House Democrats are launching a probe into President Trump’s discussions with the Justice Department to score as much as $230 million in a settlement to compensate him for the various federal probes into his conduct.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, called the move “a blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people.”
“Your plan to have your obedient underlings at the Department of Justice (DOJ) instruct the U.S. Treasury to pay you, personally, hundreds of millions of dollars—especially at a time when most Americans are struggling to pay rent, put food on the table, and afford health care—is an outrageous and shocking attempt to shake down the American people,” the two wrote in a letter to Trump.
Trump has argued he deserves to be compensated after facing prosecution on cases targeting his conduct leading up to the Jan. 6 riot and his retention of classified records after he left office, with both culminating in charges brought by former special counsel Jack Smith.
The decision would in part fall to the team of attorneys who represented him in those matters, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Trump on Monday said he wasn’t aware of the dollar figure and that he would donate the money to charity, but he also acknowledged the unusual nature of being involved in a decision that stands to enrich him greatly.
“It’s interesting because I’m the one that makes the decision. And that decision would have to go across my desk,” Trump said Monday.
“And it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I am paying myself. Did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you are paying yourself in damages? But I was damaged greatly, and any money I would get I would give to charity.”
Raskin and Garcia said any such arrangement would violate the Domestic Emoluments Clause, which bars the president from taking payment from elsewhere in the federal government or from any statement government beyond their $400,000 salary.
“Your plan to have your former criminal defense attorneys, including the Deputy Attorney General and the Associate Attorney General, sign off on your demand for an astronomical $230 million payout from the U.S. Treasury clearly violates this ban on additional payments,” the two wrote.
The two noted that defendants have the right to go to court to publicly seek settlements if they feel they were wrongly targeted.
“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,” they wrote.
“That isn’t justice, it is theft.”
The letter asks Trump to turn over all information about the claims he is making to the Justice Department, all communications between his attorneys and the Justice Department, and any DOJ analysis on the issue, including regarding the ethics of the matter.
DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but earlier this week Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin said in a statement that officials “follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who also previously served on the president’s legal team on election cases, fired the department’s top ethics adviser in July.
A spokesperson for President Trump’s legal team defended the ask.
“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,” they said in a statement.
