During his four years out of office, Donald Trump was indicted four times for different crimes, including two cases that were brought by the federal government in different jurisdictions. Those two federal cases, in Washington over January 6 and in Florida over his holding of documents, were both dismissed after he returned to office.
Now, the president wants compensation for his troubles.
According to the New York Times, the president has demanded that the Justice Department pay him $230 million in compensation for the past criminal cases. And because the Justice Department is now staffed by several people who used to be Trump’s personal lawyers, the president will likely be, essentially, negotiating with himself.
BREAKING
President Trump is demanding that the DOJ pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him.
Any settlement will ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.
Full Story:… pic.twitter.com/zaoUBPzXwY
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 21, 2025
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“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 Times reported about the call for compensation. “It is also the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department.”
Trump has already fired numerous people who were involved in his prosecutions, and lawyers working for his Justice Department have already indicted longtime Trump enemies Leticia James, John Bolton and James Comey. But the demand for nine figures of money is another level entirely.
In 2023 and 2024, Trump filed claims alleging that his rights had been violated, first in “the F.B.I. and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to the 2016 Trump campaign,” and later for the search of his Mar-a-Lago residence.
In an understatement, the Times reported that “lawyers said the nature of the claims posed undeniable ethics challenges.”
“What a travesty,” Bennett L. Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University, told the newspaper. “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”
““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,” he added.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
