Trump “Thug Fund” Rivals Watergate

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0:34But home projects? I second guess everything. Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? Who do I even call? That's where Thumbtack comes in. Just upload a photo or voice note, and it uses AI-powered search to match you with the right top-rated local pro. So instead of guessing, you get clarity and can hire with confidence. For your next home project, try Thumbtack. Hire the right pro today. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melger. We have a legal special report coming up in this block. But we begin, of course, with what is now the biggest story haunting Donald Trump, the pushback, the lawsuits over his thug fund.

1:10The criticism is bipartisan now. It's drawing Republican backlash, threatening to stop the plot. Congressman, what are you making this$1.7 billion fund for Donald Trump? We're going to try to kill it. You're going to try to kill it? Yeah. Okay. And how? Well, we're considering legislative options. We're going to write a letter to the AG to start, but we're considering a legislative option. We're trying to unpack exactly what the legal machinations are, but can't do that. What are your thoughts about this representation fund from the president? Yeah, not a big fan. Not a big fan, can't do it. They're going to try to, quote, kill it.

1:52And that's just from Republicans. Democrats say the world is witnessing one of the most brazen acts of corruption. and self-dealing in American history. New lawsuits coming from police who've lived through this, arguing the financing here would basically fund insurrectionists and the paramilitary groups that commit violence in Trump's name. This is, of course, an anti-police measure. There's no other way to think about it. Donald Trump is not just soft on crime. He is pro-thug, pro-violence, pardoning, and funding. the January 6th convicts say they're happy conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board says this is rotten and that those convicts have to explain they're simply in the wrong place at the wrong time a police officer began smashing his face into their fists the kind of Orwellian upside down language that would only defend this the Times says there's never been an example of presidential corruption like this a new claim coming from a former Trump official Michael Caputo.

2:53He wants millions because he was investigated in the Mueller probe. So there is broad pushback to Donald Trump's unprecedented plot here. But I want to tell you right now, this is actually worse than it even looks, which brings us to our special report tonight. Trump's plot is measurably worse than Watergate, which famously drove Nixon from office. That was about misusing government power to cover up political crimes against domestic opponents and some critics. Now, those crimes were serious. Nixon henchmen were caught burglarizing the Democratic headquarters, something they still teach in school.

3:31And there was domestic espionage and then obstruction of justice by Nixon and his top aides, so the Roth went to the top. But let's be clear. The MAGA crimes here are more serious than that. sedition, which is a more grave conviction than any of the Watergate charges. So you don't have to take anyone's word for it. We had a legal process then as now. We have a code of law and federal crimes in this country for a reason. And these crimes that he has already pardoned and now wants to fund are worse, including committing violence against police and advocating violence against U.S. officials. Remember, Trump freed those violent criminals, which broke his own claims in 2021 to oppose that violence when he was worried about his impeachment trial.

4:20It also contradicts Republicans who had claimed they were drawing a line at the actual violence that day. Remember, a few years ago, the Republican talk, the Tucker Carlson spin was about tourists and people who were visiting and that many of them were not the violent ones, which minimized it, but showed an awareness of how heinous and unacceptable and anti-American the violence was. Now, to be clear, tonight the news is Trump's DOJ says they're open to paying those same violent convicts with this pilfered huge tax dollar fund, which Congress did not appropriate. They claim they can take the money, as you see here, and give it to secret recipients, including violent convicts.

5:03I want to be very clear with you based on the facts. This is a thug fund. Trump wants to take your taxpayer money in a way that's probably illegal under the current precedent we have and give it to thugs, violent convicts, seditionists even. This is not about the IRS. It's not even about the propaganda language of weaponization. and we've actually seen some of the coverage fall into the misleading trap where the media parrots that the government, currently controlled by someone who is pro-violence and anti-police, they parrot some of what the government says. It's an understandable habit. In normal times, you tend to quote the government.

5:44But here, quoting just their Orwellian words can sane wash what is a anti-police, anti-American, pro-sedition, pro-coup, violent supporting effort. So even amid the outcry, there are headlines that seem to miss how bad this is by discussing it in terms of a, quote, settlement or money or compensation for Trump's allies as part of a lawsuit settlement. It is not that. And even if these funds are ultimately thwarted as illegal by the Congress or the courts, which we're seeing a big movement to stop, here's why this matters even more and why this is our special report for you right now. we have to remember this is not about Trump wanting to compensate or help people facing quote weaponization we're talking about someone who doesn't even pay his own closest employees and lawyers and contractors and people who've kept his secrets let alone take a big risk and heat to try to move this money to people he's never even met so exhibit a in my special report tonight for you i want you to keep in mind how the history is instructive.

