Trump Should Drop His Damages Claim Against DOJ

National Review Online

Friday, October 24, 2025

 

Donald Trump is in the odd position, by his own admission, of “suing myself.” It’s a case he should drop.

 

In 2023–24, at the height of anti-Trump lawfare, Trump reached for whatever legal levers he could grasp to fight back. This included filing administrative claims against the Justice Department for alleged violations of his rights by the FBI in the Russiagate investigation and the search of Mar-a-Lago. The legal strength of these claims, which were always beside the point, were questionable, even where Trump had some legitimate bases to complain of ill treatment. The government has many defenses to such suits. At the time, however, Trump was a private citizen with federal, state, and local authorities arrayed against him, so a counteroffensive made a certain kind of sense even when the odds were long.

 

The administrative process is a first step required before filing suit if the agency denies the claim. Like a lawsuit, it can be settled for cash, for an apology, for promises to mend the agency’s ways, or some other combination of remedies. Trump asked for $230 million.

 

Now, any settlement would be approved and paid by the same DOJ that answers to Trump himself. Trump acknowledged, when pressed by reporters, that “it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”

 

Trump says that “I’m not looking for money,” but anything else he could ask for — public vindication, the firing of misbehaving agents, changes in how DOJ and the FBI do business — he has either obtained by winning reelection and ending the cases against him, or can obtain by his position overseeing the Justice Department. Using a Trump-ordered settlement to issue a nonmonetary mea culpa would be a pointless act of bureaucratic ventriloquism.

 

So, it comes to money. Which Trump doesn’t need, and which would be obscene to shell out in any nontrivial amount on the taxpayers’ dime. The only proper end to this is for Trump to declare victory and abandon the claims. The genius of our constitutional system is how many abuses it limits by separating powers. But this is the sort of ethical conflict that cannot be eliminated by procedure. Sometimes, our system actually needs leaders to act ethically, and can punish them only through political processes. This is one of those situations. Trump should do the right thing, both ethically and politically, and stop suing himself.