The two justice department officials with power to sign off on the claims are Trump appointees and allies – key US politics stories from 29 October at a glance
What are the odds that the president can successfully sue his own government to recoup hundreds of millions in damages from past federal investigations? If he were any other claimant, it would be a long shot, 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.
“Typically, someone who was asking for this amount of money, it would be very quickly rejected, because it would be thought of as absurd to request that amount,” said Gregory Sisk, a law professor at the University of St Thomas in Minnesota. “I cannot think of any prior claim, at least at this early stage, that has been settled that involves money approaching that level.”