6:55Donald Trump, as you properly alluded to, does not pay legal bills. If you don't perform well in front of Donald Trump, he won't pay his bills. President Trump is telling aides not to pay Rudy Giuliani's legal fees. The same exact thing that he did to me. He doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself. So the actual record, not a supposition, not a prediction, not an opinion, The record is that Donald Trump doesn't even pay his own people when it might be in his interest. So this new plan isn't about helping random people who are upset with the government. It's also different than some of the other scandals Trump is facing that may later be investigated or potentially prosecuted.

7:39The self-dealing corruption where Donald Trump just takes money for himself and his family. This is different and could have wider risk. This is a brazen new step to start rebuilding Donald Trump's insurrection force. How he has freed and is now trying to fund the convicts willing to break the law for Trump to do violence. Now remember, those are people who did those things long after many of his other employees, aides, and government officials stopped. So it's not just a thug fund to try to lie about the past or reshape history, which has been such a big project of the MAGA right. We know Trump has tried to lie a lot about his 2020 loss, and he's also lied and tried to minimize with allies who've become more vocal in their lies in the last few years, even after the Fox defamation case and other problems, about the 2021 convicted sedition.

8:34The evidence shows tonight this is about the future, and that makes it even more dangerous. Donald Trump knows and he lived through what happens when you have an election loss. You could be commander-in-chief, have your finger on the bomb and all that, but when you have a loss, it shifts power quickly. He knows how even what he had, some pretty serious political loyalists on policy and secrecy and a lot of other issues, quickly moved on. They moved on because he lost. So if Donald Trump's Republican Party, which, as yesterday's primaries show, is definitely Trump's for the time being, If that party loses in 2028, he remembers how quickly people shift.

9:21And he knows, Donald Trump knows, that he and his team and his family will be facing legal liabilities that dwarf the first term. That's when he left office after the failed insurrection. He became the first former president ever indicted. There's more tentacles, more problem, more corruption now. And even if he doesn't think that he would actually wind up indicted in a jail again and he has a better Supreme Court shield, he and his family would be spending potentially years in at least the investigation of those issues, if not more, if the DOJ goes back to an independent format. And Trump lost in court.

9:59He lost those officials last time after the loss. He turned to more desperate and aggressive measures. We tracked it in these plots, which were notably indicted. over time things that started out lawful of course you can file lawsuits the top arrow you see turned red and indicted over time culminating in the insurrection that trump now supports with these individuals he's now brazenly publicly trying to fund with your money that final arrow sabotage january 6 was a tactic to go after the jan 6 certification that was not a big date in American history because other presidents had never summoned a rally that then turned into a sedition to physically, violently prevent the timely certification on that date.

10:47Remember, it initially worked. It was short-term effective in that the certification was initially prevented. Lawmakers fleeing as that violence, which Trump has since embraced with full pardons, did its work. Please may buy their masks. Lend them your seats. Please grab a mask. Please lay your leg. And be prepared to don your bed. Take it back. Everybody stay down. Get down. Tresa! Tresa! Tresa! Fuck your name! Amen! Amen! That mayhem was happening in the seat of democracy on a day when, of course, there was some security, maybe not enough, to prevent the January 6th certification through violence.

11:41And remember, what Donald Trump said the next day is part of the case against him now. It's actually shocking, and I'm going to show it to you when our special report continues after this short break. Monday, AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com, so they see the full picture. My work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff, knowing everything runs smoothly in the background.

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13:08Welcome back to our special report. Documenting this link between Trump's new thug fund and plots for future political violence that build out his January 6th model. Remember, that was so horrific that lawmakers in both parties had to be whisked away. taken to these secure rooms where they were literally hiding out from the violent threat of Trump's fans. The Secret Service agents, we learned later, were calling their loved ones, bracing for a mass shootout that they expected to be deadly when trying to defend then Vice President Pence from a mob unleashed by Trump. And as I promised you before the break, I want you to watch this closely because it tells you so much about where we were then with the prospect of some accountability and an impeachment trial on the horizon and where we are today, tonight, and in the days ahead.

14:04Because then-President Trump, the day after, claimed to oppose the violent part of the mob he unleashed.

14:25Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay. Trump did not want them to pay. He was lying. He was not outraged by the violence against police, fellow Americans, endangering fellow citizens. I shouldn't have to say it, but endangering Democrats and Republicans alike. He did not make them pay. Think about what you heard then. Even in this time where people are so sort of just exhausted, inured, deadened by all of this, which of course rewards the people that want you that way when we actually need to come together at times like this civically he didn't make them pay, he rewarded them with those pardons even the most violent convicts he showed that, and this is something no one, I think, should take any happiness in it's a sad thing to say about a sitting president But Donald Trump showed that those violent convicts do indeed represent his vision of the country he would want, the partisan lawless part of the country that he would like to lead against everyone else, which still means against the majority of us.

