Birther talking point: "Obama has spent millions on lawyers"

[nxylas]

One frequent comment I see from birthers is that "Obama has spent millions (sometimes the more specific "up to $1.4 million") to keep his birth certificate and college records from being released". Does anyone know where this figure comes from? It seems to me that it originates from a World Nut Daily article that simply posts the public record of all the legal expenses incurred by the Obama campaign and implies that this figure was exclusively for lawyer's fees with that specific purpose. Does anyone have any more information on this? I like to have all my facts straight before posting a rebuttal.

[SheilaT]

1. I expect they are simply making it up.

I did check Snopes to see if they had anything on that purported amount of money paid to lawyers, but they don't.

Tell them to produce proof that such money has been spent.

[nxylas]

2. On further investigation...

...I suspect they actually get it from the total amount of money spent defending birther lawsuits (even though Obama isn't the plaintiff in all those lawsuits, and it was them who forced him and others to spend the money in the first place). I thought righties were supposed to be against "lawsuit abuse" and "slick" trial lawyers.