President Trump has demanded that the Department of Justice prosecute his political enemies. He has ordered his aides to use the fearsome tools of the law to investigate fund-raising by the Democratic Party and liberal groups who oppose him. He has spared his own supporters from the consequences of law breaking. And now, in a breathtaking act of self-dealing, he wants the department to hand over nearly a quarter-billion dollars of taxpayer money and place it in his personal bank account as payment for his personal grievances.
Given the eagerness of Justice Department officials to do his bidding, there is reason to expect he may get that money. One official authorized to approve the payment worked on Mr. Trump’s personal legal team, and another represented Trump allies. His Justice Department has already proved itself willing to put his interests above law and country.
Mr. Trump claims he is owed $230 million from the Justice Department as compensation for previous federal investigations of him, The Times reported on Tuesday. Those investigations looked into his refusal to turn over classified government documents he had taken from the White House and the contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.
The president’s conflict of interest in this situation is so broad as to have no parallel in American history. One ethics expert called it a “travesty.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, called it “head spinning chutzpah.” Even Mr. Trump seemed to acknowledge the bizarre nature of the demand that the government he controls pay him a fortune. “I’m the one that makes the decision, and that decision would have to go across my desk, and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” he said. But no sense of shame seems likely to stop his demand for payback. His promise to give the Treasury cash to charity adds to the outrage, given his record of exploiting philanthropy for personal gain.
He claims that he deserves the money because the investigations were unfair and he suffered great damage from them. But the inquiries were legitimate (unlike the two prosecutions he initiated against the former F.B.I. director James Comey and the New York attorney general, Letitia James).
Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference helped uncover at least 140 instances of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian nationals, WikiLeaks and their intermediaries. Mr. Mueller did not bring charges against Mr. Trump, but the report that Mr. Mueller wrote made clear that the investigation was a worthy one: Mr. Trump’s conduct “presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.”
The classified-documents case was also serious: Unlike other officials accused of improper handling of classified material, Mr. Trump repeatedly refused to return the documents when asked to do so and concealed how many he had kept. After leaving office, he also shared apparently classified information about American nuclear submarines with an Australian businessman during conversations at Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
The larger point is not about the two investigations or the supposed damage to him. Even if the cases against him had been weaker than they were and even if he could point to personal damage, he should not be using his power as president to award himself damages. Ordinary citizens can rarely obtain damages from the government even when they have been treated unfairly. And the Constitution bars the president from receiving any compensation from the United States other than salary and modest expenses. Having his appointees rubber-stamp a compensation claim is essentially giving him a blank Treasury check to sign.
His demand for a $230 million payment from American taxpayers fits with an unconscionable pattern of self-dealing by the president and his family. He hosted a dinner for people who bought the most Trump-branded cryptocurrency. His company, the Trump Organization, is collaborating on real estate projects with Middle Eastern countries that rely on the United States in many ways. He has engaged in similar conflicts of interests with Serbia and Vietnam. The list goes on and on.
Mr. Trump should not profit from his presidency. He should pay a political price for his brazen corruption. Instead, he is telling American taxpayers to pay a price, directly to him.
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