the free c-span radio app here house appling in at noon for general speeches. until then, we will look at the cost of the fbi investigation into russian interference in the 20 16th election and how compares to other special investing -- 2016 election and how compares other issues. this is from this morning's "washington journal." he covers the imes, justice department and law enforcement issues for that publication. good morning. we talk about special investigations, but we don't talk about the cost sometimes. from the justice department about the cost, what did we learn? guest: we've learned the cost so which is since robert mueller was appointed, has been million, part of that ould have been money, 3.5 million, money spent as part of the investigation anyhow. parts were

attributable to his direct investigation, cost for working with him and so forth. host: as total price tag of $7 illion, how does that compare to other investigations? guest: well, some have gone up $73 million for ken some around $2 million for short, concise know, igations, you depends obviously how long it goes and how much is involved, pretty broad range looking back over the last two decades or so in terms of how spent.s been host: when it comes to the cost mueller's investigation, they broke it down into categories. go through the categories and get conte. about 1.7 for salary and go thr categories benefits. people work for him and what type of salaries we're talking about? 1.se 7 million include staff, so farpport

what we know, what has been on, losed about folks hired we have 17 lawyers, plus mr. mueller. hasn't told ounsel us how many other folks they have brought on, who are acting staff, so take that in context, not knowing exactly people that is supporting, a portion of being spent on folks who were hired from outside of that is kind , so of the money that you would see eing spent for private salaries, other folks are, coming from within the department of justice. their salaries would have been paid regardless, they are the special counsel other than working on other matters. mueller himself set the salary range? guest: when they hire from the government, sliding scale of government pay, you not see anything wildly

outside of what works for the ranked along is experience level of what they have and folks brought back from outside of government had spent some time in government work before. was then another category about $733,000, labeled for equipment purchases. could you describe what those fall under? guest: we didn't get a breakdown line-by-line items, what is purchased, but items purchased they have to get up and running when they start investigation, they go in and file new equipment, get computers, investigatorspast i had spoken with said there will be a large chunk of money to get ds to be spent your equipment up and running at the beginning. in this have expenses you disclosure that wouldn't necessarily have in the next six months, the next time they have to reveal some expenses. they are just going to be costs.p

host: continue about the cost of investigations, about this one and others. 202-748-8001 for republicans. democrats. democrats. 202-748-8002 for independents. ou can tweet thoughts to at c-spanwj. 362,000 for rent, why is that. find a place to go, find an work out of. previous ecial, special counsel said it is the ent, you are getting pretty pricey place to work that can .dd up quickly in their case, they are in are work d area, they are for the duration, wanted a building, separate

authority, they take measures to be outside of walking down the sharing the same breakroom as folks that are employed, working on other things. host: i was about to ask if it fi philosophical reason. guest: they stay away from that, it is a special counsel, they of pains to be outside obviously they don't want to be in dod headquarters, that is cost of what goes into it, maintaining their own independence. host: source of funding, coming from treasury or other sources? money i mean, it is coming through the justice department, they expect things o happen, there is money that is going to be there and available for these things. at the beginning, special counsel office has to submit ind of what they think their

proposed budget might be that, is not what we got with the got just closures, we a listing of the first six months and what they had spent. -- but they disclosed that, so basically every year that the investigation is going to be ongoing, they would have to submit another proposal for the budget for the coming year. host: if you want to find out, by the way, the justice department did introduce that that breaks down the cost of the investigation by robert mueller so far. to ou want to find that go the justice department website justice.gov, for the breakdown a pdf format. figures, before, but compared to other investigations, the price tag, overall how d, but does this price tag compare to others and why do you think that is? think, so far, we're a couple months in, obviously in rt mueller was appointed may, first disclosures were may through september, so at that have to see ow, we

where it is going to go, we're looking at the cost of past we're looking at the whole price tag figure, looking at the whole thing. starting when you are in the middle of the investigation, you don't know how long it is going to go, how is going to go, in order to -- hard to make from the to make forecasts about where it could go from here, the way i came up with the figure, going through the past government accountability office broke down every six months what it spent in prior investigations. looking through those, the first six months, sometimes it was a month that an open, that waswas obviously a small amount for looking at ths, but the first start-up periods in which they were spending money, seemed like the first six months, second six months started, onen they figure, there would be a spike after that in a lot of them.

so it depends how quickly they are going and in mueller's case, we've gotten two guilty pleas, so other indictments, working fairly quickly in terms of getting criminal charges, so goes up from ice here, it could be depending kind of are going, but looking historically at the other ones thad been maybe a in when you started seeing big rise in the cost. host: the price tag that will up, cost of investigating president clinton in the 'nants, andl price tag at watergate monica lewinski. for : and the $6 million the fisk investigation that preceded that, if you look at how that particular investigation stretched on, you million price tag and other special counsel, independent counsel took igations that also

place during the clinton presidency, a number of them. when you look at overall price there, probably above $100 million for all of them ongoing time.e host: let's go to some calls. first call for andrea noble at ashington time system from rockaway park, new york, independent line, nitro, hello, ahead. caller: good morning. was noticing on the figures you posted up there for the long 257 -- ations, they had 257,000 dollars, i would like to make the point, this is the team, while tom price spent $400,000 by himself on i think that we're getting a good deal. point i would like to ake, i saw criminal penalties manafortand his partner

