Trump’s ‘absurd’ DoJ compensation bid would be rejected if he were anyone else, experts say

President's effort to win $230m in damages from Mar-a-Lago and Russia investigations criticized as frivolous'

Donald Trump's effort to get his justice department to pay him hundreds of millions of dollars is based on specious legal claims that would likely be rejected if he were any other American, according to a legal expert and a former Department of Justice official who handled damages claims against the government.

Trump has asked the justice department to pay him $230m in damages, the New York Times reported last week. The amount is the total of two separate claims in which Trump argues he is entitled to compensation because of investigations into the links between Russia and his 2016 campaign as well as the 2022 search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and subsequent criminal prosecution.