Legal Random, Random

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‪CNN‬
‪@cnn.com‬
· 4m
A federal judge says he believes the immigrant defendant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration wrongly sent to El Salvador, may have been targeted with a criminal charge by the Justice Department this year out of vindictiveness.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/03/politics ... ce=bluesky

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Anna Bower
‪@annabower.bsky.social‬
I don’t understand the supposed legal basis for this.

DOJ requested a summons—*not* an arrest warrant—under Rule 9 of the FRCrP.

Are they going to go back to the magistrate and ask for a warrant, even though Comey hasn’t failed to appear? If not, what’s the exigency for a warrantless arrest?

Carl Quintanilla
‪@carlquintanilla.bsky.social‬
“.. leadership asked for ‘large, beefy’ agents to conduct an arrest of Comey ‘in full kit,’ including Kevlar vests and exterior wear emblazoned with the FBI logo.”

@macfarlanenews.bsky.social

www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-arr...

John Abplanalp
‪@jackson54.bsky.social‬
It is all performance art with the bozos of this administration. They haven’t got a case, so they are trying to "dress up" his arrest. They are fools and charlatans.

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Ron Filipkowski
‪@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social‬
Trump is generously willing to settle his lawsuit against the government to allow taxpayers to pay him $230 million. The negotiators on behalf of the taxpayers representing DOJ are his former lawyers. bsky.app/profile/atru...

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Trump has claimed millions from the government. He has power to order payment.
The president has claimed he was damaged by investigations and wants compensation. “It sort of looks bad. I’m suing myself,” he acknowledged.

By Perry Stein

Ever since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has sat uncharacteristically silent in the face of a potential windfall of more than $100 million from U.S. taxpayers.

As a private citizen, he claimed he was entitled to money from the government. As president, he could now, in effect, order that government to pay him. If the payment came in the form of a settlement, the White House might be under no legal obligation to disclose it to the public.

On Tuesday, when the subject was spotlighted in a news report, the president responded to questions with equivocation.

“All I know is they would owe me a lot of money, but I’m not looking for money,” Trump told reporters, adding that if he did get a payment, “any money that I would get, I would give to charity.”

“It’s interesting because I’m the one that makes a decision. And, you know, that decision would have to go across my desk,” he said. “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”

At issue are two administrative claims that Trump filed against the government in 2023 and 2024. The first asked the Justice Department to pay him damages related to the FBI probe and special counsel investigation that looked into the connection between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the complaint, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Last year, Trump filed his second complaint, that time asking for damages related to the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property in 2022. Agents searched the property as part of the investigation of Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of the government’s efforts to reclaim them.

In all, Trump asked the Justice Department to pay him upward of $100 million in damages for allegedly violating his rights.

Under the law he used, the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Justice Department typically decides on whether to pay a claim against the government.

Thousands of such claims are filed each year.

Trump’s claims, however, are the only ones filed by the person who appoints the Justice Department’s leaders.

To date, Trump has not taken any public step to enforce his claim. Under the law, if the government does not pay a claim within six months, the claimant has the right to sue in court. Trump hasn’t done so.

On Tuesday, he didn’t say he would. But he didn’t rule it out, either.

“It could be. I don’t know what the numbers are. I don’t even talk to them about it. All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money, but I’m not looking for money,” he said.

The more likely scenario for Trump would be to reach a settlement with a Justice Department he has publicly said works for him. Trump did not comment Tuesday on whether formal settlement negotiations are underway. Any such discussions would pose serious ethical challenges because some of the defense attorneys who represented Trump in the investigations at the center of his claims are now top Justice Department officials, who would probably need to sign off on any agreement.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, served as Trump’s top personal defense attorney in the classified document case. Stanley Woodward, who heads the civil division, served as the top attorney for Trump’s co-defendant in the classified document case.

Trump acknowledged the thorniness of any potential settlement when he obliquely raised the subject while answering questions from reporters at the White House last week. Without specifying what he was referring to, he talked about a claim he had in which he said he would be in effect suing himself.

“I don’t know, how do you settle the lawsuit, I’ll say give me X dollars, and I don’t know what to do with the lawsuit,” Trump said then. “It sort of looks bad, I’m suing myself, right? So I don’t know. But that was a lawsuit that was very strong, very powerful.”

The New York Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Trump’s remarks were a reference to his claims against the government over the two investigations, and that the total claim was for $230 million. The existence of Trump’s claim over the Mar-a-Lago search had been publicly reported.

Under the Tort Claims Act, people who want to sue the federal government for damages must first lodge an administrative complaint with the federal government. Trump, who was alleging misdoings by the FBI, filed his claim at Justice Department.

The claims process is typically not made public. But, if after six months, the federal government has not settled or acted on the claim, the claimant is eligible to sue in court. The six months have long lapsed in both those complaints, and Trump has not yet sued.

He has also indicated in public statements that the Justice Department has not settled the claims with him.

During the Biden administration, the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland did not settle or close the two claims, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation. It is unclear why the department did not respond to or close the 2023 claim related to the Russia investigation, but federal regulations do not require the government to respond to claims, and it is not unusual for officials to sit on them for a long time.

The claim related to the Mar-a-Lago search would have been harder for the Justice Department to settle since the federal case against Trump was dismissed only in the final days of the Biden administration. The Justice Department would not typically resolve claims related to ongoing cases.

According to the Justice Department manual, any settlement agreement must be signed off on by either the deputy attorney general or associate attorney general.

The Justice Department would not comment on the status of any negotiations, but said when asked about potential recusals of Blanche and Woodward that “all officials at the Department of Justice follow the guidance of career ethics officials.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... s-payment/

[ponchi101]

It will go to charity...

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‪derek guy‬
‪@dieworkwear.bsky.social‬
· 2h
the most corrupt administration in my lifetime

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‪Ron Filipkowski‬
‪@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social‬
· 29s
Let the Trump admin argue in court the legal technicalities on why people should starve. Great optics for them.

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Mueller, She Wrote
‪@muellershewrote.com‬
This is the third U.S. Attorney found to be unlawfully appointed. The other two are Sigal Chattah and Alina Habba. Their indictments stand because they were signed by other prosecutors. Not true for Lindsey Halligan.

Kyle Cheney
‪@kyledcheney.bsky.social‬
BREAKING: A federal judge says L.A.-based US attorney Bill ESSAYLI has been acting in the role unlawfully since July, declaring him disqualified from the position. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...



NOTABLE: The judge says the indictment sEssayli presided over are not dismissed bc they were signed by other lawfully appointed prosecutors. That reasoning, if adopted in other courts, bodes poorly for Lindsey Halligan, who was the only person to sign Comey/James indictments.

Roger Parloff‬
‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬
· 1h
Essayli is the genius who, when asked in a Fox interview if his 120-day term wasn't about to expire, said "we've got some tricks up our sleeves." (Mentioned below in Comey's brief on related issues regarding Halligan.)