monetary re are fortfittures, paid for what has the entire mueller investigation, that is all i have to say. host: mr. noble? guest: yeah, one thing you don't get with special counsel figures, you get price tag of how much is spent on this, that s not something you get for completion of entire criminal investigation run by the u.s. attorney's office. have a whole things they want to pursue, you don't get a price tag for how much is spent on the cost. it is unique that we can kind critical, pick apart what is being spent, take issue typically we don't see that in other investigations, so in terms of you mentioned travel cost for the mueller -- stigation

travel.223,000 for guest: for travel, but most being spent for folks who were broughter offices, he's on folks who were out of the new york office, u.s. attorney's prosecutors from there, other than having them, you know, transit back and forth are paying , they temporary relocation costs, so that is the bulk of the travel are , i think only their $3000 spent on travel, the other together in one area themselves. host: do we know mr. mueller's salary? not off hand, it is based on the sliding scale of what are looking at, i believe recall 00,000, i don't the exact range. host: illinois, independent ahead.robert, hi, go caller: good morning. ave been trying to get on for

long time. ijust, on this investigation, am so happy it is happening, it long, lot of years hat i can remember when president eisenhower was on and still lot younger and i t is burned into my brain, he said mark my word, the economies will take over the united states ne day without firing a shot and i can't understand why the enate and congress did not get on this. melanie, in go to california, democrat's line. go ahead. morning.hi, good i want to say, i don't care how much it is going to cost, i eally appreciate that they are doing this for us. i agree with the other guy that i'm worried about that shot not being heard and ired of the republicans coming

up against us. to know nt everybody out there, we're going to survive this and we're americans and we're strong and we're going to stay true. what has been the republican reaction to the cost so far? guest: from the get-go, there a question about whether they should be trying to limit it from the outset, limit the time the investigation on, whether they should try to limit the cost and whether they should introduce legislation to do that. the get-go, idea we should try to curb this. i think some of the pushback if you try tobeen say from the outset, we're going to spend this much money or this time, you can have both charge to drag up the clock who don't want to cooperate, wait until you pass that mark and to walk away if ou're not fully funding an investigation. so you know, there is an idea if plenty of investigations

that showed up no evidence of rong-doing thas taken time and money to clear people of charges, not to say with everyone you will get that, in one, we have charges against four folks, so moving lines, but, you know, there has been criticism this epublicans about is worth or time our money, is this he investigation we should be pursuing. otherare calls to look at issues, pushback of whether or not we should be investigating over hillary back clinton e-mail server and some issues there. so there is, i think, at this point, probably more criticism push to try to go back over over ssues and to go back what was going on in the e-mails ation with her

and whether the investigation was done appropriately, that has when thecall recently, f.b.i. director went up before capitol hill, folks were asking having questions about people involved. host: talk about that, let's go republican first, line, adam is next. caller: how you doing? is great, i want to -- i know the democrats probably think we are not happy about it. think it is great. the fact you are going through clarify whatting is being spent and talking about the subject from like government ethics kind of perspective and matter of fact, i'm a federal employee, i appreciate good governance and good operations, use of taxpayer money. want to really thank you guys for bringing it up and going through the investigative work it has taken to get the info. i don't think people are

completely against an i think people don't want the political kind of tory line going this is about trump and advocating trump message. is that, but it that does happen, especially with the media jumping on the results of the investigation and and such. i think overall, what you did is is ing people realize it being most transparent and rofessional manner from the mueller perspective and all the people he's hired and thank you information. far asdam, any surprises cost listed so far? caller: me, no, i continuing is great. you highlighted travel expenses, i can see these former from d.c., f.b.i. director, people from new york. getting them

special -- a lot of people are very smart and probably reached ut and did a call for volunteers, i don't know how they did staffing. as federal ins and i know the outs, they got people who have a lot of experience in lawyers, ive work, credentials, doesn't mean they practice civil or private law, practice their whole lives. i think it is great. 15on't see anything drastic, person, ut at 150 per they can make way more, probably not making more than that, reasonable and conservative, again, i don't think anything is crazy. host: got you. we thank you. andrea noble, anything you want to take from that? i heard from ng folks talking about the investigation is that there is you hire people who have a lot of government experience, that is where you going to have people coming in and being more frugal about how they spend money.

