Trump to Redistricting Robbers: Hold My Beer
The corruption scandals widen: Publisher's Roundup 67
Never in American history have we seen corruption remotely like what is going on with Donald Trump and his cronies in and outside of government. We have exposed that daily here at the Contrarian including in Top 10 lists as part of this column. On Sunday we will reveal our newest edition of the Top 10 list, and it is a doozy.
Leading off the list will be Trump’s personal lawsuit to brazenly pick $10 billion out of Americans’ pockets. It is a new low. And his machinations in recent days when it looked like a federal judge might stop him only highlight how depraved this whole scheme is. For this week’s publishers note we thought we would offer a deep dive on our new top scandal—with the full list to follow tomorrow.
This sordid story begins in January, when Trump, with his sons and the Trump Organization, sued the IRS and the Treasury Department. The plaintiffs argued that the agencies failed to take appropriate measures to protect Trump’s tax information, which leaked.
The lawsuit is riddled with flaws. For starters, it targets the wrong entity. No one in the IRS leaked his taxes; an outside contractor from Booz Allen Hamilton disclosed the information. For that and many other reasons, the lawsuit is entirely defensible by DOJ – indeed, a comparable one was settled for no payment at all.
Most outrageous of all is the amount originally sought: $10 billion. That is more than the entire annual appropriation for the IRS, an agency of 75,000 employees.
And it is an agency Trump ultimately oversees, as is the other defendant, the Treasury Department. Although Trump claims to be acting in his personal capacity as the plaintiff in this lawsuit, he is the chief executive of the federal government. He is in effect both the plaintiff and the defendant in this case! It is like a bank robbery committed by the CEO and board of directors of the bank.
In the annals of American law, it is hard to find an example of a president effectively suing himself. It’s not just wrong; it also raises profound constitutional issues. The President is prohibited by the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the Constitution from receiving any “profit, gain, or advantage“ from the United States other than his salary. This frivolous cash grab—whether paid to Trump directly or diverted at his direction to a fund that benefits his loyalists—is the exact type of corrupt self-dealing that the founders and framers were concerned with when they signed the Constitution.
And then there is Article III’s Case or Controversy requirement for a federal lawsuit. It provides that a legal action is only valid if the parties are actually adverse to one another. A case that is in effect Donald Trump v. Donald Trump hardly seems to fit.
Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida was rightly skeptical. She asked Trump’s personal lawyers and the government attorneys to submit briefs by May 20 explaining how the parties are genuinely adverse. She also asked six well-regarded lawyers to serve as amici, friends of the court, providing their view of the legitimacy of this lawsuit.
Needless to say, Trump is not keen on this kind of scrutiny and potential rejection of his legal complaint. Giving additional fuel to fears of collusion, on Tuesday, reports emerged that Justice is in settlement negotiations regarding this $10 billion lawsuit. Typically, when a plaintiff settles a case out of court, he is free to drop the case, and that is the end of the matter. If that kind of side deal were allowed to happen here, the settlement would escape judicial scrutiny.
Those concerns about a plot to dodge the court were only heightened by subsequent reports that emerged throughout the week. They suggest that Trump may now drop this and other lawsuits, including one seeking damages from DOJ relating to the seizure of classified documents he wrongly retained at his Florida home. In exchange, DOJ is said to be establishing a $1.7 billion fund to compensate those whom Trump claims were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration’s “weaponization” of the DOJ, including those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jan. 6 insurrectionists who assaulted police officers should not be able to seek a financial reward for their actions. Nor should the rest of the rogues gallery of wrongdoers and Trump allies who are included in his bogus “weaponization” claims. Though Trump is said not to be able to directly apply for payment, it appears that people or entities linked to him will not be precluded.
Judge Williams should not fall for it. She has the power to investigate all this, and she should do so. This is a historically unprecedented effort to undermine her jurisdiction and purloin vast sums through self-dealing.
The whole affair is even more sordid because Trump’s former defense lawyers are running the show at DOJ. That starts with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose bumbling performance when Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in connection with 2016 campaign wrongdoing did not seem to harm the lawyer’s career prospects. How can a DOJ headed by the likes of Blanche be expected to fairly resolve the president’s claims? It cannot, of course.
If you are thinking this whole depraved situation could not possibly get any worse, think again. Thursday brought revelations that former DOJ ethics counsel Joseph Tirrell counseled Blanche that under the ethics laws he should not be involved in anything involving the personal issues of his former client. As a former White House ethics czar, I certainly agree. Though the American people are not privy to who is doing the negotiations over this latest Trump settlement, Blanche should immediately disclose whether he has had any involvement in anything personally relating to Trump.
As you Contrarians are well-aware, corruption has been a hallmark of Trump’s second term, but this cascade of scandal after scandal is in a category of its own. It all amounts to the most extreme example of self-dealing we’ve seen yet. As Trump makes the lives of everyday Americans more expensive by continuing the war in Iran and with higher tariffs, he is trying to shake down the American taxpayer for vast sums. No wonder consumer sentiment is hitting an all-time low.
With the support of your paid subscriptions, we have been sounding the alarm on this pattern of brazen corruption for months—and fighting it. In fact, we filed a complaint in November, requesting that the DOJ inspector general investigate the department’s potential $230 million settlement with Trump after he reportedly filed the claims related to the documents. As we described in our complaint, even Trump admitted, “It’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes a decision, right?... [I]t’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”
We agree, and we will be doing much more. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, enjoy our usual weekly round up of the best of the Contrarian. And if you are coming to Montgomery today, I will see you there. Plus keep an eye out for our coverage on the day of the event.
