The Justice Department’s new business model is paying Trump’s friends to make the past and his troubles go away — no, really

While everybody has been busy wondering if Donald Trump will go to war with Iran again and whether gas prices are going to climb up more, the Justice Department has been busy scrubbing the past, one settlement check at a time.

According to a report by The Washington Post, cases the federal government once brought against a Trump ally are now being quietly closed out via wire transfer. The DOJ has handed over more than $8.5 million to Trump’s allies and supporters since he returned to office, with Carter Page collecting $1.25 million this week and Michael Flynn pocketing more than a million the month before.

Both men had sued. Both had lost. Page’s case had been tossed at the district court and affirmed on appeal on statute-of-limitations grounds, with the Biden-era DOJ arguing the suits were “legally meritless.” That argument has now been retired, along with the inconvenience of having to make it.

What’s strange in all of this is that the government was winning the cases — as the government tends to do in such instances — even during the Biden era. So why is DOJ now settling them instead of fighting? 

The settlements are, in the strict procedural sense, legal. The Judgment Fund is a permanent, indefinite appropriation specifically designed to pay out civil claims against the government, and the Attorney General has wide discretion over which cases to defend and which to fold on. 

What the law did not anticipate, perhaps because it seemed too dystopian to legislate against, was a Justice Department deciding to fold every single time, on every claim, brought by every person the same Justice Department once pursued.

The law is a minor inconvenience at this point

What’s more, settlements over $4 million require sign-off from the deputy or associate attorney general, which inconvenient because Deputy AG Todd Blanche was Trump’s lead defense layer in the Mar-a-Lago case.

Federal ethics law — specifically 18 U.S.C. § 208, a criminal statute carrying up to five years — prohibits officials from participating in matters where they recently represented a party. 

The official whose job it was to advise on exactly these recusals was fired by former AG Pam Bondi in July 2025. Problem solved, or at least staffed away. How very convenient for Trump and his gang.

So, essentially, there is no longer any jury, nor ruling, nor record. The cases simply end and the checks clear. The United States government concedes its prior investigations were abusive because the United States government is now run by the people it investigated.

I know people on social media joke about the “great noticing” happening and how we should hold politicians accountable, but this past year has shown the only people getting held accountable are the taxpayers, and they keep getting handed the bill.