NEED TO KNOW
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President Donald Trump may be planning to sue his own Department of Justice, according to new reporting from The New York Times
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The president has filed two administrative complaints, precursors to lawsuits, regarding past investigations into his 2016 presidential campaign and a 2022 F.B.I. raid of his Mar-a-Lago property
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When asked about his claims against the DOJ, Trump said, “All I know is they would owe me a lot of money”
President Donald Trump may be planning to sue his own Department of Justice for $230 million, compensation for past federal investigations against him, according to a new report from the New York Times.
Trump has submitted complaints through an administrative claim process, a precursor to an actual lawsuit, about two specific investigations for which he feels he is owed compensation. The first, submitted in late 2023, is reportedly related to the F.B.I. and special counsel investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign and possible Russian election tampering.
The second complaint, filed in 2024, is related to the F.B.I.’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida for classified documents. In both cases, Trump claims, his rights and privacy were violated by the government agencies — of which he is now in charge.
An administrative claim, in this case, is a preliminary step to see if a settlement can be reached without a lawsuit in federal court. If Trump’s claims are rejected, he could then decide to sue the DOJ,
As the NYT reported, “according to the Justice Department manual, settlements of claims against the department for more than $4 million must be approved by the deputy attorney general or associate attorney general.”
This adds yet another conflict of interest to the already unprecedented potential lawsuit. The current deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has served as Trump’s defense attorney in multiple cases, including the New York criminal trial in which he was found guilty of falsifying business records.
Moreover, if the administrative complaint was settled prior to becoming a lawsuit, it may not become public knowledge, per DOJ policy.
“If or when the Trump administration pays the president what could be hundreds of millions of dollars, there may be no immediate official declaration that it did so, according to current and former department officials,” the New York Times reported.
Trump was asked about the possibility of a lawsuit and his reported multi-million dollar demand by reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. He claimed that he hadn’t yet spoken to the DOJ about his complaints.
“All I know is they would owe me a lot of money. They rigged the election,” he said, adding, “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself. But I was damaged very greatly, and any money I would get, I would give to charity.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was also asked about the report, and said he hadn’t yet spoken to the president about it.
“I know he believes he’s owed that reimbursement,” Johnson said. “What I heard is that, if he receives it, he’s gonna consider giving it to charity. They attack him for everything he does.”
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Trump has famously donated his $400,000 annual presidential salary to various causes during both of his terms in office, putting the first paycheck of his second term towards his ongoing White House renovations.
However, that’s not to say he isn’t making money in the White House. Forbes reported in September that the president’s net worth grew by $3 billion over the last year, thanks mainly to cryptocurrency, a meme coin and his international licensing business.
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