WASHINGTON \u2014 It would seem a surefire path to a payout.<\/p>\n
A sitting president files suit demanding $10 billion in damages from a federal government he oversees, alleging he’s been wronged in his personal capacity. That scenario would appear to give him final say on whether he walks away with a settlement and just how big it should be.<\/p>\n
As President Donald Trump describes it, any taxpayer money that he gets from the suit that he, his two oldest sons and the Trump Organization\u00a0filed last month\u00a0against the IRS and the Treasury Department would go to worthy causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd any money that I win, I\u2019ll give it to charity, 100% to charities, charities that will be approved by government or whatever,\u201d the president said Wednesday in an interview with\u00a0\u201cNBC Nightly News\u201d anchor Tom Llamas.<\/p>\n
If things get to that point.<\/p>\n
Any number of developments in and out of the courtroom could sidetrack a settlement arising from Trump\u2019s complaint,<\/strong>\u00a0legal experts, lawmakers and ethics specialists told NBC News.<\/p>\n Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., plans to introduce legislation next week to prohibit Trump from receiving any payout from the lawsuit, according to spokesperson Ryan Carey. The bill would propose a 100% tax on any litigation proceeds and settlement in the case, Carey said in an interview.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the watchdog groups Common Cause and the Project on Government Oversight, along with four former federal officials, submitted\u00a0a 23-page friend of the court brief\u00a0asking the court to consider delaying the case until Trump leaves office in January 2029, among other requests.<\/p>\n The brief contends that “the conflicts of interest make it uncertain whether the Department of Justice will zealously defend the public [treasury] in the same way that it has against other plaintiffs claiming damages for related events.”<\/p>\n The case has its origins in Trump’s first term. A former IRS contractor,\u00a0Charles Littlejohn,\u00a0pleaded guilty more than two years ago to stealing Trump’s tax records and thousands of others in 2019 and 2020 before leaking them to news outlets. He is serving a five-year prison term.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the true harm that he [Trump] is still experiencing that requires this amount of taxpayer money at this juncture?\u201d said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen.<\/p>\n The White House referred questions to Trump’s private attorneys. A spokesman for his outside legal team wrote in an email: \u201cThe 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. President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, Trump has cast himself as a careful steward of taxpayer money. He is using private donations to underwrite the massive White House ballroom he is building where the East Wing once stood.<\/p>\n Here, his suit demands a sum of money that exceeds 80% of the\u00a0IRS\u2019 budget last year.<\/p>\n The Trump complaint holds that the damages he endured from the leak were \u201cirreparable.\u201d<\/p>\n The agencies \u201chad a duty to safeguard and protect plaintiffs\u2019 confidential tax returns and related tax return information from such unauthorized inspection and public disclosure,\u201d the suit says.<\/p>\n Critics say Trump’s gambit should fail. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he is exploring \u201call options” to keep Trump from collecting. Congress could block funding for agencies that agree to a payout, or summon administration officials to answer questions about how the public\u2019s interest is protected in any deal that\u2019s reached, he said.<\/p>\n That won\u2019t be easy; Schiff concedes: Republicans would need to go along.<\/p>\n “You have to give him a perverse kind of credit for the sheer audacity of the scam,” Schiff said in an interview. “It\u2019s just in-your-face.”<\/p>\n In interviews, some Republican lawmakers have voiced misgivings about a suit that, for practical purposes, makes Trump plaintiff and defendant combined.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they succeed at that, that\u2019s $10 billion coming from the pockets of the U.S. taxpayers,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has been critical of Trump this term, told NBC News. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a strategic move for damages, something short of that, which is OK, but you know, it just seems we\u2019re talking about the president of the United States suing one of the agencies for which the president is responsible. So, it\u2019s just weird.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Republican senator, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely, said: \u201cIf I\u2019m Pam Bondi, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to settle that lawsuit. There\u2019s no way you can explain it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bondi, the attorney general, was nominated by Trump and serves at his pleasure. Contesting a lawsuit that’s important to the boss could jeopardize her position. In his last term, Trump had a falling out with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and wound up firing him.