Former Trump campaign official, Michael Caputo -- who is himself under investigation along with other Trump campaign and administration officials over possible collusion with Kremlin operatives -- said this week that it was the Republican National Committees' (RNC) responsibility to take care of the President and his family first. Caputo was referring to the Legal Fees that the RNC was reportedly paying for Trump and his family's legal defense.

Amount of money paid by RNC

In his statement, Caputo called the investigation "bogus," which is the same reaction Trump campaign and administration officials have shared over the months.

During the slowest month of the year when lawmakers were out of Washington and back to their districts for the August recess, it appeared that the Republican National Committee was spending $231,000 for President Trump's legal fees, according to a committee official.

According to that RNC official, they confirmed that the committee paid Jay Sekulow's firm $131,000 and John Dowd $100,000. Those payments are also included in the RNC's spending report for the month of August which was released on Wednesday. Other RNC officials told CNN in a report titled: "RNC covering more than $230,000 in Trump legal fees" that the spending report for September adds a payout of nearly $200,000 for Trump Jr's legal bills as well.

According to CNN, the breakdown of those fees was in amounts of $166,572.50 going to Alan Futerfas -- Donald Trump Jr's attorney -- and $30,102.90 going to the Williams and Jensen firm. Don Jr. is also under investigation, specifically for his role in colluding with Russian officials at Trump Tower last year. Michael Caputo's response for why the RNC was currently paying for Trump's legal fees was triggered by the view that Donald Trump has a worth of $10 billion and with it, the question of, why could Trump not just pay for his own legal bills?

Trump has it easy, Caputo doesn't

Caputo said -- in a way that twists the response to the question -- that Trump being a billionaire did not disqualify him from having the RNC cover his legal fees. The CNN article, however, points out that the RNC is still not sure if they're going to continue to pay for the President's legal defense, as this would be the first time a political party has done so at such a level.

But the article also pointed out that the bills were not being covered by the money given by coffers but by money made by donors to the RNC's legal defense fund. The fund was apparently set up in 2014 for election-related litigation. A report by the Federal Election Commission said that between April 1 and June 30, the Trump campaign had spent $700,000 for legal consultation fees, which is said to be 15.5 percent of the Trump campaign's total expenses.

Caputo told the Washington Examiner last week in an article titled: "Russia probes leave Trump associates struggling with huge legal bills" that no one has called or even offered to help him with his own legal fees. He pointed out that the representation he had to get was specialized and therefore, very expensive.

Caputo said that his defense was made up by very competent lawyers and that the expense was for their competency. The former campaign aide stated that he also had to liquidate a college fund for his children to also pay for security as he claimed that he was receiving death threats.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED