U.S. President Donald Trump gestures while hosting the Rose Garden Club Luncheon at the White House on October 21, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump has demanded that the Justice Department pay a whopping $230 million in restitution for criminal investigations against him dating back to before and after his first term in the White House, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The paper noted that any potential settlement would likely require the approval of federal officials he appointed during his second term.
One of them, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, represented Trump as his criminal defense attorney before he returned to the White House in early January.
“As far as all the lawsuits go, they probably owe me a lot of money,” Trump told reporters at the White House late Tuesday.
He acknowledged that the $230 million reported by the Times was “a possibility.”
The president also said that if the Justice Department decides to pay him restitution, “it would have to go beyond my desk, and it would be very strange for me to make the decision to pay it myself.”
“In other words, have you ever been in a situation where you had to decide for yourself the amount of damages?” Trump said.
“But I’ve suffered so much damage that I’m going to donate all the money I get to charity,” he added.
Trump filed a complaint related to the Justice Department investigation “through the administrative claims process, which is often a precursor to litigation,” the paper said.
One of the claims, filed in 2023, seeks damages related to the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign that year, according to the Times.
Another complaint filed in mid-2024 accuses the FBI of violating Trump’s rights by raiding his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in 2022 as part of an investigation into his possession of classified government documents after he left the White House at the end of his first term.
Mr. Trump was charged in federal court in Florida with possessing these records and obstructing efforts by federal authorities to recover them in connection with that investigation.
The judge dismissed that case, and the Justice Department ultimately dropped its appeal of her decision and the entire lawsuit after Trump won the 2024 election.
The newspaper reported that Trump alluded to his claims at an Oval Office event last week while standing next to Blanche, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
“The lawsuits are going very well. When I became president, I said it’s like I’m filing the lawsuits myself. I don’t know how to settle the lawsuits. I’ll say give me X amount of dollars, but I don’t know what to do with the lawsuits,” Trump said.
“That seems kind of bad, I’m going to indict myself, right?” Trump said. “So, I don’t know. But it was a very strong, very strong case.”
Asked about the Times report, a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told CNBC: “President Trump continues to fight back against all Democratic-led witch hunts, including the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax and the unconstitutional and un-American weaponization of our justice system by crooked Joe Biden and his minions.”
The White House referred questions from CNBC about the Times article to the Department of Justice.
Generally speaking, we cannot comment on the status of claims. Details of what is being sought will be referred off the record to the president’s personal attorney.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the status of Trump’s claims.
But Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin addressed the potential for conflict among Justice Department employees in this situation, saying, “Under no circumstances will all Justice Department employees follow the guidance of their career ethics officers.”
—CNBC’s Eamon Javers contributed to this article.
