How I Will Stop Trump’s Brazen Grift: Jamie Raskin | The Daily Beast Podcast

In the first term it was like Ma and pa. Brick and mortar style corruption. But in the new term they are into the digital age. So now, if corrupt foreign governments want to channel money to Donald Trump, it's through crypto, and he's increased his net worth by more than $6 billion. Now. I think it was our failure to stop him in the first administration. to have a unanimous bipartisan blockade of his efforts to turn the presidency. into an instrument of private profit.

that set the stage for him to do this now. And they consider all bets are off. It's a completely lawless situation. We've never seen abuse like the kind of abuse. that has taken place under Donald Trump. This is the Daily Beast podcast. I'm Sarah Weiss in for Joanna Coles. Our guest today is Congressman Jamie Raskin, the Democratic Maryland. congressmember and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

He's also a long time constitutional professor. Today's topics include. Raskin pushed for massive reforms in the face of what he calls. unprecedented corruption. His investigation into President Trump's declining health, and why he's moving forward with efforts he also pushed during the Biden. administration and will get to where Democrats investigations go. Should they take that? The House in November? But before we get into the show, please take a moment to share this podcast.

with your friends. Invite them to subscribe to The Daily Beast. YouTube channel, where close to 700,000 followers. And with your help, we are thinking we can get to 1 million this year. With that, here's my conversation with the Congressman. Congressman, you spoke. this week about us entering this new age of political corruption, and you've proposed multiple ways to tackle that. But before we get into what some of the fixes might be, what are like.

the most egregious offenses that you're seeing at this time that is. forced you to really come out with this very strong, widespread response? Well, I mean, fresh in my mind, Sarah, Donald Trump. wants to create a $1.7 billion political slush. fund in the Department of Justice to give, who knows, maybe $1 million a piece to Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, riders, insurrectionists. and other political associates and lieutenants and servants of his.

So he started it already with a $1.25 million payment. to his disgraced former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, lying about various conversations he had with officials in the Russian government. He brought a lawsuit against the government, later saying. that his guilty pleas should be nullified and rescinded, and he was wronged. Those were thrown out of court, but nonetheless, Trump gave him $1.25 million. Trump gave $1.25 million to Carter.

Page, another sketchy figure from the first Trump. administration, who also had was had criminal convictions. He brought a lawsuit later to try to get a court to overturn those. he lost in court. And despite the fact that these people are losing in court, Trump is getting his attorney general. and Department of Justice to pay them more than $1 million. Well, now, after having brought a completely.

bogus $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. because a. consultant released his tax returns. and that guy ended up going to jail for it, now Trump is saying he's settling the lawsuit. The problem is it's a bogus lawsuit. First of all, Trump said he was going to release all of his. IRS tax returns, as every other president did. But then he said no, his privacy was violated. But there's no private right of action.

There are lots of people whose information. has been leaked out by the government, but there's not a private right of action. If he thinks that that should exist for citizens, he should come and introduce legislation for it. But into that, he said he wanted $10 billion. and he was going to work it out with his attorney general. But now he's saying in some act of magnanimity, in generosity. towards the American people, he's going to settle the suit and just set up a $1.7. billion fund to give away to his friends and his underlings and his associates. Congress never appropriated $1.7 billion for him to give away to his friends.

Congress would never vote to give $1.7 billion. to the Proud Boys in those keepers. I don't even think the House would. I think we could get enough Republicans to come over and say that that would be. an outrageous squandering of public tax dollars. But in any event, I know that it would be stopped in the Senate. There is no way they'd get 60 votes to make that happen in the Senate. So it can never happen. And yet he just went ahead and did it. They've corrupted and prostituted the judgment fund, which was set up in the 1960s, for the government to pay.

for actual court judgments against the United States. So the DOJ could do that, and they wouldn't have to come back. to the US Congress for an appropriation each time. But this is not a valid or fair settlement. of a bona fide grievance against the government. It's setting up in advance a $1.7 billion slush. fund for Donald Trump to use for completely political purposes. And by the way, it's not his only slush fund.

