WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) today filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation into the DOJ’s potential $230 million settlement with President Trump. Trump reportedly filed two Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) claims seeking compensatory and punitive damages from the Department of Justice.  The complaint asks the DOJ OIG to investigate the President’s request and the process the DOJ is using to determine whether to settle with the President or not.

In the one claim that is publicly available, Trump alleges that the FBI and DOJ harmed him by searching his Mar-a-Lago premises pursuant to a valid search warrant and prosecuting him for removing and retaining hundreds of classified documents. As DDF’s complaint explains, however, these claims are frivolous and amount to nothing more than a shakedown of the DOJ.

“The President of the United States is attempting to pay himself $230 million of taxpayer funds to settle meritless claims,” said Virginia Canter, DDF’s chief counsel and director for ethics and anticorruption. “And, in this effort, he and his former personal attorneys who now oversee the federal tort claims process, risk violating multiple federal ethics and legal standards. Whether you are the president, or his former personal attorney now working at the DOJ, exploiting your position of power for financial benefit violates government ethics laws. There must be a thorough and transparent investigation.”

In addition to Trump’s conflicts, the complaint notes that his former attorney, Todd Blanche, is now the Deputy Attorney General holding the second highest position at DOJ and his co-defendent’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, is now Associate Attorney General, holding the third highest position at DOJ.

“We are perilously close to a situation in which the President, acting through a cadre of hand-picked loyalists, is able to abuse the federal tort claims process to extract taxpayer money from the treasury. This flies in the face of our core American values, fiscal responsibility, and the law. It must not stand,” said Canter.

You can read the complaint HERE

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Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.