Trump’s Slush Fund Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Trump’s Slush Fund Is Even Worse Than You Thought

Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" settlement fund has stunned legal experts—not just because it's corrupt, but because of how skillfully and transparently it is designed to protect the Trump Family and reward loyalists. On this week's Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick brings together two of the sharpest observers of Trump-era lawlessness to map exactly what this is and why it matters.

J.P. Cooney, a career federal prosecutor and former top deputy in Jack Smith's special counsel's office, explains how President Trump sued his own IRS as a private party, settled the case through attorneys who have also been his personal lawyers, and then secured an addendum—signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—immunizing Trump and his family from any IRS audit or tax-enforcement proceeding. Cooney calls it "practiced, skillful corruption".

As Investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein, host of The Law According to Trump, author of American Oligarchs, and a veteran of five Trump trials, points out, this settlement enshrines Trumpian language— such as "unlawful raid at Mar-a-Lago" and "Russia collusion hoax"—in official U.S. government documents. Bernstein says it’s vital to be clear about who stands to receive payouts: people convicted of seditious conspiracy, assaulting Capitol police officers, and other crimes they admitted to in open court.

Cooney and Bernstein agree this fund doesn't just reward insurrection—it incentivizes future violence, chills legitimate dissent, and systematically erases the historical record of Jan. 6.

Later, Slate executive editor Susan Matthews joins to preview the new season of Slow Burn, Becoming Justice Gorsuch—and explain why the most anonymous justice on the court is so pivotal to understanding the power and the politics of the highest court in the land.


Un-paywalled episodes' description:

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(481)

Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 2. The Stolen Seat

Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 2. The Stolen Seat

With Amicus on a brief summer break, we’re bringing you the second installment of Slow Burn’s latest season, Becoming Justice Gorsuch.When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, the Supreme ...

22 Aug 47min

Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 1. Man With a Plan

Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 1. Man With a Plan

Our friends over at the Slate podcast Slow Burn are good at taking events that we think are settled history, then unlocking a new understanding of those stories through interviews, archives, and fresh...

15 Aug 39min

By the People | Now It’s Your Turn

By the People | Now It’s Your Turn

In the final episode—for now—of our series on reclaiming constitutional power for every American, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern urge you to consider the many ways you can make constitutional m...

8 Aug 54min

By The People | Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

By The People | Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Long before the Supreme Court handed down the landmark Obergefell ruling on equal marriage in 2015, activists were canvassing door-to-door, courting any lawmaker who would listen, and losing at the lo...

1 Aug 45min

By the People | For the Children

By the People | For the Children

In 1867, an 8-year-old girl named Elizabeth Turner became the epicenter of a legal battle that would help define what freedom really meant after the Civil War. Days after Maryland abolished slavery, h...

25 Jul 40min

By the People | Who Owns the Constitution?

By the People | Who Owns the Constitution?

For the better part of two centuries of U.S. history, the American people understood that they—and not the Supreme Court—were the final arbiters of the Constitution. But in recent decades, nine unelec...

18 Jul 41min

The Term the Court Stopped Pretending

The Term the Court Stopped Pretending

The Supreme Court just wrapped one of its most consequential terms in decades—and Amicus brought together three heavyweight legal experts to break down the damage. Their conversation centers on the bi...

11 Jul 1h

Bad History Will Kill America

Bad History Will Kill America

The Supreme Court just wrapped the term with a blitz of extremely consequential decisions, and the smoke hasn’t cleared yet. (In fact, it’s looming like a dark storm cloud over our Fourth of July and ...

4 Jul 57min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
forklart
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
nokon-ma-ga
rss-gukild-johaug
det-store-bildet
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
hanna-de-heldige
rss-ness
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
aftenbla-bla
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
e24-podden
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-borsmorgen-okonominyhetene
grasoner-den-nye-kalde-krigen