Taking a chapter out of Trump's book - The Art of the Steal - the Senate snuck a poison pill into the government shutdown bill to reopen the government. The 11th hour inclusion of a provision giving nine senators $500,000 each in damages is basically an award. They got an A+ for being good and loyal students.
The language, tucked into one of the appropriations bills, comes after Senate Republicans released FBI records related to an investigation called "Arctic Frost" which pertained to the fake elector scheme from 2020 where Trump allies pressured GOP electors to register Electoral College votes for Trump from states that former president Joe Biden won.
The heart of this scheme is an accusation that special counsel Jack Smith and FBI leaders had political motives for obtaining phone records of nine GOP lawmakers with grand jury subpoenas.
Fact: the records contained data from four days surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S, Capitol. The records DO NOT INCLUDE the content of the calls. Smith said they were part of routine investigations and not an attempt to illegally listen to their conversations.
Again, to drive the point further, hundreds of phone numbers were routinely picked up along with those nine senators phone numbers in the course of four days of investigations.
It's also recorded in court hearings that all of those senators were speaking with insurrectionists during the attempt to overthrow our government. The fact that they're going to sue the government for $500,000 each of taxpayer's money for being involved in a coup attempt is a sickening display of lawlessness.
What supposedly happened, according to House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson, was he was blindsided by the Senate leaders who added the measure to the bill.
I have a hard time believing that because Trump is running the whole show and both the senate and the house look to their Dear Leader and Teacher. I suspect that Johnson knew he couldn't have added the measure without pushback from the whole house.
When the scheme became common knowledge, after passing it under the umbrella of reopening the government, some Republicans suddenly got cold feet.
House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole said he was "surprised" to see the provision. GOP Reps. Austin Scott, Chop Roy and Morgan Griffith all expressed concern with the provision. Scott told CNN: "I think the provision is poorly worded, but I'm glad that other people were paying attention and read the full legislation and was able to explain to the American citizens what's in it."
Amid a fierce backlash to the scheme some of the nine senators are saying they won't seek monetary damages. However, there are also some who plan on getting a big payday from their constituents' taxes.
Sen. Lindsey Graham bragged that he was "definitely" going for the money and said, "And if you think I'm going to settle this thing for a million dollars, think again. No. I want to make it painful."
Sen. Ron Johnson coyly told CNN he "had no plans at this time" to sue. Sen. Marsha Blackburn came right out and said she intended to sue but did not want monetary damages.
Some of the nine graduating students were more careful like Sen. Dan Sullivan, who stated he wasn't going to sue and was supportive of the House bill to repeal the provision. That's assuming MAGA Mike does call for a bill that would nullify the scheme. Don't bet on that.
As it Stands, the greatest grifter of all time has more students now than he ever did at the defunct and discredited Trump University.
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