Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) announced that he will be introducing the No Torts for Trump Act, legislation to prohibit sitting presidents from seeking taxpayer-funded payouts under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). This follows recent reporting that President Trump is pressing the Justice Department to pay him roughly $230 million as a settlement for proper investigations he faced under the Biden administration and during his first term in office.
“The core feature of Donald Trump’s presidency is corruption. And the president’s attempt to have the Justice Department — run by his own former criminal defense lawyers — pay him hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for some imagined claim is just the latest in a long line of self-enrichment schemes. My bill would ensure that taxpayers are not ripped off for the president’s benefit,” said Senator Schiff.
Last month, President Trump submitted complaints through an administrative claim process under the FTCA, which Congress enacted to authorize plaintiffs to obtain compensation from the United States for the torts of federal employees. In these claims, President Trump alleged his rights were violated during the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia and during the investigation and prosecution for allegedly mishandling hundreds of pages of classified documents.
President Trump’s claims pose substantial and concerning ethical challenges due to the unprecedented nature of his demands. Any settlement claims to the DOJ for more than $4 million must be approved by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche or Associate Attorney General for the Civil Division Stanley Woodword – both of whom have personally represented President Trump.
Senator Schiff’s No Torts for Trump Act would amend the FTCA to exclude the president from being eligible to seek relief under the law regardless of when the tort took place or claim was filed.
This bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).
The legislation is supported by Democracy Defenders Action, Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Protect Democracy, and Public Citizen.
“The grotesque corruption of a sitting President claiming he is owed our taxpayer dollars in recompense for justified investigations into his practices is easy to see. This is particularly repugnant in the context of the recently ended Republican caused shutdown to fight extension of the ACA subsidies for healthcare and the subsequent illegal denial of SNAP benefits. A president allowing people to go hungry to deny them healthcare while simultaneously claiming money from the Treasury for your personal pocketbook is next level. We applaud Senator Schiff for working to address this appalling issue,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President at Public Citizen.
“The Federal Tort Claims Act exists to provide justice for Americans who are harmed by the government, not a tool for personal enrichment, at taxpayer expense. President Trump’s attempt to claim taxpayers owe him $230 million in damages is an extraordinary abuse of public trust and an affront to the rule of law. Even more alarming, he has openly declared himself the arbiter of whether he deserves taxpayer dollars. The No Torts for Trump Act would return the decision making authority concerning presidential tort claims to the U.S. Congress and reaffirm that no president should be allowed to use the powers of the office to line his own pockets,” said Virginia Canter, Chief Counsel and Director of Ethics and Anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Action.
“It shouldn’t need to be said that a sitting president extorting the government for hundreds of millions of dollars is a staggeringly inappropriate example of corruption and conflict of interest. Unfortunately, this fact does need to be stated and, even more concerningly, the conduct itself needs to be prohibited by law. Senator Schiff and his colleagues should be commended for introducing this commonsense bill to prevent this particular kind of presidential corruption, even if it is distressing that it needs to be done in the first place,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Acting Vice-President of Policy and Government Affairs at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
“The No Torts for Trump Act is an important guardrail against further politicization of the Justice Department. No president should be allowed to pervert our justice system in order to punish his enemies and reward himself,” said Justin Vail, Counsel, Protect Democracy.
Last month, Senator Schiff joined Senate Judiciary Democrats in denouncing President Trump’s demands that the DOJ pay him $230 million of taxpayer dollars in alleged damages from previous proper investigations.
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