President Donald Trump’s plan to seek $230 million from the Justice Department as a settlement for investigations he faced during the Biden administration and his first term has no parallel in American history, according to an ABC News legal contributor.
Trump is seeking damages related to the investigation he faced into allegations of his 2016 campaign’s ties to the The Russian government and FBI search his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents in August 2022.
Approval of the payment, resulting from two administrative claims filed by Trump’s lawyers while he was out of office in 2023 and 2024, would likely first need approval from top department officials who previously served as Trump’s defense attorneys or represented his allies.
Here’s what Trump has said about the deal.
Who would decide on payment?
Trump, asked on Tuesday by reporters in the Oval Office about the The New York Times story who first reported on the development, said the decision would “cross my desk.”
“It’s interesting, because I’m the one making the decision, right?” Trump said. “And you know that decision would have to go across my desk, and it’s tremendously strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”
“In other words, have you ever had one of those cases where you have to decide how much to pay in damages?” said.
Would the payment represent a conflict of interest?
Trump, in an appearance in the Oval Office last week with Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, appeared to acknowledge the unusual nature of the Justice Department paying a settlement to the current sitting president.
“I have a lawsuit that was doing very well, and when I became president I said, ‘I’m suing myself.’ I don’t know how the lawsuit is resolved. I’ll say give me ‘X’ dollars and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit,” Trump said. “It looks bad, I’m suing myself, right?”
According to the Justice Manual, any agreement would have to be approved by the deputy attorney general or the associate attorney general. Blanche represented Trump in both the classified documents case and the Jan. 6 case brought by then-special counsel Jack Smith, and Deputy Attorney General Stan Woodward represented Walt Nauta, Trump’s co-defendant in the classified documents case.
Trump previously pleaded not guilty in both cases both were fallen following Trump’s re-election, due to a long-standing Justice Department policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during a Diwali celebration in the Oval Office of the White House, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Where would the payment come from?
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said of the Justice Department: “I don’t even talk to them about it; all I know is that they owe me a lot of money, but I don’t, I’m not looking for money. I would give it to a charity or something. But I suffered a lot of damage, and any money I got, I would give to a charity.”
When asked whether Blanche or Woodward would be considered conflicted by not signing such an agreement, a Justice Department spokesperson told ABC News: “Under any circumstances, all Justice Department officials follow the guidance of professional ethics officials.”
James Sample, a law professor at Hofstra University, said the deal would raise serious ethical questions.
“Not only do we have the president overseeing the people who would make the decision about whether or not he receives the compensation he seeks, but those people owe him their own jobs,” Sample told ABC News Live on Thursday.
“We’re running out of synonyms for the word ‘unprecedented,'” Sample said.
