Conservative Supreme Court clerk lights up 'outrageous' Trump

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and retired Justice Anthony Kennedy attend U.S. President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol

Conservatives, including a former clerk for Republican Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are attacking President Donald Trump as he sues the government he controls for up to $10 billion… all of which would come out of taxpayers' pockets.

"There is a glaring conflict of interest with Trump being on both sides of the claim," Edward Whelan, a conservative and former lawyer at the Justice Department, told NPR’s Carrie Johnson and Tamara Keith about Trump seeking $230 million over FBI investigations into his ties to Russia and handling of classified documents. "It is outrageous that he and those answering to him would be deciding how the government responds to these extravagant claims."

A White House official admitted to Johnson and Keith on background that “these claims amount to unfinished business for the president.” Meanwhile Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department lawyer who specializes in these types of misconduct allegations, said that “some of them are run of the mill, right? Postal vehicles get into traffic accidents, VA doctors have malpractice claims brought against them, people slip and fall in federal buildings." Yet even on those occasions, the most serious cases (such as those involving people who cleaned up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack) almost never amount to payouts of more than $10 million.

"Two hundred thirty million dollars would be an order of magnitude [23 times] greater than any administrative settlement the Department has ever agreed to in a Federal Tort Claims Act case," Bhattacharyya told NPR.

Like Whelan, Andrew Egger of the center-right publication The Bulwark is among the conservatives criticizing Trump’s attempt to personally pocket billions of taxpayer dollars. Egger pointed out that Trump allowed X CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut billions in foreign aid to impoverished nations, particularly those that provide food and medical relief, on the grounds that this is best left to charity. Yet Trump is now contradicting that rationalization by saying nobody cares if he takes $10 billion from the IRS “if it goes to a good charity.”

Egger also pointed out that Trump was legally proved to have self-dealt in his previous “charitable” contributions, making it dubious that he would not actually keep the money himself.

“Trump had been using his personal charity, it came to light after a lawsuit from the state of New York, to pay his business debts, make political contributions, and buy things for himself,” Egger wrote.

Trump insists that he deserves the money.

"The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people,” Trump's private legal team said in a statement to NPR. “President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable." Trump himself has said that “I've gotta make a deal. I negotiate with myself."

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