The final bill for former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia inquiry: $31. 7 million
WASHINGTON — The tab is closed.
Robert Mueller's two-year investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election cost nearly $32 million, according to the final expenditure report by the former special counsel.
The report, released Friday by the Justice Department, shows that Mueller's office spent $6.5 million between October and May 31, with the bulk of the costs going to salaries and expenses for the prosecutors, analysts and agents assigned to the sprawling inquiry.
The investigation produced criminal charges against 34 people, including a half-dozen members of President Donald Trump's inner circle. It also closely scrutinized Trump's repeated efforts to thwart the investigation that had shadowed his presidency.
The accounting does not include millions of dollars the government stands to collect from Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was convicted of a wide-ranging scheme to conceal the wealth he acquired through an illicit lobbying operation in Ukraine.
More: Robert Mueller completes investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election
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In the end, Mueller's team concluded that there was insufficient evidence to show that the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin, though it determined that the campaign appeared to embrace Russia's efforts to tilt the election in favor of Trump.
Investigators did not make a determination on whether the president's efforts to obstruct the investigation amounted to criminal conduct.
Trump, who once sought to dismiss Mueller, has repeatedly disparaged the special counsel's investigation as a costly "witch-hunt."
Mueller rejected that claim last week in testimony before two House committees. The former special counsel both defended the investigation's conclusions and asserted that Russia was continuing its efforts to disrupt America's political system.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Final price of Mueller's investigation of Trump, Russia: $31.7 million
