Harry Litman - No Benefit, My Ass [View all]

Donald Trump and his partner in crime, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, have constructed what may be the most brazen heads-I-win-tails-you-lose arrangement in the history of American government. And to be clear about who is on the short end of both sticks: it’s the American public, you and me. We’re the ultimate suckers in the Trump-Blanche world.

The $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund was created through a settlement agreement purporting to resolve Trump’s claims that an IRS contractor unlawfully disclosed his tax information (as indeed he did, but that doesn’t alter the lawsuit’s multiple fatal failings, including its unconstitutional collusive character). The agreement asserts that the fund “is not taxable income as to Plaintiffs, who receive no economic benefit from this Settlement Agreement.” Elsewhere, the document declares that Trump is not receiving “damages of any kind.” This framing is doing enormous legal work. It is also an utter fiction.

Before analyzing the cheating legal gymnastics, it’s important to rebut a viciously false claim that lies at the core of the settlement agreement.

After reciting Trump’s lawsuit, the agreement declares that the conduct alleged in Trump’s case ”is representative of the sustained use of the levers of government power by Democrat elected officials, political and career federal employees, contractors, and agents in order to target individuals, groups, and entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, and/or ideological reasons (“Lawfare” and “Weaponization”).” Redressing this alleged weaponization by the Biden Justice Department is the animating purpose of the $1.776 billion fund.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/no-benefit-my-ass