15:54Donald Trump now previewing potentially new broader pardons before he leaves this term. And when you look at that kind of reporting, you have to remember, pardons are for criminals. So what else is President Trump planning that he openly, brazenly talks up broad pardons years out for the people around him? The insurrection came at the end of those plots that we documented and I showed you. That was the last time he lost a federal presidential election. I'm not talking midterms because of the nature of the control of the administration, DOJ. That, of course, is only every four years. This is what he was trying to do the last time he lost that kind of election.

16:36And his team already admits plans to abuse federal powers to interfere with voting and probe local voting offices. And they're trying to seize voting rolls. And if those plots to try to steal or distort the election outcome fail in advance, and if Republicans lose in 2028, that would hand DOJ back to independent oversight. And so Trump already has this past blueprint. which led to the insurrection that he has now pardoned, which means he is quite legally, literally pro-violence and pro-insurrection. And this time, I want you to understand, because it matters, and being prepared matters, and being on alert matters, this time it is worse, because those plots, some of them failed and faltered because of Trump's own aides who famously objected, a vice president who refused to join lies about certifying the loss of the ticket he was on, because he still was factual and lawful about it.

17:34The Trump-Pence ticket lost. Or an attorney general who took the rare step of leading the DOJ to publicly reject Trump's voter fraud claims at the time, which was a setback as Trump tried to get those claims up to the Supreme Court. It failed in those appeals then. Plots that faltered partly because those officials who were, of course, politically loyal to Trump and arch-conservative, in their beliefs, but they did refuse at the end to break the law. It includes also the indelible Trump's stain on American history of his own VP certifying the actual results of the election as Trump's fans quite literally clamored to assassinate and hang him.

18:18Some of the fans who were there that day, of course, are later convicted, and Trump has now freed them, which shows you exactly where he stands on efforts to assassinate even his running mate, vice president, who was a heartbeat from the presidency. He freed them. Now he wants them paid by taking your tax dollars. And here's where it does get worse. Those law-abiding objectors, the type of people who put the law above Trump's demands, some of them are gone. We now have what has been reported as a kind of mini-MAGA state within the administration. and even after this first year that had more baseless probes and charges of opponents than any time in history we've been tracking for you here and i am drawing all these connections tonight so we see what we're up against as a nation on a non-partisan civic basis even after this hit list was pursued with evidence-free crusades against both a cia and fbi chief which is pretty bananas even after bondi did all of that trump still fired her because he doesn't think she went far enough and is now auditioning how much farther, which is to say how much more lawless acting Attorney General Blanche can be.

19:30And in his short time at the top of the job, we've seen that he is soft on crime, coddles criminals, is willing to lie. I mean, that's just in the first weeks. We are a long way from the first term. I repeatedly told the president in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud. I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bull. Today, a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned an indictment against James Comey on two counts. I love working for President Trump. I love you, sir.

20:14This is the historical record that you have to view more widely to understand this thug fund, which is still being called by other names, even by some of its critics. But if you take money and give it to violent convicts who attack police, who are thugs in every sense of the word, it's a thug fund. It's not about compensating random people or even political allies. Trump's never prioritized that, not in his entire public career. And it's not even just about the past, although it includes diluting and minimizing and spinning and lying about the past. It is, along with the plots I showed you and public statements of these government officials, we're only reporting what they admit they're planning, it's about fortifying the effort to fund and support people who will go farther, people who have previously committed crimes and violence.

21:06We know this from drawing on the record and the testimony and the evidence exposed by the House January 6th Committee, plus a lot of other independent, dogged work by journalists and other fact-finders who, of course, are so attacked these days, and yet, let's be clear, that's part of how we know what we know. Now, you might say, okay, Ari, this is giving me a lot of negative. Well, sometimes to get to the positive, we have to face the negative quite squarely rather than minimize it or look away. I can tell you that some lawmakers are moving faster this time than the first term to confront the thug fund and this effort and what it says about the very uncomfortable fact that we have a pro-sedition, pro-violence leader of the country right now.

21:49This is what Congressman Raskin is now warning is the looting of the taxpayers to fund a dangerous private militia. It's all about weaponizing the tax dollars of the American people to support Donald Trump's private militia. If these people had real viable causes of action against anybody, they would go to federal court. And the ones who have gone to federal court have lost their cases overwhelmingly. That is true. That's what the congressman told Rachel this week. There are a lot of problems right now. And there's a lot of pushback to Donald Trump on a lot of different points. and citizens, people, through our civic process, people will decide in their own minds what they think is more important.

