Mueller’s probe has cost $6.7 million — or roughly 7 Trump Mar-a-Lago trips Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office on Tuesday released its first expense report, which showed that the probe so far has cost taxpayers $6.7 million. Per The Hill, Mueller’s probe so far has paid out $3.2 million in direct and reimbursed expenditures — including $1.7 million in salary and benefits — and $3.5 million in expenditures “attributable to the investigations” themselves. Fox News wrote up its own report on Mueller’s expenses so far with the headline, “Mueller’s Russia probe spent nearly $7M in first few months” — which quickly drew the ire of many of its fans on Twitter who consider the investigation to be a waste of taxpayer funds. However, the Mueller probe’s total expenses match up roughly with what the U.S. government spent on President Donald Trump’s trips to his own Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over the first six months of his presidency. As the Washington Post reported earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard spent $6.6 million protecting Mar-a-Lago during the president’s visits there in the first half of this year, which is roughly what Mueller has spent so far to secure an indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a guilty plea from former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Nonetheless, the president’s supporters were outraged at Mueller’s purportedly pricey probe — check out the top responses below.
I'd never miss the opportunity to use "what about Benghazi!" Also wonder if he's going to regret those golf trips now?
Days Trump has spent at Mar a Lago: 25 Cost of flights to Mar a Lago (8 so far):* ~$15,420,000 Days Trump has spent at Bedminster: 33 Cost of flights to Bedminster (11 so far):* ~$8,481,000 Trump has visited his clubs once every this many days since his inauguration: 4.2 Projected visits to golf clubs in four years: 347 Projected visits in eight years: 694
They've probably spent about a dime of those millions investigating the real criminals. http://googleweblight.com/?lite_url...654043&sig=ANTY_L2D8EXBHX5QxpPCY58gjwQ46xwH9Q "The particular decision that made the Huma Abedin interview little more than a formality had already been made. Peter Strzok was in on the drafting of the Comey letter exonerating Hillary Clinton. He had made sure that “grossly negligent” would be turned into “extremely careless”. So it didn’t matter very much that Huma Abedin was lying through her carefully polished teeth or whether her interlocutors were “grossly negligent” or just “extremely careless”. Huma “Abedin did not know that Clinton had a private server until about a year and a half ago when it became public knowledge,” the notes read. But emails showed that Abedin was aware of the server that she claimed not to have known about. Justin Cooper, the Clinton aide behind the infamous email server, had told the FBI that he and Huma Abedin had discussed what kind of email domain to set up on the server and signed off on the Clintonemail.com domain name. Not only that, but Huma Abedin had her own clintonemail.com account. Anyone who wanted to reach her, emailed huma@clintonemail.com. And she used it frequently. Materials from her State Department account were routinely forwarded to her private email. These included classified documents. But Huma Abedin claimed not to understand how communications technology or classified information worked. Like Hillary, she tried to plead ignorance or ambiguity to everything. An aide whose whole public image had been built on superhuman competence suddenly didn’t know how anything worked An aide whose whole public image had been built on superhuman competence suddenly didn’t know how anything worked. Huma couldn’t access her email or archive it and had no idea where the Hillary laptop archive had gone. Monica Hanley, Hillary’s “confidential” assistant, however suggested that she had given the Clinton email archive to Huma on a thumb drive. Huma Abedin had picked Hillary’s email address and was responsible for managing her passwords. Huma pleaded ignorance to everything and was never held challenged or held accountable for it by the men who had all the evidence of her deceptions in their hands. Huma Abedin repeated Hillary Clinton’s lie about the Secretary of State using a personal phone because she didn’t want to carry around two devices. In reality, Cooper, had told the FBI that Hillary Clinton liked using a flip phone and a BlackBerry. There were a total of 11 BlackBerry devices. Some of these were physically destroyed with a hammer by Cooper. And then there were all the iPads. The claim that Hillary Clinton just couldn’t handle more than one device had already been disproven. But Strzok and Laufman never challenged Huma Abedin about the basic contradictions in her story. There were certainly plenty of grounds for the FBI to conclude that Huma Abedin had lied. And her efforts to play dumb were blatantly misleading. But instead Huma Abedin, like Cheryl Mills and other Hillary associates, received a pass. The same ruthless pressure that would be brought to bear by Strzok and others on General Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and others were wholly absent here. Flynn and Papadopoulos would be forced to plead guilty to lying to the FBI. Huma Abedin’s deceit was met with no such sanction. The raids and arrests that targeted Trump associates had no parallel on the Clinton side of the political border. While Papadopoulos was arrested at the airport to rattle him into admitting everything, Abedin was brought in for a chummy chat overseen by two political allies of her boss. It was not the first time that Huma Abedin had received a pass over deeply problematic behavior."
