Trump’s new ‘slush fund’ for his pals
5/22/202627 min
This week, Donald Trump dropped a personal $10bn lawsuit he had against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for a so-called anti-weaponisation fund. The $1.8bn fund will be used to compensate those who think they have been unfairly investigated by the government in the past. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the legal analyst Kristy Greenberg about why critics are calling this fund ‘corruption on steroids’
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJonathan Freedland· Host0:00
This is The Guardian. [upbeat music] This week, Donald Trump's Justice Department launched a brand-new anti-weaponization fund.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:16
This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:21
Donald Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection, and now he wants to pay the insurrectionists who went to work for him.
Jonathan Freedland· Host0:27
But is this anything more than a glorified slush fund for the president's friends?
Kristy Greenberg· Guest0:32
It is beyond corruption. It's dangerous.
Jonathan Freedland· Host0:35
I'm Jonathan Freedland, columnist at The Guardian, and this is Politics Weekly: America. And I'm delighted to say that I am joined by Christie Greenberg, a former prosecutor in New York, now a legal analyst for MS now, also host of her own show on YouTube, Courtside. Uh, Christie, it's very good to have you with us for the first time. I want to go back to the origin story of this fund, right back to where it all started. In January, Donald Trump, who is head of the US government, sued parts of the US government, the Treasury Department and the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, the organization that collects people's taxes, Americans. What did he sue them for?
Kristy Greenberg· Guest1:23
So it's Donald Trump, his sons, and the family businesses sued the IRS for ten