Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia are launching an investigation into President Donald Trump’s reported demand that his own Justice Department hand over $230 million as compensation for previous federal investigations into him, in line with a letter obtained by NCS.
Trump’s ask, made by administrative claims filed in 2023 and 2024, resurfaced in latest days after The New York Times reported on the matter and Trump confirmed publicly he “could be” looking for such a payment.
The prime Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees are asking Trump handy over a slew of paperwork, together with the executive claims filed by his authorized representatives, his communications with his attorneys and authorities officers on the matter and all DOJ memoranda outlining the authorized deserves of the claims. Without a subpoena to compel the discharge of the data, nonetheless, it stays unlikely the Democrats’ request will achieve a lot traction.
Trump, the Democrats argue, might have introduced his claims to courtroom a lot earlier. They say that the president is barely pursuing this now as a result of he has put in his own private legal professionals inside the Department of Justice. It was not instantly clear what steps Trump or his authorized staff had taken in latest days or even weeks to press the claims.
“If either of your claims had any merit, you could have taken them to court by now and litigated them publicly,” Raskin and Garcia wrote.
“You did not do that. Instead, you waited until you became President and installed your handpicked loyalists at DOJ, knowing that you could instruct them to co-sign your demand notes in secret behind closed doors, and then you could present the notes to the U.S. Treasury for cold hard cash courtesy of the American taxpayer. That isn’t justice, it is theft,” they continued.
Asked in regards to the Times report, House Speaker Mike Johnson advised NCS on Thursday that he hasn’t “had time to get the details” and that “it’s still on my list of things to-do.”
However, at the least one Republican – Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina – has conceded the president is in a “difficult position” and that the request is “terrible optics.”
“Particularly right now, we’re talking about a quarter of a billion dollars transferring, maybe to the president when we’re in a shutdown posture, so it’s at very best bad timing, but I think it’s horrible optics,” Tillis stated Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Trump stated he “could be” looking for the cash, although he professed to have little information of the specifics and stated he would give the cash to charity.
“It could be,” Trump stated from the Oval Office when requested in regards to the Times report.
“I don’t know about the numbers. I don’t even talk to them about it. All I know is that they would owe me a lot of money. But I’m not looking for money. I’d give it to charity or something,” he stated.
The president on the time acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the scenario wherein he could be doubtlessly “paying himself” damages to resolve claims that the Justice Department below his predecessor had wronged him.
“With the country, it’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes the decision,” Trump stated Tuesday.
“It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself. In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?” he stated.
A settlement to Trump would come from taxpayer funds.