U.S. President Donald Trump looks on while speaking to members of the media as he flies from Florida to Joint Base Andrews en route to Washington, aboard Air Force One, U.S., October 19, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann slammed President Donald Trump for the proposal that the Justice Department give him $230 million to make up for the investigations into the 2016 Russia matter, the classified documents case, and the investigation into Trump's role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday after the story broke from the New York Times, Weissmann said, "essentially the president of the United States is now theextortionist in chief. We saw it with ABC. We saw it with CBS. We saw it with the law firms. And now, he might as well just go ahead and rob Fort Knox and take the gold out."
He explained that in a "normal time," Justice Department leaders would identify a conflict because the people overseeing whether Trump would get $230 million in taxpayer dollars are Trump's former personal lawyers in that matter. Typically, those individuals would step aside and appoint an independent counsel.
"And you know what would happen? There would be a hearing. The last thing that Donald Trump wants," said Weissmann.
Trump has spent years attacking Weissmann because he also served on Robert Mueller's special counsel team. So, Weissmann suggested that all of it be part of a larger public conversation.
"Let's have a hearing on the Russia case. Let's have a hearing on Mar-a-Lago. All of the things that he has tried to avoid," continued Weissmann. "Remember, he always said in the Russia case, Oh, I'm happy to testify. Yeah, no. He wasn't. Never happened. The Mar-a-Lago case? He tried to put that off. Let's have a hearing so he can have his day in court to show why he actually has the 'right side' of this and let the independent people at the department show why he's wrong."
That, however, is the last thing that Trump wants, Weissmann added.
He noted that Trump pardoned former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), realizing, "Who's going to stop me here?"
"And there really does need to be a sort of political cost to him when this is coming at the expense of our taxpayer money, as you noted at the outset. This is not something that is free," he told Wallace.