it is when you bring in people who spent a ide, long time in private firms, obviously like the caller made a d, they'll have lot more money than someone working in government. is kind of where some other observers have picked that is said maybe what has driven up other cost in other special investigations, working in e people government, they are conscious of your working with the taxpayer money. need to be cautious about how you spend it, not to say just you cut corners, are coming from the mind set. host: as far as staff currently there, there are questions by republicans about how many staff previously worked either for the obama and clinton campaign, can ou add context what we're talking about? guest: yes, there are folks once out whome out, we found they were, folks were going thu who is giving donations, who has for what law firm, a

ouple who have given donations to democrats in the past, at for one lawyer had worked a law firm that had represented the clintons in the past, as people asking are if these people have donated to olks in the past, are they biassed, how do we know we'll get a fair shake out of this, ou know -- host: one name that came up was is he?trock, who guest: at this point, he is not on the team anymore. initially, ght on apparently issues came up. so the justice department going or general is through the prior investigations matter, g the clinton kind of going over things happen withing james comey and in the of this, they came across ext messages sent to another person working in the f.b.i., who was part of the mueller team the short period and

messages apparently were expressing some sort of bias in support of clinton. apparently this is brought to you know, nd found, mueller had him taken off the team. -- is now y was working for the human resources mean, he's not part of the counter intelligence unit a part of, rly been so the f.b.i. director was a demotion, is not we're putting you here for now, obviously as soon as this came was moved off of the team. the other f.b.i. agent who had name has been rought us, lisa paircrafts ooh oh -- paige, she was off the team light.this came to host: members of congress concluding representative jordan about mr. strock, and larger issues concerning the play what on, we'll

he had to say and get your take on it. strock, selected to be on mueller's team, after mueller's team and removed for some pro-clinton text messages. there are all kinds of people on the team who are pro-clinton. said contributions obama. clinton or secretary clinton was interviewed, changed term to carelessness, ran the russian investigation, flynn, put on ke mueller's team and kicked off for a text message that is anti-trump. off kicked everybody mueller's team who is anti-trump, i don't think there ould be anybody left there has to be something more here, can't show e text messages that

anti-trump bias, there has to be something more. i'm trying to figure out what it is, my hunch is it has something dosier.th the did peter strock produce and to the fiza cation americans y on associated with the trump campaign? >> i'm not prepared to discuss anything about the pfizer process. we're not talking about what happened in court, we're talking about the application, did peter strock, was he involved in takeing that to court? anything not discuss to do with the fiza court application. do you drea noble, what take from that exchange? focus that has been a big of what republicans have been more, l, wanting to know back and forth about who has been part of the investigation, been doing, what

role they played in the other investigations. been a huge point of contention, a lot of people want fiza ow exactly how the surveillance warrants came to e, who propose them, who is behind them, what evidence was used to get them in place so associated with trump could be surveilled. point for talking republican necessary terms of when they are being critical of the investigation. for mauueller, you don't want apart your ng investigation pause of who you have on it or because of may or may not said, another lawmaker in the hearing said to mueller's came up, he this found out about it, he got him off the team. was in those t was ges, to what end there bias or appearance of bias, if it is just appearance, that is is damaging your

integrity to work on this fairly.gation they don't want to have appearance of bias, they want shop, it is not a distraction. host: michigan is next, this is hello. caller: yeah, hi. thank you, andrea noble for coming on. back to the -- when mueller is head of f.b.i. obama is elected and then we clinton foundation. -- out of that, we resident obama, each though hillary was selected by him, approved by wide margin, we do the position of inspector general at the state department filled for the first history of the .nspector general's position what c-span viewers know, this s a staff of 300 there is no

inspector general at the state department under president obama. my gleaning of this, president asked that t been direct question, how in the istory, we know we have the potential for conflict of interest and we may have a interest, we never had an inspector general at the state department for five years -- okay, thanks. yeah, there was a large gap in time for the state department inspector general, there has been a number of inspector general positions that open and unfilled. obviously that is their entire job, to be the watch dog of that agency they oversee. so there is a lot of information, a lot of insight from having your inspector general. criticism in the past of not having people installed as former inspector general, you that is acting and there has been criticism the either o are acting,

they -- their career, they want o go back into the career portion and not have any issues with employment after they step down, after someone is ark pointed formally or they want to position and don't want do anything that would create issue necessary terms of getting formally appointed to it. i know there has been a lot of, slots that president trump has brought eople up for, nominated folks, i can't recall how many open positions we have, kind of, one person topick nominate for a different rganization, so then you are getting a new i.d. for one, but another.r host: one more call from maryland, democrat's line, ahead.as, go caller: yes, good morning, thank you for taking my call. i wanted to comment on this that mueller is conducting. one investigation under

ian, d trump into this russ ian what they did as far as our election. but i mean, when hillary clinton wasn't the president, she was six tigated five to different times, whether whitewater, her e-mail, all the money spent by investigate t to her and then she was not found guilty for anything. one hey are balking on investigation under donald trump and the possible conclusion or that he had with the russians. host: okay. nicholas. guest: yes, you have investigations the caller mentioned and you don't tag forily have a price those, it is the thing that sets the special counsel nvestigation apart as you are getting dollar figure because separate from everything else, the money out spent on that in a different way than you other investigations.

so, again, that sets it apart criticism, asp to well. host: special investigator ueller tipped his hand in the slightest when this will conclude? guest: i don't think we know at going, nt where we are some folks said we are hopeful it would wrap up by the end of don't think we're anywhere close to that. ost: andrea noble covers justice department for washington times, washingtontimes.com, to find out about the justice department release >> >> in the house today, legislation requiring the treasury secretary to report to congress on assets help -- held by