1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

The President of the United States sued the government he runs and is crafting a settlement with agency heads he can fire to give him $1.7 billion of our money he can use to reward his allies and foot soldiers. And all while he’s telling us we can’t afford food assistance or cheaper health care! This is open corruption, a president using taxpayer funds as a personal piggy bank. This is money going from hard-working Americans to enrich the thugs who beat law enforcement with flagpoles and fire extinguishers to try to overturn an election, or to entities associated with Trump himself. Pay-offs would be doled out by a commission with zero transparency requirements, whose members would be appointed by Trump’s own attorney general and could be removed by him at will. If we saw this in another country, we know exactly what we’d call it. Members of Congress have already introduced the No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act (S. 3582/H.R.7711) to keep the White House from enriching violent insurrectionists. This should passed as soon as possible. And we need to go further, pushing forward a measure to block the use of a single penny of public funds for these payoffs. This should be done as a stand-alone, as part of the upcoming appropriations process, or through whatever path it takes. Use every procedural and political tool available.