![]() ![]() “On MSNBC and FOX News there were interesting conversations about the cost issue.”īyrd said the request was not politically motivated. When reached by phone, Byrd, 25, confirmed that he requested the information. (The document also includes the $153,730 salary of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who resigned from the probe in May after text messages surfaced of her criticizing Trump.)Īccording to the document, the salary information of the 13 current attorneys and Page was initially released last December in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request from Colin Byrd, a Democratic City Council member in Greenbelt, Md., and a delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Those salaries total slightly more than $2 million per year, with an average of nearly $160,000. The Department of Justice document lists 13 top attorneys working on the Mueller probe and their salaries, which range from $105,782 to $187,000. Mueller served as FBI Director for 12 years Quarles was an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate investigation. "Someone a little more junior, it might make them more employable and more of a heavyweight," he explains - although, he adds, that's less true for more senior attorneys like Mueller and Quarles. The salaries for Dreeben and Weissmann match the pay rate for high-ranking employees on last year’s executive and senior level employee pay scale, which sets the compensation for many top government officials.Ī role on the Mueller investigation could boost the careers of some of the less experienced lawyers on the team, Wisenberg says. The top earners listed on the document are Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben and Andrew Weissmann, former head of the DOJ’s criminal fraud section. "They thought it would be exciting, challenging and necessary work.” “It’s an important investigation that’s riveting the country," he says. Solomon Wisenberg, who served as a deputy independent counsel investigating Bill Clinton in the 1990s and is now a partner at the law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, says the lawyers’ pay cuts are not surprising. “When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax ever end?” Trump tweeted earlier this month. On May 20, Trump blasted Mueller's investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election as “ the World's most expensive Witch Hunt.” Five days later, Trump’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani called the probe “a waste of money.” The Special Counsel's office declined to comment on its staff pay. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the probe's staffing costs. The document reviewed by Money dates back to December 2017. Since federal employees on the general pay scale received a small raise at the start of 2018, the yearly salaries for the four attorneys may now be a few thousand dollars higher. DOJ attorneys, with a few exceptions, are covered by that general pay scale, the DOJ website says. ![]() Since all joined the investigation in spring 2017, that sum reflects roughly 17 months of compensation - suggesting yearly pay ranging from just under $1 million (for Zebley) to about $4.1 million (for Quarles).Ī $161,900 salary matches the top yearly salary possible for Washington D.C.-based federal employees who appear on last year’s general pay scale for federal employees. ![]() Mueller's own pay for the period was $3.4 million. Mueller is one of six top attorneys on the investigative team who earn $161,900 annually, according to a Department of Justice document reviewed by Money.įour of them - Mueller himself plus Jeannie Rhee, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley - had been partners at the international law firm WilmerHale, where according to the Washington Post, they drew incomes ranging from $1.4 million to $5.8 million over 2016 and the early part of 2017. But several of its top lawyers took annual pay cuts of over $1 million to work on it. President Donald Trump has railed against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation as a waste of money, casting scrutiny on the cost of the probe.
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