Trump says he'd have final say on money he seeks from government

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government owes him "a lot of money" for prior Justice Department investigations into his actions and insisted he would have the ultimate say on any payout because any decision will "have to go across my desk." Trump's comments to reporters at the White House came in response to questions about a New York Times story that said he had filed administrative claims before being reelected seeking roughly $230 million in damages related to the FBI's 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents and for a separate investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump said Tuesday he did not know the dollar figures involved and suggested he had not spoken to officials about it. But, he added, "All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money." Though the Justice Department has a protocol for reviewing such claims, Trump asserted, "It's interesting, 'cause I'm the one that makes the decision, right?" "That decision would have to go across my desk," he added. He said he could donate any taxpayer money or use it to help pay for a ballroom he's building at the White House. The status of the claims and any negotiations over them within the Justice Department was not immediately clear. One of Trump's lead defense lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, Todd Blanche, is now the deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. The current associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward, represented Trump's valet and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in the same case. "In any circumstance, all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials," a Justice Department spokesperson said. A White House spokesperson referred comment to the Justice Department. Trump signaled his interest in compensation during a White House appearance last week with Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was part of Trump's legal team during one of the impeachment cases against him. "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 do you settle the lawsuit?'" he said. "I'll say, 'Give me X dollars,' and I don't know what to do with the lawsuit. It's a great lawsuit and now I won, it looks bad. I'm suing myself, so I don't know." The Times said the two claims were filed with the Justice Department as part of a process that seeks to resolve federal complaints through settlements and avert litigation. One of the administrative claims, filed in August 2024 and reviewed by The Associated Press, seeks compensatory and punitive damages over the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and the resulting case alleging he hoarded classified documents and thwarted government efforts to retrieve them. His lawyer who filed the claim alleged the case was a "malicious prosecution" carried out by the Biden administration to hurt Trump's bid to reclaim the White House, forcing Trump to spend tens of millions of dollars in his defense. That investigation produced criminal charges that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith abandoned last November because of department policy against the indictment of a sitting president. The Times said the other claim seeks damages related to the long-concluded Trump-Russia investigation, which continues to infuriate the president.