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federal bureau of investigation
'Straight Grift': Trump Reportedly Wants $230 Million From Taxpayers for DOJ Probing Him
"The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don't need a law professor to explain it," said Pace University's Bennett Gershman. "It's bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe."
Oct 21, 2025
President Donald Trump is facing fresh allegations of attempting to corruptly profit from his office after The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Republican is demanding that the US Department of Justice pay him about $230 million in taxpayer dollars for previous federal investigations into him, and his allies at the DOJ are expected to make the final decision.
Trump filed the administrative claims—which are submitted to the department for potential settlements to prevent lawsuits in federal court—before he returned to the White House earlier this year, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper. However, the president nodded to the legal battle in public comments at the White House last week.
"They raided my house in Florida. It was an illegal raid," the president said beside Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, and her deputy, Todd Blanche—Trump's former lead criminal defense lawyer and one of two people who can green-light such settlements.
"I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president, I said, I'm sort of suing myself. I don't know," Trump continued. "How do you settle the lawsuit? I'll say, Give me X dollars, right? And I don't know what to do with the lawsuit. It's a great lawsuit. And now I won—it sort of looks bad. I'm suing myself, right?"
"Trump is now openly shaking down HIS OWN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT for hundreds of millions of dollars to line his pockets… while claiming there's not enough money for Americans' healthcare."
As the Times detailed Tuesday:
The first claim, lodged in late 2023, seeks damages for a number of purported violations of his rights, including the FBI 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 FBI 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.
In addition to the deputy attorney general, the head of the DOJ's Civil Division can sign off on such settlements. That post is currently held by Stanley Woodward Jr. As the newspaper noted, Woodward previously represented not only Walt Nauta, the president's co-defendant in the classified documents case, but also "a number of other Trump aides, including Mr. Patel, in investigations related to Mr. Trump or the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021."
A White House representative referred questions to the DOJ, where spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said, "In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials."
Meanwhile, Pace University professor Bennett Gershman told the Times: "What a travesty... 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," he added. "It's bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe."
Congressional Democrats, lawyers, journalists, and other critics also weighed in on Trump's reported conduct on social media, condemning it "corrupt and impeachable," "straight grift," and "straight up extorting the Justice Department and looting taxpayers."
"It's hard to think of an action more purely corrupt than a president ordering the executive branch to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars," said David French, a Times columnist and visiting professor of public policy at Lipscomb University. "I cannot wait to read the MAGA defenses of this (and there will be many). They'll display Soviet levels of sycophancy."
People's Policy Project president Matt Bruenig said that "suing the government in your personal capacity and then having the government, which you run, settle the lawsuit with you for money is the true infinite money trick."
Matthew Miller, the US State Department spokesperson during the Biden administration, suggested that "this would be the most corrupt act in presidential history. No complicated schemes, no outside actors, just a straight-up looting of the taxpayers to put $230 million in Trump's pocket."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement:
It's difficult for a president who spent the past 10 months behaving like a wannabe dictator and demonstrating his contempt for the law to surprise us, but Donald Trump has managed to do it today. Instead of being content with getting away with his lawless behavior, Trump is now brazenly demanding compensation from taxpayers for having the audacity to treat him like a public servant who can be held accountable for wrongdoing.
There is no other way to put it: The authoritarian demagogue we call our president is drunk on power, and there is no amount of money that can satiate this grifter's appetite for hoarding wealth instead of using his presidency to serve the good of the country. This disgusting behavior must be called out and stopped.
The reporting came on day 21 of a federal government shutdown over congressional Republicans' refusal to reverse healthcare cuts expected to negatively impact tens of millions of Americans.
"Trump is now openly shaking down HIS OWN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT for hundreds of millions of dollars to line his pockets… while claiming there's not enough money for Americans' healthcare," declared US Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). "He has no shame. He is openly and boldly corrupt."
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said: "What does Donald Trump need more of OUR money for? I guess it's good to be president when you can bully, intimidate, and shake down every institution in this country, including now the Department of Justice. This is what a mob boss looks like."
Democrats on the US House Judiciary Committee were similarly critical, calling it "the ultimate Shutdown Shakedown."
