investigating President Bill Clinton, and the five independent counsels appointed to look into various Clinton-related matters spent more than $100 million.

Mueller’s work, too, has led to federal authorities being able to seize several multimillion-dollar properties belonging to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman.

Mueller has so far brought charges against 33 people in his probe, which began in May 2017.

Still, Mueller has not yet answered the core question of his investigation: whether the Russian influence operations he has been investigating were coordinated with the Trump campaign.

The latest expenditure report, for the April through September time period, is the third Mueller has filed. He reported spending the most money, $2.88 million, on personnel, along with about $942,000 on rent, communications and utilities and $580,000 on travel and transportation.

The $8.4 million total is slightly less than the roughly $10 million in expenditures he had tallied in the previous six months.

The money that Mueller spent directly comes from an indefinite appropriation for independent counsels, which the Justice Department determined could be used to fund Mueller’s work.