This is a pattern. Now, this is the Board of Peace, $1.5 billion they took. from the State Department that was there primarily for disaster relief. They gave it to the Board of Peace. Then they got $1 billion from Qatar. They got $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates. They got $1 billion from Saudi Arabia and some other countries. And he declares himself chairman for life of the Board of Peace, all of the monies under his unilateral control. And when the director of the Trademark Office came before the Judiciary Committee.

and he had gotten a trademark for petition for a trademark for the Board of Peace, again, totally outside of the law, totally unprecedented. Is this a public entity or a private entity? Is it an American entity? Is it a foreign entity? What's it going to do? So we don't know what it is, but there's billions of dollars in there. And he's chairman for life. So this is a pattern that's taking place. And that's why I say it's a new era of corruption. Because essentially, Donald Trump is laying claim.

to the federal budget for his own purposes. He's using the federal government to his own benefit. But we've also seen the president himself making billions of dollars. and seeing his own personal wealth skyrocket during this second term. Did you imagine that it would go to the extent that it has? And what do you see as the biggest challenges there? Well, one could imagine it in the first term. It was like ma and pa brick and mortar style corruption.

So the Chinese government took out. 7 or 8 weeks of hotel rooms at the Trump Hotel that were never used. Obviously, that was just used as a portal to get money to Donald Trump, and it was an illegal, unconstitutional foreign government emolument. But in the new term, they are into the digital age. So now, if corrupt foreign governments want to channel money to Donald Trump, it's through crypto. And he's increased his net worth by more than $6 billion.

His income went up. a billion and a half dollars in his first year in office. I mean, think about any other president, think about Abraham Lincoln, or think about even Richard Nixon or Gerald Ford or John F Kennedy. These people didn't get into office and make money. The most of any of them made money on was an advance for a book. for like 1 million or $2 million or something like that, not billions. of dollars flowing into various crypto scams and crypto schemes.

But that's where we are now. So I suppose you could imagine it. And I think it was our failure to stop him in the first administration. to have a unanimous bipartisan blockade of his efforts. to turn the presidency into an instrument of private profit. That set the stage for him to do this now. And they consider all bets are off. It's a completely lawless situation. I mean, he was asked the question, you know, what are the limits on what you will do?

And he said, my limits are my own conscience. So you can be a judge for yourself of how much of a real limit that is. In the meantime, he tells us this week he doesn't think about. the financial situation. of the American people, which is perhaps the truest statement he's ever uttered. He doesn't think about the financial situation of the American people. He thinks about the financial situation of him and his family, his closest associates, and then his private militia. The people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th and wounded 150 of.

our police officers and injured them, driving many of them out of police work. because they could no longer do it because they were so disabled. You talk about the extent, this wide extent of corruption. Obviously, you've introduced a series of bills to rein that in or to stop that. We're only in just over a year, one of Trump's second term. But just to get into some of the meat of what you're proposing, what what are some of the things that you're looking at.

should be changed moving forward in terms of the law? Well, I mean, we could start with foreign government emoluments. Now, again, up until Donald Trump, this wasn't a problem. All the other presidents respected the idea that you don't put money. in your pocket from a king, a prince, or foreign state. You cannot accept a present in a monument, which means a payment in office. where a title of any kind whatever from a king, prince or foreign state. without coming to Congress first.

And every president respected that. Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the Civil War, got a gift from the King of Siam of these beautiful elephant tusks, and he wrote a letter to Congress saying, I've never kept anything. anybody's given me, but I love these tusks. Can I keep this emolument, this gift that has come from a foreign country? And he gets the message back. You know, you're doing a great job in the Civil War. We love you. Honesty. But no, you can't keep them. You've got to turn them over to the Department of State. Just to give you a sense of how far we've come from that.

Now we've got a president. who's making millions, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars, potentially from foreign states, governments, kings, princes. He got a. jet from Qatar. for $400 million that the government. accepted that he's going to keep with him after he leaves office. I mean, we've never seen anything like it. So we need a system, and the system means that. that there's got to be automatic reporting of foreign government monuments.

that a president is receiving that he wants to keep to Congress. And then Congress has got to meet within two weeks to vote on it. In other words, we need a real system because all of this is taking place. as kind of a shadow government operation. Similarly, on the pardons, this president has set up a pay to play pardon system. for the most corrupt white collar criminals and fraudsters in America. In the world. He pardoned the former president of Honduras,

who brought in 800,000. pounds of cocaine to America. Okay, so. and he said he was going to shove it up the noses of the gringos. He was sentenced to jail for decades. and to pay fines. And Trump pardoned him. Who knows exactly what the backroom negotiation ordeal was?