Golfer in Chief... Dwight D. Eisenhower http://golfweek.com/2009/11/02/dwight-d-eisenhower-golf-white-house/ As our golfer in chief, President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought golf to the White House lawn and played nearly 800 rounds while in office. Not since Mary Queen of Scots has a head of state done so much to popularize the game. Fred Corcoran, the legendary golf promoter, once said Eisenhower’s devotion to golf was “the greatest thing that ever happened to the game.” For being the game’s unofficial ambassador, Eisenhower was selected for induction to the World Golf Hall of Fame in the Lifetime Achievement Category. In a word, Eisenhower inspired. Together with Arnold Palmer, their charisma changed how Americans viewed golf and sparked the nation’s interest in the sport. Don Van Natta Jr., author of “First Off the Tee,” wrote that when Eisenhower assumed office in 1953, an estimated 3.2 million Americans played golf; by 1961, that number had doubled. “Whatever remained to be done to remove the last traces of the average man’s carefully nurtured prejudice against a game originally linked with the wealthy and aloof was done by President Eisenhower,” historian Herbert Warren Wind, a Hall of Fame member, wrote. “Probably few men in the long history of the game have ever been bitten by the golf bug as badly as the president.” In 1925, Eisenhower played his first round while attending the Army’s Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He had a putting green installed on the White House grounds. Near the end of most days, Eisenhower slipped on his golf spikes, grabbed his putter, wedge and 8-iron and marched to the South Lawn, cleats clacking. Golfers could identify with Ike, “a congenital slicer” with an adequate short game and an unreliable putter. Like a regular duffer, Ike loved the game no matter how badly he played and sneaked in a round whenever possible. He drew the line, however, when asked to divulge his score. “If I don’t improve,” Eisenhower once said, “I’m going to pass a law that no one can ask me my golf score.” The president’s preoccupation with the game became a national punch line. Democrats joked that Eisenhower put in a 36-hole workweek. That often was true. He played Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings at Burning Tree Country Club. Of Eisenhower’s several course associations, he is most closely connected to Augusta National Golf Club. Eisenhower was a member there for 21 years and visited 29 times in his two terms, playing 210 rounds, according to presidential records. With a handicap ranging between 14 and 18, Eisenhower broke 80 four times at Augusta in eight years. He might’ve achieved the feat more often if not for a loblolly pine tree located left-center of the 17th fairway, which gave him fits. At a meeting of the club’s governors, Eisenhower proposed chopping it down. “I quickly adjourned the meeting to prevent a mutiny in the club’s ranks,” said the late Clifford Roberts, Augusta’s co-founder. The Eisenhower Tree stands today. Born Oct. 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas, Eisenhower was a soldier, politician and statesman. He graduated from West Point, rose to five-star general and commanded Allied Forces in Europe in World War II. Elected in 1952, Eisenhower served two terms as the 34th U.S. president. After leaving office, Eisenhower was asked how life had changed since being president: “I don’t get as many short putts,” he answered. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969. Palmer, who had become a dear friend, will fete Eisenhower at the induction. Said Palmer: “Other than my father, no man had a bigger impact on my life than President Dwight David Eisenhower . . . whose time with me I will always cherish.”