President Donald Trump is seeking $230 million in taxpayer money from his own Department of Justice. Reports from the New York Times, CBS News, and CNN confirm that Trump’s lawyers filed two formal claims for “damages” tied to federal investigations into him.

The first claim targets the Russia investigation. The second targets the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search and the criminal case that followed. Both claims were filed before Trump’s second inauguration and remain active inside the Justice Department.

Approving these claims would mean that Trump’s own former defense lawyers, Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward, must decide if their old client deserves a settlement. The final decision would go to Attorney General Pam Bondi, a longtime Trump ally who has dismissed ethics officials and replaced them with loyalists.

Bondi’s Justice Department has also created a “working group” that reviews or pauses investigations involving Trump. That means the very department that prosecuted him now answers to him.

This is a clear conflict of interest and a direct threat to the rule of law. The American people cannot allow Trump or his appointees to decide whether he deserves $230 million from the public treasury.

Demand that Attorney General Pam Bondi pause every DOJ settlement involving Trump until he leaves office.