‘The most brazen act of presidential corruption this century?'
First, Donald Trump pardoned Jan 6 rioters. Now, he’s created a fund of taxpayers money to offer them compensation. Is he rewarding political violence, or funding his own private militia?
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What’s the story?
When Donald Trump returned to The White House after the results of the US election in 2024, his first action was to pardon MAGA supporters jailed for their actions during the Jan 6 riots at the Capital building in 2021.
Now, he’s going to be giving those people money – and likely lots of it.
Jon Sopel describes the move as “astonishing”, with Trump from referring the money as a fund for “victims”, to using taxpayers money he won in a legal case against his own government to pay for it.
This money, this $1.776 billion, Trump says is for “victims of a weaponised Justice Department.”
That figure is no random number either, as 1776 was the year America won its independence from the British Empire.
“There is almost no transparency to how this works,” says Emily Maitlis.
“We will not be hearing who gets money, we will not be hearing why they get money.”
One thing we do know is that a five-person commission who will allocate the fund will be appointed by the US attorney general (currently Todd Blanche), but with the caveat that Trump himself can remove whoever he likes, whenever he likes.
This may be, Emily says, the most brazen act of political corruption America has seen this century.
Is Trump’s private army now funded, and ready to strike?
Harry Dunn, a former police officer who was working at the Capitol on the day of the riot, has described the fund as a “reward”, and says it could inspire MAGA supporters to commit more political violence in the future, if Trump needed it.
“Trump has created a vigilante army, should he ever need one in future,” says Emily.
“If these people are not just indebted to him for their freedom, but are actually coming to him for their money, and are getting paid from a slush fund of taxpayers' money to do it again – what's stopping them?”
She says the people likely to receive cash from the fund were as the “coalface” of the riots, some of whom may have been directly involved in injuring police officers.
“This is why you have critics now calling this a slush fund for cop killers,” she adds.
“It is compensation for people who put police officers' lives in danger or worse.”
Jon says Trump’s actions leave him at risk of looking “ridiculously out of touch” with the American people.
“Everything seems just to be about the self-aggrandisement and self-enriching of himself, his family, and all those close friends around him who've also got very rich off this second term of his presidency.
“He's always been the billionaire, the showman, but he always had a good feel for what ordinary Americans were thinking.”
This, Jon adds, ended abruptly when Trump recently publicly claimed he doesn’t think about the financial situation of everyday Americans while spending billions on the war with Iran.
“It was so tone deaf,” he says.
“At the moment, the opinion polls show that this is unpopular, that Donald Trump is unpopular, but among Republicans there is still an absolute terror of incurring his wrath.”
Is Trump now truly unstoppable?
With Trump’s will being implemented by senior members of his administration, it is being left to a small handful of Republican representatives to speak out against his ongoing actions – often at the cost of their own careers.
Longtime Trump critic Thomas Massive recently found out the hard way what happens to a Republican when they question Trump’s decisions, after the president launched a successful campaign to have him replaced after this year’s midterm election.
Republican congressman Brian Fitzpatrick has spoken against the ““victims of a weaponised Justice Department” fund, saying taxpayers money should not be used to compensate convicted criminals.
“That criticism does not even touch the sides of what Trump and Todd Blanche have just decreed,” says Emily.
“They are going to be using taxpayers' money to pay people they call victims, but that most Americans would see as convicted felons.
“Trump has made it clear that the people who were involved in the Jan six riots should not only be set free, but should also now be able to receive compensation.”