Anger as Trump seeks 'bizarre' $230 million payout from the DOJ: report
David Badash, AlterNet October 21, 2025
President Donald Trump reportedly appears to be demanding the U.S. Department of Justice pay him $230 million in compensation after multiple investigations during his presidential campaign.
"The situation has no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims," The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported.
Noting that President Trump has installed his former personal lawyers at the top of the DOJ, the Times called it "the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts."
Trump, according to the Times, in 2023, submitted a claim that "seeks damages for a number of purported violations of his rights, including the F.B.I. and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to the 2016 Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the matter."
Another complaint, filed the following year, "accuses the F.B.I. of violating Mr. Trump’s privacy by searching Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida, in 2022 for classified documents."
Bennett L. Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University, told the Times it was "a travesty."
“The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it,” Gershmann 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.”
Anger as Trump seeks 'bizarre' $230 million payout from the DOJ: report - Alternet.org
He is on different level from his predecessors in that he's so openly corrupt and takes the level of corruption to many billions of dollars since a few million or hundreds of thousands that might entice others is not going to be sufficient for him or his hangers-on. |
