Fight erupts on Senate floor over provision letting senators reap millions from suing DOJ

Democratic senators clashed with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on the Senate floor Thursday when the GOP leader proposed a resolution to clarify that any damages won by Republican senators from lawsuits against the Department of Justice (DOJ) would go to the U.S. Treasury and not to the senators’ bank accounts.

Responding to complaints that empowering Republican senators to sue the Justice Department for millions of dollars is inappropriate or unseemly, Thune on Thursday proposed a compromise.

He suggested that colleagues approve a resolution by unanimous consent to clarify that any financial compensation awarded to senators would go to the U.S. Treasury, so that lawmakers would not be seen as enriching themselves.

“This would clarify that any damages awarded under this law would be forfeited to the United States Treasury. So, no United States senator could benefit,” Thune, who this week has steadfastly defended the provision that’s divided lawmakers, said.

Democrats immediately shot down the proposal, declaring it didn’t go far enough to address the appearance that the recently passed law had created a major conflict of interest.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said he wanted to make a “statutory change” to ensure that senators would not benefit financially and argued that the Senate should work with the House to address the “outrageous damage provisions.” He then objected to Thune’s proposal.

A provision tucked into the government funding bill passed last week empowers GOP senators surveilled by the Biden-era Justice Department to sue the federal government for hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. It is retroactive to 2022, meaning it applies to senators whose phone records were sought by former special counsel Jack Smith.

Tensions flared on the Senate floor Thursday after Heinrich attempted to secure unanimous consent to repeal the provision altogether.

The House voted 426-0 on Thursday to eliminate that special authority.

“This provision allows eight Republican senators to collect millions of dollars from the U.S. government,” Heinrich fumed on the Senate floor, calling it a “blatant tax-funded cash grab.”

The provision would allow a senator to sue the government for $500,000 per instance of obtaining information from their phones.

“That money would be paid from your hard-earned tax dollars. And that’s even though the law was followed by the government at the time. Frankly, this is just outrageous to me,” Heinrich said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), one of the GOP senators whose phone records were targeted, then took to the floor to object to Heinrich’s request.

“What did I do wrong? What did I do to allow the government to seize my personal phone and my official phone when I was Senate Judiciary chairman? What did I do?” Graham asked on the floor.

“I’m going to sue Biden’s DOJ and Jack Smith, I’m going to sue Verizon,” Graham declared.

Graham noted that he would be eligible to reap $500,000 in financial compensation for damages per instance of the government surveilling his private and official devices, which could amount to a cash windfall.

“It’s going to be a hell of a lot more than $500,000. This is twice it happened to me. I was hauled into court in Atlanta for no good reason, and the crime is being friends of Trump, being supporters of Trump,” Graham said, venting his frustration with the Justice Department and Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis, who investigated Graham’s activities in the days and weeks after the November 2020 election.  

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.) took to the floor after Graham spoke to accuse Republican colleagues of trying to line their own pockets.

“They snuck in, in the dark of night, a provision at the last minute that would allow them to basically line their pockets,” Peters said.

“This is to seek at least a half a million dollars, it could go into the millions of dollars,” the Michigan Democrat predicted, asserting it would benefit “a very select group of Republican senators.”

That accusation prompted the Senate’s presiding chair to step in and warn Peters that Senate Rule XIX states that senators shall not impute to another senator any conduct or motive unworthy of being a senator.