<\/p>\n Bondi\u2019s office did not comment on Trump\u2019s suit, nor did the Treasury Department or the IRS.<\/p>\n Two Democratic senators, Wyden and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts,\u00a0sent a letter\u00a0to Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday asking if the agencies intend to recommend challenging the Trump suit\u2019s demand for damages. They’ve not yet gotten a response, Wyden’s office said.<\/p>\n A judge will have discretion in handling the issue and stands as a potential roadblock to a settlement that leaves taxpayers on the hook.<\/p>\n Presiding over the case is Kathleen M. Williams, a federal district court judge in Miami who was nominated by then-President Barack Obama in 2011. One possibility is that Williams throws out the suit on the grounds that it simply isn’t a matter for the court system, said Stephen Gillers, professor of legal ethics at NYU School of Law.<\/p>\n Under the Constitution, federal judges are supposed to adjudicate disputes between \u201cadverse\u201d interests, Gillers said. Because Trump is on both sides of the issue, \u201cit\u2019s not a real dispute\u201d and thus isn\u2019t something the court is permitted to resolve, he said.<\/p>\n If she chose, Williams could appoint an outside counsel to brief her on the potential conflicts of interest that the case presents, legal experts said. Something similar happened last year. A federal judge appointed an attorney,\u00a0Paul Clement,\u00a0to offer counterarguments in the Justice Department\u2019s bid to drop a criminal case against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n \u201cA judge, for starters, could ask the parties to brief the conflict of interest issue and could appoint someone as a friend of the court to address the issue as well, since you can bet that both President Trump and the IRS will downplay the problem,\u201d said Bruce Green, a specialist in legal ethics at Fordham School of Law.<\/p>\n If Trump’s deputies settle the lawsuit with the president, the judge wouldn’t necessarily have to bless it, others said. She could conclude it\u2019s unjustified and throw it out, they said.<\/p>\n A judicial verdict would give any payout a certain legitimacy. Trump could argue that a judge \u2014 an Obama-appointed judge at that \u2014 looked at the case and agreed he had been wronged and deserves compensation. But the flip side presents a more vexing problem for Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cA judge can say, \u2018No, it\u2019s not a reasonable settlement,\u2019\u201d said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer in George W. Bush\u2019s White House and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n In that instance, Trump could drop the suit and settle the case with his subordinates out of court. Yet, if he goes that route, a future president might try to claw back any money that was paid out through a legal challenge of their own, Painter said.<\/p>\n Alternatively, whistleblowers could come forward and file suits alleging that Trump’s payout amounted to a false claim, he said. Known as qui tam actions, these types of suits allow successful plaintiffs to keep a certain percentage of the award, with the rest going back into the government\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n Before returning to office last year, Trump submitted a separate legal complaint against the government over the\u00a0FBI\u2019s search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home, among other issues.<\/p>\n He mentioned that case in his interview with NBC News, saying, \u201cI sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago. That was before I became president. Now it goes along, and it turned out that the suit is a very strong suit.\u201d<\/p>\n Presiding over the very government he’s suing, Trump acknowledged, “Well, there\u2019s never been anything like it. In all fairness.”<\/p>\n Will he direct his subordinates to pay him? Llamas asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I would do, tell \u2018em to pay me, but I\u2019ll give 100% of the money to charity,” Trump replied. “I don\u2019t want any of that money.\u201d<\/p>\n In December, he appeared at a rally in North Carolina and, in his speech, brought up the case unprompted.<\/p>\n He noted that he is now in the \u201cstrange position\u201d in which, as chief executive, he has to \u201cmake a deal \u2014 negotiate with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n As to what he’d do with any money that comes his way, Trump took a cheekier tone.<\/p>\n \u201cI hereby give myself $1 billion,\u201d he told the crowd in Rocky Mount. \u201cActually, maybe I shouldn\u2019t give it to charity. Maybe I should keep the money. No. A lot of people say, \u2018Do it.\u2019 No, I don\u2019t want to do it. But whatever happens, it\u2019s all going to good charities. Is that OK? It\u2019s all going to good charities.\u201d<\/p>\n This article was originally published on\u00a0NBCNews.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON \u2014 It would seem a surefire path to a payout. 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