‘Open in Its Corruption’: National Review Legal Expert Calls on Trump to Abandon $230M Lawsuit Against DOJ
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Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer and recovering lawyer at National Review, argued that President Donald Trump accepting $230 million from his own Department of Justice would be “scandalous” in a new blog post at the conservative website.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Trump was seeking the hefty payout as compensation for the investigations into his 2016 campaign, as well as into him personally during the Biden administration.
A number of conservatives, including former Trump campaign adviser David Urban and CNN stalwart Scott Jennings, have expressed concern over the lawsuit. McLaughlin joined their ranks on Wednesday evening.
After quoting Trump as observing that “It’s interesting because I’m the one that makes a decision. And, you know, that decision would have to go across my desk,” and “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself,” the legal commentator submitted that Trump is ” right about the irregularity of this, and he really ought to either abandon the claims or, at a minimum, abandon any demand for personal compensation.”
He continued:
He’s right about the irregularity of this, and he really ought to either abandon the claims or, at a minimum, abandon any demand for personal compensation. The Times says that the claims involve “potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department,” but that understates the case: even if the DOJ was run by people of unimpeachable integrity with no personal relationship with the president, its senior leadership still knows perfectly well that Trump hired them and can fire them, and that they answer to Trump and are obligated to do so.
While McLaughlin noted that there may not have been anything unethical about filing the lawsuit while out of office, he wrote that “signing off on a settlement” would be “scandalous.”
“It’s actually a more common variety of scandal than you might think, although in true Trumpian fashion, it would be unusually open in its corruption,” he observed.