22:37Obviously, when you look at the economy and affordability and the gas crunch, there's a lot of people focused on that. That might be the reason that they stand up in a way that also helps thwart or beat back those who would join the president's effort to steal democracy again, potentially through violence. But this is the central, largest, obviously most violent national security risk we face as a nation and as a democracy. We'll be right back for more perspective from Andrew Weissman.

23:21Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture. My work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff, knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Artificial intelligence is moving very, very fast, and it's raising new questions just about every day about what it is, what it isn't. When all is said and done, what is the endgame? I'm Chris Hayes, and as part of my podcast, Why Is This Happening, I'm speaking with leading experts each week to help ground that conversation.

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24:24Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay. Almost shocking to watch now then-President Trump lie and claim that there would be hell to pay, if you will, for those convicts which he has since pardoned and now seeks to fund. I'm joined by longtime DOJ vet Andrew Weissman, the author of the new book, Liar's Kingdom, How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America. Everyone knows we rely on Andrew for a lot, and you can get Liar's Kingdom.

25:05Google it, check it out right now wherever books are sold. Andrew, I tried to show that this is not just an outrage and unlawful for the many reasons that have been mentioned. it's not really a settlement. Congress has to appropriate funds. The president can't just raid tax dollars and then give out money to other people. But that above all that, it also fits with an effort to revive the failed coup. I was listening to you. I was listening to how impassioned you were. And I agreed with everything that you said about this. there are two lanes i'm usually here to talk about the legal lane but the way that this can be stopped in the easiest way is for congress to actually do something um and we have seen them do that for the federal reserve um when they thought that there were unfair attacks on their independence We have seen public reaction with respect to what this administration was doing in Minnesota and the administration for political reasons in terms of public outcry having to pull back in the face of the murder and shooting of three people there in addition to a whole series of abuses.

26:30If Congress wakes up and does something, and if it's needed in response to people saying this is, as you said, not just, in my view, theft of$1.8 billion, but the use of that money then for completely political and illicit purposes. to me that this is the moment for Congress to do it. There will be lawsuits. And that's the other track. But you're saying it's interbranch. You don't have to wait. You don't have to defer. You go and you say, no, this is not what we ever appropriated. We showed one of the Republicans walking down the hall saying, no, we're going to kill it. And there's so much rhetoric about democracy.

27:17I just want to say something obvious that gets forgotten. they tried to kill members of Congress. You would think by self-interest alone, Congress would think long and hard about funding that crew of violent people who are roaming the streets feeling immune and lawless. Now they get extra money and are emboldened for the future. By self-interest and protection alone, wouldn't Congress want to act swiftly? Yes, but they also look, and if you have Republican members of Congress, senators and members of the House saying, I don't want to be primaried and I want to keep my job. By the way, I'm not saying that it's a defense.

27:57I'm saying that their self-interest becomes aligning themselves. But it also is one where they may be able to act en masse. And the same we saw with respect to the Epstein files. But part of that for people listening to this is Congress very much getting the reading the room and getting a sense of what is the level of public outrage because they will respond to that, or at least hopefully they will in the same way you've seen it in other circumstances. To me, that's the remedy here for the immediate term so that the courts will get involved. There will be lawsuits. There was one today, but I think there will be many more.

28:38Yeah. And Todd Blanche, I've mentioned, has the fastest slide of anyone who's been in that job acting or permanent I've ever seen in covering this. Here he was failing to rule out because apparently he thinks his boss is going to want funding violence. So here he was. Will you agree to encourage those commissioners to set a guideline that compensation will not go to individuals who are convicted of assaulting police officers? I expect— I just—a yes would answer my question or a no. A yes will not answer that question. I mean, you're asking whether I will encourage. I don't think that's a fair word.

29:15I don't think it's the attorney general's job to encourage commissioners to do or not do anything. So, I mean, that's so anti-police, soft on crime, anti-blue lives, everything else. Absolutely. And he, as a lawyer, he tries to get into talking about commissioners and technicalities. That's not what anybody, if you ask the attorney general, hey, I know you got this complex plan. Will any of this money go to terrorists or Al Qaeda? No, of course not. Will any of this money go to the people convicted of sedition and attacking police? Should be a quick no, it wasn't. What does that tell us? Well, one, he is not getting ahead of the president.

29:49Remember where we were when before the beginning of the second term and we heard from Pam Bondi and from J.D. Vance? Essentially, don't worry. In the pardons, we're going to do triage. Don't worry. We're going to the people who are violent. That's not really that. Those are not the people. Yeah, we did hear that. And then, of course, what happened? Mass pardons for everyone, even the people who are serious violence and criminality. So this is one, not getting ahead of the president on that. But two, it is the most disingenuous thing to say, oh, this isn't my job. The commissioners will decide that.