Obama Campaign Reportedly Amasses Big Legal Fees

President Obama's campaign committee has been racking up big bills for legal fees since his historic election, according to a new report.

The committee paid nearly three times more in legal fees in the two years since his election than in the two years prior, according to a CQ MoneyLine study of Federal Election Commission records.

The report shows that Obama for America spent $2.8 million on lawyers’ costs for corrected FEC filings and other activities in the time since he was elected in 2008, Roll Call reported.

Obama supporters note that the expenses for John McCain were also higher after his campaign than before. And the reason for the inflated costs had as much to do with Obama’s running the most expensive campaign in history as with the many, many legal challenges from Republican groups – including a defense against charges the president wasn’t U.S.-born.

"The campaign has incurred ordinary legal expenses related to the wind-down of its operations and other legal services which all campaigns incur and which are proportional to the unprecedented size of this campaign," DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan told the newspaper.

The Obama campaign's legal fees since the 2008 election cost more than any other House or presidential campaign committee, including members of Congress who came under investigation, the newspaper reported.

The legal costs surpassed Rep. Charlie Rangel's campaign, which spent $2.4 million during an ethics investigation that resulted in his censure last year, the newspaper reported.