The great circle jerk of looting
By 
It’s not news that Trump’s $2 billion 1/6 slush fund is a criminal conspiracy, not a “settlement,” but it’s striking how nobody involved in the negotiations even had the pretense of independence from Trump:
Time was running out.
President Trump had sued the I.R.S. for $10 billion, and a federal judge was pressing the Justice Department to explain how it could muster an independent defense of the agency against the man who ultimately controlled it.
Behind the scenes, the job of addressing the vexing problem of how to settle the suit fell to a tight-knit group of lawyers, all of whom had allegiance to Mr. Trump.
On one side of the talks was a Justice Department run by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general who once served as Mr. Trump’s criminal defense lawyer.
On the other were the president’s private lawyers, among them Boris Epshteyn, who was a former client of Mr. Blanche’s. Mr. Epshteyn played a significant role in moving forward the deal to end the suit, coordinating and holding discussions with all of the sides involved: Mr. Trump, the president’s personal lawyers and Justice Department officials, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The discussions were so closely held that some senior White House officials told others that they were blindsided, learning of them only once the agreement was nearly complete.
In the end, the lawyers’ solution did not give Mr. Trump what his lawsuit had demanded, which was simply to move funds from the Treasury Department into his own pocket. But the agreement that was reached was still a big victory for the president and his allies: It set up a $1.8 billion fund to pay people deemed to have been harmed by so-called government “weaponization” — possibly including hundreds of rioters charged with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and released Mr. Trump and his businesses from potentially costly I.R.S. audits.
This is like when Enron would make deals with “third parties” controlled by Enron’s CFO and often without even nominal independent money at risk to get bad debts and investments off their books, but worse. Trump probably does in fact view the fact that he didn’t just get the cash directly as some kind of major concession that proves this is all legit, and this will be the default position of Republican elites soon enough if it isn’t already.
In related news, I’m becoming increasingly impressed with Jon Ossoff:
Ossoff: He settled the suit with himself to create a $1.8 billion slush fund so he can cut checks to cronies and Jan 6th foot soldiers. The same men who sacked the Capitol. Donald Trump's brown shirts . He pardoned them, and now he wants you to pay them.
[image or embed]— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 1:59 PM · May 31, 2026