Carrie Johnson

Both the attorney general and the deputy AG once served as Trump's personal lawyers.

A spokesperson there says officials follow the guidance of career ethics lawyers.

Most legal claims like these against the government involve crashes of postal trucks or medical malpractice in federal hospitals for veterans.

President Trump's demands for money are many times greater than in those run-of-the-mill cases.

He says he'll give any money he recovers to charity.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

Family members of Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaru say they were headed home on October 14th.

when a U.S.

missile struck their vessel.

President Trump later said the kinetic strike killed all six men on board and tied them to the drug trade.

But a new lawsuit says the men from Trinidad were fishermen doing farm work and that the U.S.

violated international law and the Death on the High Seas Act.

The wrongful death case filed in a Massachusetts court is asking for economic damages for the men's relatives.

The lawsuit argues neither man presented an imminent threat to the U.S.

or anyone else.

The Pentagon says it does not comment on pending litigation.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

Jack Smith presided over two criminal indictments of Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and for hiding secret documents at his Florida resort.

Neither case got to a jury before Trump returned to the White House last year.

Smith says he had proof beyond a reasonable doubt in both cases and that he was not motivated by politics.