Or how Donald Trump gets to steal directly from the US treasury.
If you are not angry and disgusted by the terms and conditions of Trump’s “settlement” with the DoJ, you are either blind or stupid or both. It’s a truly corrupt bribe that violates both the law and ethical standards on several fronts.
Consider:
Trump’s 1.8 billion dollar bribe is even worse than it seems on the surface. The money is being looted from the Treasury Judgment Fund, which Congress established in 1956 to pay court judgments against the United States. It’s an indefinite appropriation — that is, an elastic pot of cash that doesn’t require an act of Congress to fill it — hence Trump’s ability to reach in and snatch $1.8 billion without legislative input.
Under 31 U.S.C. § 1304 and the implementing regulations, payments from the Judgment Fund must be final, monetary, and authorized by law. A 1989 Office of Legal Counsel memorandum was explicit that the Judgment Fund is available only for “direct payment of specified sums of money.” Blanche’s order creates an ongoing administrative apparatus that covers per diems, staff salaries, travel expenses, facilities, and administrative services — none of which would appear to qualify. And because the $1.8 billion “projected valuation of future claimants’ claims” is a number chosen solely as a troll and untethered to any pending or contemplated litigation, it can’t be a “final” valuation as required by the statute.
The “settlement” also violates the DOJ’s own transparency rules. The Justice Manual (the agency’s internal rulebook) and 28 C.F.R. § 50.23 state that, with rare exceptions, the agency “will not enter into final settlement agreements or consent decrees that are subject to confidentiality provisions, nor will it seek or concur in the sealing of such documents.” But Trump can give the money to anyone he wants, with no oversight other than “a confidential written report that includes the name and address of each claimant who has received any relief” submitted quarterly to the AG.
They are stealing from you, and your elected representatives are allowing them to get away with it.
A functional Congress would put a stop to this. It could claw back the money, or amend the funding statute, or, in the event of a presidential veto, sue. But we don’t have a functional Congress, and it’s unclear whether courts will find that anyone else has standing to challenge this grotesque corruption in court.
Individual taxpayers have almost no ability to challenge government spending — even if that spending is patently illegal. As the minority, Democratic members of Congress likely can’t vindicate the legislature’s interests in court. And we know from the first Trump administration that the Supreme Court has largely abandoned the Emoluments Clause. But there will certainly be loads of plaintiffs willing to give it a go.
Under normal circumstances, judges must grant a motion to dismiss a case, which gives them a modicum of discretion to police the terms of any settlement. But when the defendant has neither entered an appearance nor answered the complaint, the plaintiff can simply declare his intent to dismiss and walk away. And so, before Judge Williams could make the government do anything or answer any unpleasant questions, Trump did just that.
Plus, as a bonus, the DOJ went back and added a clause barring the government from investigating the Trump family for tax crimes, putting an end to a decades-old audit dispute that could potentially have cost Trump $100 million.
The whole thing is illegal as hell and a truly evil theft of your tax dollars.
And of course, Americans will not rise up to make Trump suffer for what he has done.
We are a failing nation, and we have no one to blame but our own electorate for their stupidity.