Top Treasury Lawyer Quits as Trump Creates $1.8 Billion Slush Fund
Top Treasury Lawyer Quits as Trump Creates $1.8 Billion Slush Fund
Brian Morrissey was picked by the president to lead the Treasury Department. Even he had enough.
The U.S. Treasury’s highest-ranking lawyer quit just hours after President Trump announced his “Anti-Weaponization Fund”—a brazen attempt to dole out $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies, supporters, and himself.
Treasury General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned shortly after the fund was approved on Monday, according to The New York Times. Morrisey has yet to publicly comment. He served for only seven months.
The fund—created by Trump in exchange for dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS—allows anyone who feels they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration to seek damages. This includes, but is not limited to, January 6 rioters, right-wing think tanks, and the president’s own super PAC. While Trump claims he “wasn’t involved in the whole creation of it,” he controls who sits on the board of the fund.
There’s also a massive disclaimer that states that once the funds are disbursed, his administration has “no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse.” The move preemptively dodges any future legal issues that may arise from awarding funds to people who went to jail for assault and sedition (and have committed other crimes since).
The outcry has been swift and widespread, with Senator Elizabeth Warren calling the slush fund an “insane level of corruption—even for Trump.” California Governor Gavin Newsom said it was “waste, fraud, and abuse in the flesh.” Maybe those same feelings about this blatant self-enrichment scheme got to Morrissey.
“Betrayal”: Trump EPA Rolls Back Key Drinking Water Protections
The EPA has repealed limits on four types of “forever chemicals.”
President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency wants Americans to keep guzzling “forever chemicals” in their water.
The agency offered a formal proposal Monday to repeal Biden-era regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, a.k.a “forever chemicals,” because they linger in the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years.
If finalized, the proposal would rescind protections against GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS, four of the six PFAS outlined in the Biden restrictions, and delay a requirement to filter out PFAS by 2029 until 2031.
David Andrews, chief science officer for the Environmental Working Group, told The Washington Post that the decision was “a betrayal of public health and the mission of making America healthier. Safe and clean drinking water should be a right for everyone in this country.”
“Slow-walking this is really just going the wrong direction,” he added.
In addition to infuriating environmental advocates, the move is also sure to inflame the Make America Healthy Again sect of Trump supporters, who have criticized Zeldin’s willingness to allow chemical companies to dictate policy.
Trump Demands Investigation Into Blue State That Didn’t Vote for Him
Donald Trump accused Maryland of election fraud.
Thousands of Maryland residents will be receiving new mail-in ballots due to a vendor error. Yet Donald Trump has interpreted the state’s attempt to correct the switch-up as some kind of fraud.
“In Maryland, they sent out 500,000 Illegal Mail In Ballots, and they got caught!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon. “So now, they’re going to send out 500,000 more Mail In Ballots, but nobody knows what’s happening with the first 500,000 they sent.”
“In addition, many of these Ballots went to Democrats, so any Republican running in Maryland doesn’t have a chance! This was done by the Corrupt Governor of the State, Wes Moore. He allowed this to happen in order to make sure that Democrats win.”
Officials with the Maryland State Board of Elections shared Monday that they believed a small number of local voters had received incorrect forms. In an attempt to ensure the “integrity and security” of the vote, state officials opted to reissue all requested mail-in ballots instead of just a few.
“Mail-in voting is an integral facet of the electoral process. With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in its integrity or accuracy.… That is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots,” said the Maryland state administrator of elections, Jared DeMarinis.
Nonetheless, Trump has demanded a federal investigation into the mail-in ballot switcheroo.
“It never made sense to me that Maryland was considered an automatic Democrat State, but now I see why,” Trump continued in his social media post. “I’m sure this has gone on for years. I’m going to ask the Attorney General of the United States, and the DOJ, to bring an immediate investigation into this situation.”
It’s the latest attempt by the president and his allies to seed doubt and distrust into America’s electoral process. Despite large-scale investigations that extensively debunked the MAGA movement’s initial........
