"Now, of course, the Justice Department is stacked top to bottom with Trump loyalists. But there'd been no internal conversation about the matter since the inauguration, until Trump himself reopened it while talking to the press in the Oval Office last week, a senior administration official told us. Trump said, without explanation, that he'd brought "a great lawsuit" against DOJ based on its previous investigations of him, but added that it now "sort of looks bad - I'm suing myself, right?""
"The Times says that when Trump was out of office, he submitted complaints through an administrative claim process that's often the precursor to lawsuits: The first claim, in late 2023, seeks damages for the FBI and special counsel investigation into Russian election tampering and possible connections to Trump's 2016 campaign. The second claim, in summer 2024, accuses the FBI of violating Trump's privacy by searching Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in 2022. That complaint also accuses the Justice Department of malicious prosecution in charging him with mishandling sensitive records."
The Justice Department is filled with Trump loyalists, and officials say no internal follow-up occurred after the inauguration until Trump raised the issue publicly. Trump submitted administrative claims during the prior presidency that function as precursors to lawsuits; officials reported the claims came up during the transition but were not pursued after the 2024 election and the claimed damages were not confirmed. One claim filed in late 2023 seeks damages tied to FBI and special counsel probes into alleged Russian election tampering and 2016 campaign links. A second claim filed in summer 2024 alleges privacy violations from the Mar-a-Lago search and malicious prosecution over classified-document charges.
Read at Axios
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