Democrats impeach Trump How much did the trial cost taxpayers?

The U.S. House of Representatives announced two articles of impeachment against Trump on Dec. 10, 2020.

The impeachment trial against former U.S. President Donald Trump ended on Saturday (Feb. 13) with a “not guilty” verdict. As lawmakers end the dramatic allegations of “Trump sedition,” some wonder: How much did the trial cost taxpayers? And how much money did Trump lose for his eventual “not guilty” verdict?

Roll Call, a U.S. legislative and political media outlet, estimates that the first impeachment trial in January 2020 will cost $1.83 million. Another estimate from the Heritage Foundation puts the price tag for the trial at $3.06 million, which includes the salaries of not only lawmakers but also 106 congressional staffers and six lawyers.

While these estimates do not include the cost of the Senate trial in February 2021, the total estimate for the Trump impeachment trial as of December 2020 is substantially less than the cost of the congressional impeachment investigation and trial of President Bill Clinton 20 years ago.

The 1994 impeachment investigation of Clinton cost taxpayers $80 million, CNN reported.

But the first impeachment trial against Trump took much longer than the second, with the Senate debating Trump’s impeachment for two weeks and six days in 2020, but only five days in 2021.

Yahoo Finance estimates the first impeachment against Trump at $11.5 million. It is calculated to cost $0.0000026 for every $1 paid in taxes in 2019, against the backdrop of $4.4 trillion spent by the federal government in 2019.

Security around the Capitol was reportedly beefed up in light of the Jan. 6 attack, and an additional $519 million was spent on it.

Meanwhile, the cost of Trump’s defense cannot be confirmed at this Time, but it will not be paid for by tax dollars.

Trump’s personal attorneys Jay Sekulow and Jane Raskin have been on Trump’s legal team since 2017, and the Republican Party has paid their law firm $225,000 as of November 2020.

In a second impeachment trial, Republicans could pay the duo through February, according to The Washington Post.

Because Trump is on trial for his office or candidacy, election law allows him to draw legal fees from campaign or party funds.

Mike Reed, the RNC’s deputy chief of staff for communications, said, “We’re more than happy to cover some of the costs of defending the president from this partisan impeachment sham.”