This report was featured in The Logoff, a regular dispatch crafted to keep you abreast of the Trump government without letting the daily grind of politics dominate your world. Subscribe right here.
Greetings from The Logoff: President Donald Trump is attempting to compensate himself $230 million utilizing taxpayer funds.
Could you repeat that? The sum, initially brought to light on Tuesday by the New York Times, would materialize as restitution for a pair of administrative assertions Trump has lodged against the Justice Department concerning inquiries into his 2016 campaign’s interactions with Russia, alongside the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, later accompanied by DOJ’s indictment pertaining to his safeguarding of categorized materials after departing the White House back in 2021.
Is that permissible? It’s astoundingly, almost comically, unethical — one individual portrayed it to the Times as “so clear and straightforward, you don’t require a law expert to clarify it” — but it also appears that no one possesses the authority to prevent him.
Trump presented the demands, which aren’t legal proceedings, during 2023 and 2024; any remittance for such claims would need to be sanctioned by the Justice Department, and would be directed to Trump in a personal capacity.
Presently, there are two individuals within the DOJ who possess the authority to authorize a payout of the size Trump is requesting— both were instated to their positions by Trump. One is Trump’s former private legal counsel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, while the other has previously stood for other characters intimately tied to Trump. A more blatant clash of interests is difficult to conceive.
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What is the importance of this? Trump has a consistent background of requesting exceptionally high figures for perceived transgressions; earlier in the year, he took legal action against the New York Times for $15 billion via a lawsuit that was ultimately dismissed. Within this particular context, the judicial system is not present to function as a safeguard; there’s no mechanism in place to impede the expenditure, which possibly may not even surface for the public eye upon its processing.
Now, it’s time to sign off…
My fellow colleague, Bryan Walsh, reliably excels at bringing to light encouraging news around the globe, and I was particularly drawn to his recent piece, centering around the advantages of urban bicycling. Among the noteworthy points: it boasts efficiency, benefits the environment, and positively impacts one’s well-being — also, municipalities, within the US and beyond, are ultimately allocating additional resources towards establishing secured cycling paths and other infrastructural accommodations for cyclists. The article awaits you here; wishing you a delightful evening, and looking forward to reconnecting with you tomorrow!
Source: vox.com
