DL Opinion columns

Corruption weaponized with tax dollars – by Deborah Levine

 Originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

Trump’s proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund of $1.776 dollars is shaking up a lot of folks. Reports of corruption that would have been denied or minimized are now dramatically public including: 1) Insider Trading: Trump made money from stocks whose prices were affected by his influence, 2) Immunity: The Internal Revenue Service won’t  scrutinize any past or present alleged tax irregularities by the president and his family. 3) Bribery: The Food and Drug Administration allow flavored e-cigarettes after a $5 million PAC (Political Action Committee) tobacco company donation. What accounts for this visibility? It’s that Anti-Weaponization Fund using our tax dollars.  

I take it personally that neo-fascist militias like The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers would receive money after attacking the Capital, law enforcement and threatening elected officials. I worked in Tulsa shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing and was trained by the FBI to deal with neo-fascist, white supremacist groups. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are the latest generation of these hate groups. I will never agree with what our government is doing and proposes to do. 

Keep in mind that NPR reports howTrump continually refers to Jan. 6 as a “day of love” and calls the rioters “patriots.” His pardoning of those charged and convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack was bad enough. But his proposal to use our tax dollars to compensate rioters, including those convicted of assaulting police, is opening the equivalent of a civil war. 

On his podcast “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Texas senator said that the GOP senators were screaming angry about the Anti-Weaponization Fund to the Attorney General. The funding bill for ICE was pushed aside in “…one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”

 According to the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, “It’s illegal, unconstitutional, and outrageous. Congress controls spending of money from the federal government, and we never voted to establish a $1.8 billion fund to pay off insurrectionists and his extremist private militias, and we’d never spend money on that.”

The attempts to again rewrite the Jan. 6 history are monumental.  A report by NBC News notes that the Justice Department has removed hundreds of press releases detailing the charges against hundreds of individuals who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot from its website. Objections to the removal prompted a reply in the DOJ Rapid Response X account. The DOJ post noted: “We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration…We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda.”

The depth of corruption needs to be visible to all of us. Note that Trump nominee for a high-level DOJ legal position, Stanley Woodward, had represented several Jan. 6 defendants whose cases were dismissed and now stand to be beneficiaries of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Trump quickly fired all officials who were part of the Jan. 6 investigation and prosecutions to protect the perps, and himself.

If you feel that it’s totally inappropriate for your tax dollars to go to The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, you may be out of luck. The proposed commission that judges funding requests follows the same principals as the current DOJ. There will be 5 members of the commission appointed by the Attorney General and one chosen in consultation with congressional leaders. However, Trump can remove members of the commission if he dislikes them.

Screaming is a good response to the corrupt Anti-Weaponization Fund. So is preparing for battle. I certainly am… What about you? 

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