Rupa Bhattacharya

Agents were on the hunt for classified documents.

The FBI seized papers from a bathroom, a ballroom, and an office.

There's a process in place at the Justice Department for people who say they've been harmed by the federal government.

In the normal course of business, those claims get evaluated by career lawyers.

They rarely involve high-profile criminal investigations like Trump's.

Rupa Padacharya worked in that DOJ office for years.

Even in the most serious cases, like the ones that involved the attack on 9-11, she says the U.S.

government almost never paid out more than $10 million.

President Trump wants a lot more than that.

23 times more for the Justice Department investigations against him, probes that ended after he won re-election to the White House.

Typically, the Justice Department would fight claims in court over the work of its career prosecutors and FBI agents.

And in this case, they would have strong legal defenses.

After all, a federal judge approved the search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago property, finding probable cause.

And given how much money is at stake in this claim, people at the top of the Justice Department would make the final call.

That's Ed Whalen.

He's a former lawyer for the Justice Department and a political conservative who once clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Those answering to him include the attorney general and her top deputy.

Both of them used to work as President Trump's personal attorneys.

The third in command of justice represented Trump's valet, an alleged co-conspirator in the Mar-a-Lago case.

Again, Ed Whalen.