Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“In the 15 years between 2009 and 2024, more than 500 people in Texas were exonerated after being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. … The state paid them just under $156 million …. Last year, New York City paid out $205 million to settle 956 lawsuits alleging police abuse. … I bring up these figures because, according to multiple reports, Donald Trump is about to order the government to pay him ‘damages’ for the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago mansion and for special prosecutor Jack Smith’s two investigations of him …. He’s going to pay himself $230 million. So Trump — who didn’t spend a minute behind bars — [is] about to swindle about 50 percent more than the total amount of money paid to the 97 innocent people who were incarcerated for more than 1,200 years in Texas. Or about 12 percent more than the total paid last year to 957 victims of police brutality in New York City.” (11/21/25)