WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump acknowledged to reporters Tuesday that he’s pursuing up to $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for its investigations and prosecutions of him.
“As far as all of the litigation, everything that’s going to go, yeah, they probably owe me a lot of money,” Trump said when asked about a New York Times report that he’s filed administrative claims seeking $230 million in damages from the federal government.
“I don’t know what the numbers are,” he added. “I don’t even talk to them [the lawyers] about it.”
He also said if he’s granted the payout, he would “do something nice” with the money.
“And you know that decision would have to go across my desk, and 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? But I was damaged very greatly, and any money that I would get I would give to charity,” he said.
“We’ll see what happens,” he continued. “I guess they owe me a lot of money. I’m not looking for money. I’m looking for really, it’s got to be handled in the proper way. We don’t want it to happen again,” he said, before adding, “You have to ask the lawyers about that.”
According to The New York Times, the two people who could approve the payout are the deputy attorney general and the associate attorney general. Both men served as Trump’s personal criminal defense team or represented his co-defendant.
Trump filed administrative claims in 2023 and 2024, seeking damages from the Russia investigation and from an investigation into classified documents that he took with him from the White House after his first term in office ended.
A settlement to Trump would come from taxpayer funds.
“President Trump continues to fight back against all Democrat-led Witch Hunts, including the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax and the un-Constitutional and un-American weaponization of our justice system by Crooked Joe Biden and his handlers,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said.
