By Allan Lengel
In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, The New York Times reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Times points out that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.
“What a travesty,” Bennett L. Gershman, an ethics professor at Pace University, tells the Times. “The ethical conflict is just so basic and fundamental, you don’t need a law professor to explain it.”
He added: “And then to have people in the Justice Department decide whether his claim should be successful or not, and these are the people who serve him deciding whether he wins or loses. It’s bizarre and almost too outlandish to believe.”
