Apparently, fat cat Donald Trump thinks enriching himself and his family by $3.4 billion (so far) via his presidency is not enough. He’s now demanding $230 million from his lackey Department of Justice and calling it compensation for having violated his rights in the Russia investigation and stolen documents indictment.
Via The New York Times:
Mr. Trump submitted complaints through an administrative claim process that often is the precursor to lawsuits. The first claim, lodged in late 2023, 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. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the claim has not been made public.
The second complaint, filed in the summer of 2024, 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. It also accuses the Justice Department of malicious prosecution in charging him with mishandling sensitive records after he left office.
That’s disgusting enough. Especially since Trump and his lapdogs in Congress have literally taken the food out of struggling Americans’ mouths in order to provide more generous tax breaks for Trump and his billionaire buddies.
It’s the corruption, too. The Times quotes an ethics professor, Bennett L. Gershman, saying, “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”
Apparently, the DOJ thinks we’re all too stupid to notice. There’s also this nauseating little tidbit about whether DOJ’s Todd Blanche or Stanley Woodward Jr. would recuse themselves from the matter. Blanche, now the deputy attorney general, is Trump’s former defense attorney and Woodward, now head of the DOJ’s civil division, represented Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta. A Justice Department spokesman told the Times, “In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”
Sure they will. “In July, [Attorney General Pam] Bondi fired the agency’s top ethics adviser,” The Times noted.
Then there’s this: Trump claims he’ll donate any of the money he finagles to charity (sure he will) “or use it to help pay the costs of ongoing construction at the White House.” Calling Trump’s desecration of the White House “ongoing construction” is almost as sickening as the corrupt cash grab.
The truth is that Trump has partly demolished a portion of the White House in order to build his $250 million Marie Antoinette ballroom. That’s the same gold-plaited eyesore that Trump claimed would be built with private money, only, and which he promised would not interfere with the rest of the White House.
Democrats, it’s time to get busy and to get very loud while you’re at it. Greg Sargent is 100% on the money, so to speak:
