ArcaMax

In my years covering Washington, one of the most impressive politicians I encountered is Lamar Alexander. Few people have a better resume: Senate, White House and Department of Justice staffer; two-term governor of Tennessee; president of the University of Tennessee; two-time candidate for president; and three-term United States s enator. Unlike too many Republican senators today, Alexander was always willing to rise above party and work across the aisle to get stuff done.

So I was disappointed when Alexander helped derail Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2020. He opposed allowing witnesses to testify, and voted against convicting Trump because, he said, attempts to bribe the president of Ukraine didn’t meet the test for removal from office.

That’s how he voted in Trump’s first impeachment trial, but there’s little doubt about how he would have voted in his second. In his new memoir, “The Education of a Senator,” Alexander writes: “Trump undermined the United States Constitution and assaulted one of the most hallowed precepts and practices of the American Democracy, the peaceful transfer of power after an election. The president then ignored pleas to stop the rioters until it was too late.” Alexander concludes: “If those actions do not constitute a “high crime or misdemeanor, I do not know what does.”

Sending an armed mob to attack the U.S. Capitol? Like most of us, Lamar Alexander thought it couldn’t get any worse. But then it did. On the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 members of the mob that stormed the Capitol, including those already serving prison terms for assaulting more than 150 peace officers.

Once again, we all thought it couldn’t get any worse than that. Wrong again. Trump announced this week he wasn’t satisfied with dropping all charges against those found guilty of attacking the Capitol – wait for it, all caps mine – he was actually going to PAY THEM FOR DOING SO!

No, sorry, that’s not right. Correction. Trump’s not going to pay them, YOU AND I ARE GOING TO BE FORCED TO PAY THEM WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS! PAY THEM FOR TREASON!

It’s all part of a $1.8 billion “slush fund” created this week, under Trump’s orders, by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense attorney, to reimburse people Trump says were “horribly treated.”

As laid out by Blanche, anybody who “believes” they were mistreated by the Biden Justice Department can apply to a special commission of five – appointed by Blanche and approved by Trump – for compensation. Anybody! That includes Trump’s big donors, campaign cronies, former Trump staffers convicted of crimes like Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, members of the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and anybody else who was arrested and prosecuted for storming the Capitol on January 6, many of whom are already lining up. If all January 6 rioters pardoned by Trump seek compensation, the average payout would be $1.125 million – over a million dollars each for trying to overthrow the U.S. government – which, again, you and I will pay for.

For them, this is the ultimate reward for breaking the law. As the New York Times headlined, it enables them to go from “Prison to Pardons to Payouts.” All they need to do is “think” they were wrongly prosecuted, submit a claim, and they’re eligible for cold cash. It’ll be up to Trump’s kangaroo committee to decide who gets paid off and how much, but we’ll never know. The committee will submit a “confidential written report” of its payments to the attorney general only.

It’s an unbelievably blatant, corrupt scam that puts the lives of all police officers at risk because it sends the worst possible message to paramilitary groups: you can commit violence, destroy government buildings and attack and kill police officers with impunity, as long as you’re acting in Trump’s name. We’ll even pay you for doing so.

If you have any outrage left, save it for this: Trump’s “slush fund” was announced one day after the Justice Department, in return for Trump’s dropping his bogus $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, banned the IRS forever from auditing any tax returns filed by Donald Trump, his sons or the Trump business empire. The Supreme Court already gave Trump immunity from breaking the law. Now the DOJ has given him immunity from cheating on his taxes.

Surely, it can’t get any worse than that, can it? Sadly, as long as Donald Trump’s in the White House, it will.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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