Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-NY), led Committee Democrats in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, demanding that the officials take action in what Democrats claim was President Trump’s effort to pay himself for legal damages.
“President Trump has described a blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people. As the senior Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who would be responsible for approving that shakedown, you each face a choice: uphold your constitutional oath and refuse this flagrantly illegal demand, or become complicit in perhaps the most brazen violation of the Constitution’s anti-corruption provisions in American history,” the Democrats wrote.
“Any DOJ official who signs off on a payment to President Trump in violation of this constitutional command will be personally complicit in that violation and subject to legal consequences,” the letter adds, going on to assert that the officials have an “independent obligation to uphold the Constitution.”
“In the face of this outlandish assault from the President of the United States, you have a duty to immediately and publicly announce that the Department will not approve any payments to President Trump based on these administrative claims,” the Democrats argued.
The letter centers on President Trump reportedly seeking payments for damages surrounding DOJ investigations into the Trump-Russia collusion linked to former special counsel Jack Smith.
Speaking to reporters, President Trump said any decision to compensate him for damages “would have to go across my desk, and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”
“In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?” Trump said, adding, “But I was damaged very greatly, and any money that I would get I would give to charity.”