"Donald Trump, who's put more than $3 billion in his pocket since returning to the White House, now wants to have 'his' lawyers at the DOJ to pay him $230 million in the middle of the GOP government shutdown," the panel members said. "While tens of millions of Americans desperately try to pay for groceries, healthcare, and childcare, Trump is robbing America blind. This is exactly why the Constitution forbids the president from taking any money from the government outside of his official salary. This is Donald Trump First, America Last—the Gangster State at work, billionaires shaking down the people."
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the panel's ranking member—and manager of Trump's historic second impeachment—is launching an investigation into the potential settlement, citing the US Constitution's domestic emoluments clause.
Like the committee's Democrats, critics pointed to the various ways Trump and his family have cashed in on the presidency, from his Qatari jet to their cryptocurrency moves.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich concluded Tuesday that "America's Grifter-in-Chief knows no bounds."
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As Bondi Testifies to Senate, DOJ Alumni Blast 'Appalling' Leadership
"It is incumbent on all of us to fight for the Justice Department before it's too late."
Oct 07, 2025
In the lead-up to US Attorney General Pam Bondi's Tuesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, hundreds of former employees of the Department of Justice and outside watchdog groups sounded the alarm about the current state of the DOJ.
"From prosecutors, special agents, and intelligence analysts to immigration judges, grant managers, civil rights attorneys, and more, we all carried out our duties faithfully, regardless of who occupied the White House. Until we no longer could," the 282 ex-DOJ employees wrote in a Monday letter released by the alumni network Justice Connection.
"Each of us left the department, either voluntarily or involuntarily, because of actions taken by this administration," they continued. "It is incumbent on all of us to fight for the Justice Department before it's too late."
The letter, first reported by MSNBC, calls out the DOJ for carrying out President Donald Trump's "retribution campaign," spreading lies about the "deep state," violating court orders, and inappropriately dismissing employees, including at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and attorneys in the Civil Rights Division.
"The administration is taking a sledgehammer to other long-standing work the department has done to protect communities and the rule of law, too," the letter notes, citing attacks on the Tax Division, the Public Integrity Section, FBI public corruption squads, and hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for at-risk communities.
"As for its treatment of its employees, the current leadership's behavior has been appalling," the letter adds. "Demonizing, firing, demoting, involuntarily transferring, and directing employees to violate their ethical duties has already caused an exodus of over 5,000 of us."
The letter urges DOJ leadership to "adhere to the legal guardrails and institutional norms," Congress to "exercise its oversight responsibilities far more vigorously," and fellow alumni and all Americans to speak out. It concludes that "our democracy is only as strong as the rule of law, and the rule of law can't survive without the principal institution that enforces it."
In a statement, Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, echoed that warning: "For decades, the guiding tenet for those working at the department was to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Many believe that's no longer possible."
"They're being asked to put loyalty to the president over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations," she added. "We're seeing the erosion of the Justice Department's fabric and integrity at an alarming pace. Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law."
Bondi and other DOJ leaders—particularly FBI Director Kash Patel—have faced mounting criticism throughout the second Trump administration, including for the attorney general's Day One memo arguing that department employees are expected to "zealously defend" the president's interests and policies.
"The abuse of the Justice Department under Bondi's watch has been rampant, including the recent high-profile and scandalous move to secure an indictment against former FBI Director Jim Comey after the president publicly demanded they do so, and despite the previous prosecutor’s claims of insufficient evidence," Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said in a Tuesday statement.
"The DOJ has been in constant turmoil since Bondi took the helm, firing prosecutors who worked Capitol riot cases or investigated Trump and pushing out senior officials at the FBI," she continued. "At the same time, under her leadership, the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ, the section dedicated to fighting corruption from federal officials, has been reduced from a total of 36 employees to two."
"The Department of Justice is intended to be independent from the White House, not its revenge arm," Gilbert stressed. "Her tenure shows they have become exactly that."
Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk also issued a statement ahead of the Senate hearing. He said that "in her eight months as Attorney General, Pam Bondi has confirmed all warnings about her treating the office as an enforcer for Donald Trump's personal whims while also acting as a walking conflict of interest for her former lobbying firm and clients."
"It says it all that the former Qatar lobbyist Bondi penned a DOJ memo—i.e. corruption 'get out of jail free card'—allowing Donald Trump to use a gifted luxury super jet from the nation he's doing billions of dollars in crypto business with during and after his presidency," he continued.
"During her first Senate hearing," he wondered, "will Bondi answer for all these sweetheart deals she's supporting for the president and former lobbying clients while millions of working Americans are asked to choose between a continued government shutdown or losing their healthcare?"
