President Donald Trump is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from the Justice Department for federal investigations into him, according to reporting from The New York Times.
Trump is reportedly seeking compensation for federal investigations over Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election and the FBI's search of his Florida home in 2022 for classified documents.
Multiple legal ethics experts told Scripps News there are major concerns that the DOJ officials who could oversee potential damage payments may be the same attorneys who have represented him in the past.
"I think we have huge ethical concerns here with this claim, because the claim is being made by President Trump to his own Department of Justice, where his private lawyers still work," said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School.
Todd Blanche is one of the lawyers who could pose a potential conflict. He led Trump's legal team in the classified documents case and now serves as the Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ.
According to DOJ guidelines, a proposed settlement that exceeds $4 million "must be approved by the Deputy Attorney General, or Associate Attorney General."
That means Blanche or the Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward could decide on a potential settlement. Woodward represented Trump's co-defendant in the classified documents case.
Lindsey Halligan also served on the defense team and is now serving as the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Emil Bove – who represented Trump in his hush money trial, documents case and the Georgia case relating to the efforts to overturn the 2020 election — was previously at the DOJ and now serves as a federal appeals court judge. None of the key lawyers who represented him in the Russia investigation are currently working at DOJ.
In a statement to Scripps News, a DOJ spokesperson said, "In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials."
But Trump appeared to acknowledge the possibility of a conflict on Tuesday.
"That decision would have to go across my desk, and it's awfully strange to make a decision where I'm paying myself," he said.
Bennett Gershman is a law professor and expert in legal ethics at Pace University and questioned the Department of Justice's ability to be impartial in this case.
"I can't think of a more gigantic conflict of interest than what this particular case shows," Gershman said. "They were his lawyers. Now they're on the other side, and now they're going to decide whether he wins or loses, and they were previously representing him. So, what are they going to say?"
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Government agencies have internal officials who handle ethics questions, but Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the top ethics officer at the DOJ in July.
"There absolutely needs to be a third party, a neutral party that looks at this matter to determine if Donald Trump has any claim against the United States government." said Richard Painter, a law professor and former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush.
The legal experts also told Scripps News Trump's claims have little merit because the investigations never saw the inside of a courtroom. The Russia investigation did not lead to an indictment. Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in his report he would not indict a sitting president. The documents case was thrown out once Trump was re-elected.
Professor Levenson also added that there were legal measures taken like getting court ordered warrants to search Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.
Painter said paying Trump would likely be a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which says in part that the president cannot get compensation, profits or benefits from the government.
A spokesman for President Trump's legal team said, "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."
If the DOJ were to make a settlement payment, Trump said he'd give the money to charity.
