The conservative editorial board for the National Review delivered choice words regarding President Donald Trump’s strategy to charge U.S. taxpayers $230 million over his prosecution for alleged criminal behavior.
“Donald Trump is in the odd position, by his own admission, of ‘suing myself,’” the Board notes. “It’s a case he should drop. … Trump reached for whatever legal levers he could grasp to fight back."
This included filing administrative claims against the Justice Department for “alleged violations of his rights by the FBI in the Russiagate investigation and the search of Mar-a-Lago," the Board adds.
Two of the prosecutions against Trump, including his incitement of a Jan. 6 mob to destroy the Capitol and his theft (and refusal to return) classified documents after leaving the White House, were never fully litigated, and could have ended with conviction had Trump not won re-election and effectively ended the prosecution.
“The legal strength of these claims, which were always beside the point, were questionable,” the Board says. “The government has many defenses to such suits. At the time, however, Trump was a private citizen with federal, state, and local authorities arrayed against him, so a counteroffensive made a certain kind of sense even when the odds were long.”
The settlement would be approved and paid by the same DOJ that answers to Trump himself, the Board notes.
“Trump says that ‘I’m not looking for money,’ but anything else he could ask for — public vindication, the firing of misbehaving agents, changes in how DOJ and the FBI do business — he has either obtained by winning reelection and ending the cases against him, or can obtain by his position overseeing the Justice Department,” the Board writes. “… So, it comes to money. Which Trump doesn’t need, and which would be obscene to shell out in any nontrivial amount on the taxpayers’ dime.”
The only “proper end to this is for Trump to declare victory and abandon the claims,” the Board says.
“But this is the sort of ethical conflict that cannot be eliminated by procedure. Sometimes, our system actually needs leaders to act ethically, and can punish them only through political processes. This is one of those situations,” the Board argued. “Trump should do the right thing, both ethically and politically, and stop suing himself.”
Read the full National Review report at this link.