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Leaked Chats Show Alleged Kirk Killer 'Doesn't Fit Into Any Tidy Narrative'
"He wasn't a Groyper. He also wasn't Antifa," said journalist Ken Klippenstein, who obtained Tyler Robinson's Discord messages and spoke with a childhood friend of the 22-year-old suspect.
Sep 16, 2025
Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Tuesday challenged conflicting narratives circulating about Tyler Robinson by obtaining online chats and speaking with a childhood friend of the 22-year-old man accused of assassinating far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
Republican US President Donald Trump "and company portray the alleged Utah shooter as left-wing and liberals portray him as right-wing," Klippenstein wrote. "The federal conclusion will inevitably be that he was a so-called nihilist violent extremist (NVE); meanwhile, the crackdown has already begun, as I reported yesterday. The country is practically ready to go to war."
While Kirk's fatal shooting last week during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University has been widely condemned as political violence, the unnamed childhood friend told Klippenstein: “I think the main thing that’s caused so much confusion is that he was always generally apolitical for the most part... That's the big thing, he just never really talked politics, which is why it's so frustrating.”
“Everyone who knew him liked him and he was always nice, a little quiet and kept to himself mostly but wasn't a recluse,” the friend said, describing Robinson as a fan of the outdoors, video games—including Helldivers 2, the apparent source of some inscriptions on bullet casings found by authorities—and guns.
“Obviously he's okay with gay and trans people having a right to exist, but also believes in the Second Amendment,” according to the friend, who said that Robinson is bisexual and his family didn't know he was in a relationship with his transgender roommate.
Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Dan Bongino have publicly identified his roommate and romantic partner as Lance Twiggs—and said that Twiggs is cooperating with authorities and did not know of Robinson's alleged plan to kill Kirk.
Robinson—who ultimately ended authorities' manhunt for the shooter by turning himself in—appeared virtually for his first court hearing on Tuesday. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
As Newsweek reported Tuesday, prosecutors have allegedly obtained text messages in which Robinson admits to Twiggs that he killed Kirk and discusses having to leave behind a rifle, later retrieved by authorities. Robinson reportedly told his parents that he targeted the Turning Point USA leader because "there is too much evil and the guy spreads too much hate."
In the wake of Kirk's death, many of his critics have also acknowledged his incendiary commentary on a range of topics. Right-wing figures and officials, including key members of President Donald Trump's administration, have responded by launching what Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called “the biggest assault on the First Amendment in our country’s modern history.”
As Klippenstein wrote:
The federal government, the Washington crowd, and corporate media (based in Washington and New York) see the country in wholly partisan terms, Republican versus Democrat, Red versus Blue, old media versus social media, liberal versus conservative, right versus left, straight versus gay, and on and on. Charlie Kirk’s assassination (in Utah!) should remind us of the actual diversity of the nation, and of the cost of polarization that demonizes the other side.
No one in Robinson’s group is cheering or justifying the murder in any of the messages I reviewed. They’re just struggling to understand what their friend did. But Washington has become obsessed with the Discord chat, convinced it’s some kind of headquarters for the murder and cauldron of radicalization and conspiracy. Today FBI Director [Kash] Patel vowed to investigate “anyone and everyone in that Discord chat.”
What I see is a bunch of young people shocked, horrified, and searching for answers, like the rest of the country.
At least one person on Capitol Hill quickly took note of the reporting. Sharing it on the social media platform X, Congressman Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said: "This is very interesting. The more that comes out the more this doesn't fit into any tidy narrative other than a young man who made a bad choice with a gun."
Other journalists praised Klippenstein on X, saying: "Hey look it's real journalism," and "At the moment Ken Klippenstein has done the best reporting I've seen anywhere on Tyler Robinson."
Journalist Roger Sollenberger wrote: "This is the most valuable and insightful reporting yet on Tyler Robinson—citing current actual friends and messages from a Discord group he was in. And it underscores how stupid and irresponsible the rush has been to assign him to a political aisle."
Appearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Patel said the FBI is interviewing more than 20 people who were part of a Discord group with Robinson.
Responding on X, Klippenstein said: "The members of Tyler Robinson's Discord are just as shocked and traumatized by what happened as anyone. That the FBI is treating them like conspirators is so cruel it's stomach-turning."
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