After Callais
This week, we spoke to experts, policymakers, and activists to break down the threats to voting rights in the wake of Callais and what comes next. Mother Jones correspondent Ari Berman: “I think it’s really hard to argue now that this isn’t a return to some form of Jim Crow.” Election law guru Rick Hasen: “This is just ... a [redistricting] race to the bottom.” Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): “Partisan politics has become a proxy for racism.” Rep Shomari Figures (D-AL): “The answer to a court Jim Crow is turnout, turnout, turnout.”
Jennifer Rubin wrote on what democracy defenders must do now and in the long term to fight the Supreme Court’s infuriating, partisan, and legally unsound rulings. “If Democrats come out of the 2028 election with House and Senate majorities, and the presidency, they will have all the motivation and tools required to reverse the slide into Jim Crow.”
Lane Kiffin and America’s Blindness to Racism in Sports
Carron J. Phillips wrote on the rude awakening poised to descend on sports like college football, in which, despite willful denials of discrimination by powerful white men, sports and politics have never been separate. “Given the Supreme Court’s decision … people have started asking whether Black college athletes should stop playing at schools where the gerrymandering is taking place.”
We’re Not Buying It
Trump’s $4.50 Gas Price Tar Pit
Jeff Nesbit wrote on how little patience the American public has for the White House’s shrugging attitude towards affordability. “When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) notes that Americans are ‘selling their plasma to pay for groceries and gas,’ she isn’t using hyperbole. She’s describing palpable voter anxiety.”
Young People Know When Institutions Are Playing in Our Faces
Michael Franklin wrote on behalf of younger generations who see racism as an embedded, virulent fact in policy and culture — and are tired of hypocritical institutions pretending otherwise. “Telling people to have faith in systems that are inconsistent, selectively accountable, and structurally unequal without acknowledging that sounds like denial, not inspiration.”
Once a Grifter…
Sean Duffy Can’t Stay Away from Reality TV
Meredith Blake checked in with the transportation secretary, who is using his time in office this summer to star in a self-aggrandizing extended car commercial on YouTube. “Duffy has been called tone-deaf for going on a free family vacation when gas is averaging $4.50 a gallon.”
Trump Is a Just Real Estate Guy Who Sees America as a Property
Tom Malinowski sized up the emperor’s new, old clothes, and what they tell us about his policy playbook. “If you treat countries as the equivalent of property development companies, with profit as your only motive, your foreign policy is probably going to look something like this.”
Healthcare Under Threat
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf wrote on the latest from Health and Human Sservices: the launch of moms.gov, a new website that serves as a one-stop-shop for the Trump administration’s pronatalist agenda, and an opinion essay by Melania Trump.
Voting and Reproductive Rights Are Antithetical to the Conservative Agenda
Lourdes A. Rivera analyzed the relationship between Callais and another recent exercise of conservative judicial will: a ruling in favor of Louisiana’s restriction of access to abortion medication. “Black people, women, and Black women in particular are just not Louisiana’s kind of ‘legal persons’ entitled to full participation in society.”
Fighting Back
We Are the New Architects of America
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, joined Jen to discuss “All Roads Lead to the South,” this Saturday’s monumental gathering in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, to protest the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act. “We’re not asking somebody for a seat at the table, this is our table that we have built.”
The Contrarian Covers the Democracy Movement
This week, we covered protests in Oregon, Tennessee, and New York, a new protest song, and the run-up to All Roads Lead to the South. Get help organizing from Indivisible, find protests in your area at mobilize.us, send us your protest photos at submit@contrariannews.org, and, if you can, join The Contrarian in Alabama today!
The New Civil Rights Movement Starts Now
This week’s Calls to Action features more on the action in Alabama, localized protests against data centers, preparation for “Seven Days in June,” and more ways to get off the sidelines in defense of democracy.
Cartoons, Culture, & Fun Stuff
This week, our cartoonists took on the war in Iran (On Life Support, Nick Anderson); the war on American voters (Raising the Flag, Nick Anderson), and how neither is making Trump look as good as he thinks (Up to his Knees, RJ Matson; Tom the Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling).
How the Battle Over American History Is Playing Out in One Southern City
Meredith Blake wrote on Natchez, a bracing and inventive documentary on antebellum tourism in Mississippi that juxtaposes Gone with the Wind fantasy with the violent present-past beneath. “Southern nostalgia is especially irresistible because it has been economically beneficial.”
The Trump era is finally ending. Nothing the clown does is working. No one really understands why he attacked Iran, causing a worldwide oil shortages. Why he enacted inflationary tariffs raising grocery prices through the roof.
Why he needs a secret storm trooper army to attack Americans and immigrants in this country. Why he thinks it's "cute" to mess with science research, medical care and education. Why he's happy to accuse Democrats and the majority of Independents of being traitors
Why he's attacking the voting rights of minority Americans. Why he's looking for ever new ways to screw disadvantaged Americans. A majority of Americans don't just dislike or disapprove of the guy. The majority are disgusted by the guy and want him gone.
Today, the equities markets finally started to "adjust" to Trump's wildly inflationary economy.
If the investor class finally turns on Trump his approval ratings will drop into the low 30's and MAGA become a derogotory verb in America.
Let's all stand together for the Real America we have built and love over the past 50 years and STOP Trump's destruction before he destroys us.
Seeing it all listed in one email is almost too much to bear. I can’t read it again because I did read it the first time around, all of it. But nonetheless I am grateful to you for keeping it all open and in front of our noses to keep our outrage flaring!