The DNC raised $32.4 million in July, topping its combined total from the previous three months. | AP Photo DNC fundraising surged in July despite turmoil Legal fees spiked amid Wikileaks crisis.

The Democratic National Committee overcame the hacking scandal that forced out its chairwoman to post a blockbuster fundraising month in July, outraising the GOP and its own mark from four years ago.

The DNC raised $32.4 million in July, topping its combined total from the previous three months, according to its filing Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. The Republican National Committee raised $27.2 million in July, and four years ago the DNC raised just under $10 million.


Still, the FEC report showed signs of an organization in crisis: The DNC's legal fees to outside counsel Perkins Coie jumped to almost $443,000 in July, from $40,000 in the previous month. And the party paid almost $100,000 to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike and $60,000 to communications firm SKDKnickerbocker, which helped manage the fallout from WikiLeaks' release of hacked internal emails. (A DNC official said the payments to SKDK were for past services, unrelated to hacked emails.)

The DNC also increased its distributions to state parties to more than $16 million in July, following criticism that it was hoarding money purportedly collected for the states through a joint fundraising vehicle with the Clinton campaign. The DNC also received more than $10 million from the state parties, but in most cases the report doesn't specify whether those are mere transfers or payments for specific services.

About $14.9 million of the money raised isn't available for the campaign because it was designated for the Democratic National Convention or building accounts, which donors can fund separately since a 2014 rule change.

Among the donors who gave the maximum $100,200 were First Allied scion Avram Glazer, Univision Chairman Haim Saban, Newsweb Chairman Fred Eychaner, investors Donald Sussman and David Shaw, environmental activist Tom Steyer, members of the Pritzker family and Wal-Mart heir Samuel R. Walton.