Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz suggested Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s pursuit of an estimated $230 million in damages from the Department of Justice (DOJ) is primarily a quest for vindication rather than financial compensation.
The President is seeking a substantial sum to settle two federal damage claims related to DOJ investigations spanning his first term and former President Joe Biden’s administration. Speaking on Newsmax’s “The Record With Greta Van Susteren,” Dershowitz said that the motivation behind the lawsuits goes beyond the money.
“He’s not going to get money in that order and he’s going to give it to charity,” Dershowitz told host Greta Van Susteren. “I think what he’s doing is looking for vindication.”
Seeking Institutional Judgment
According to the professor, what Trump truly desires is “a judgment by an institution that says, ‘going after me for the classified material was wrong, going after me for the Russian collusion was wrong.'” Dershowitz also expressed optimism about the outcome of the President’s cases in New York, predicting that he “should be vindicated in that case as well by the appellate courts.”
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While acknowledging the President’s business background, Dershowitz added that for Trump, “vindication means money.” However, he reiterated the ultimate goal isn’t personal enrichment, stating, “He’s going to give it to charity. But this isn’t about money. It’s about some institution saying you were treated unfairly. That’s what he’s looking for.”
Investigations in Focus
The lawsuits stem from two high-profile DOJ probes:
- The Russia collusion investigation, opened in 2016, concluded in March 2019 without finding evidence of a criminal conspiracy.
- The classified documents investigation was launched in 2022 after materials were recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
In November 2022, the DOJ appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the documents probe and a separate investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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The classified documents case was later dismissed on July 15, 2024, by Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was improper. The election-subversion case, filed by the DOJ in 2023, was also dismissed on November 25, 2024, by Judge Tanya Chutkan.
This dismissal followed a motion by Smith that cited the DOJ’s policy against indicting a sitting president.
Dershowitz concluded that for the President to achieve the institutional validation he seeks, he “needs to get a neutral objective arbitrator who’s
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