President Trump is attempting to make the Department of Justice pay him $230 million for opening investigations into him while Joe Biden was president, according to The New York Times.
Such a payment would have to be approved by senior department officials, who also happen to be former Trump lawyers and advisers that the president himself installed.
The report from the Times, which cites “people familiar with the matter,” says Trump filed two claims, one in 2023 and another in 2024, seeking damages for supposed violations of his rights related to the Russiagate investigation and the Mar-a-Lago classified documents raid.
The current status of these claims is unknown. In a press conference Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office, Trump, 79, appeared not to know that he was asking the DOJ for restitution. He joked the DOJ “probably owe me a lot of money,” before bragging about how he doesn’t take a salary as president.
He then said that if he does get any money, he’ll use it for a good cause, “like charity” or for his White House “beautification” efforts.
Trump’s apparent ignorance of the suits contradicts his statements from Oct. 15, when he appeared to make a passing reference to the claims while standing alongside Kash Patel in the Oval Office.
“I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said, I’m sort of suing myself. I don’t know, how do you settle the lawsuit, I’ll say give me X dollars, and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit,” he said.
The jaw-dropping claims raise ethical concerns. The person who would have to sign off on DOJ payments is either the deputy attorney general or associate attorney general. The current justice department deputy attorney general is Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s defense lawyer in his 2024 New York City criminal trial—the same case in which Trump was found guilty of fraud. The case was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who Trump has now had indicted on a dubious mortgage fraud charge.
Speaking to the Times, Pace University ethics professor Bennett L. Gershman called the claims a “travesty.”
“The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it,” he said. “And then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him deciding whether he wins or loses. It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”
On X, Media Matters for America Senior Fellow Matthew Gertz wrote, “The president of the United States is attempting a smash-and-grab on the U.S. Treasury, and the people with the ability to say no are his former personal lawyers, this is insane.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice did not comment on the status of the claims, but spokesperson Chad Gilmartin added, “In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”