He pardoned all kinds of fraudsters. There's another guy who didn't pay for his employees fecha, social security. contributions or state worker comp state unemployment insurance contributions. He just pocketed all that. He bought a yacht. He was buying other houses and stuff like that. And this guy was headed off to jail for many years. But then he sent his mom to a fundraiser. for Trump's political enterprises, and they contributed $1 million.

And what do you know? He got pardoned and he got freed from jail, just like the rioters. and the insurrectionists who had done Trump's bidding. So we need to clean up the pardon process the best that we can. It is within the unilateral control of the president. And we've never seen. abuse. like the kind of abuse that has taken place under Donald Trump. You know, for all the presidents, there are 1 or 2 that seem questionable.

that you can question. This is a systematic demolition of everything that had taken place before. You know, up until Trump, all of the pardons went through. a pardon attorney, a whole pardon office within the Department of Justice. And people would actually write out long petitions. And then they analyzed them to see who was really rehabilitated, who had really. taken responsibility for their crimes, who was ready to be released.

And also, did they pay their fines? Did they pay their restitution to the victims? Well, if Donald Trump, all of that's out the window now, it was a mass pardon. of more than 1500. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, writers, insurrectionists, hundreds of whom. attacked police officers and wounded and disfigured and disabled them. Mass pardon. Regardless of what their criminal history was, some of these people had been armed robbers, drug traffickers, child sex.

abuse, domestic violence, and some of them didn't have a record at all. So they should have been treated differently as individuals. But instead he just pardoned all of them. He commuted all of their sentences. And significantly, he has not required any of the people he's pardoning, whether they're insurrectionists and writers or their international. narco traffickers or white collar criminals. He's not required any of them to pay off their fines. He is forgiven more than $1.5 billion.

in fines and restitution owed by the people that he pardoned. So what we can do is try to bring as much transparency as possible to the process. We can analyze the pattern of campaign contributions. They should have to report any money. that's been received by a president. from somebody who's gotten a pardon. And we also in this package, we forbid the president to pardon himself.

That violates the cardinal principle of the American system of justice, as articulated by James Madison, who said, no man may be a judge in his own case. Again, it's never come up before because you've never had a president. who's committed this level of criminality before. We've never had a president who's a convicted felon before, you know, with dozens of criminal convictions. But we are saying, no, you cannot pardon yourself.

I want to just put a reality check on this. So we talk about the things that should be done. But, I mean, Democrats are obviously in the minority right now. They could take the majority in the midterms. Trump will still have to sign on to any bill that's passed. unless it's overrode his veto. And and so, I mean, what is the real appetite to do this. Do you have confidence it can get done. Well you're right. Of course. it's not going to be done with Republicans in control of the House and the Senate.

They are essentially accomplices to the thoroughgoing. corruption and criminality of the Trump administration. And Trump has a staff infection, and it permeates. the entire white House and the entire executive branch of government. And except for a few members at the margins, the Republican conference is going along for the ride. So it's not going to happen now. Now, if we win Congress back in the House and the Senate, we will.

be able to bring this legislation forward and get it passed on a bicameral basis, because every Democrat wants to clean up the corruption. and the criminality that are taking place. And that's not just true for a Republican administration. That would be true for a Democratic administration. Of course, we've never seen anything. remotely approximating what's taking place right now. I mean, this is like a mob family. It's like watching The Sopranos, where every new episode you turn it on.

and there's a new scam, there's a new rip off, there's a new caper, there's a new crime being hatched or planned. So yesterday's was the $1.7 billion political slush fund. Congress never would have passed that. Congress did not pass that. But the president thinks that he can completely circumvent and violate. the Spending Clause power that belongs exclusively to Congress. So we are having to fight them every single day. And no, we don't throw our hands up and say, well, we might lose this.

We work for the possibility that Republicans will join us. But in any event, we are creating an historical record. and we're getting ready for the moment when we do take Congress back. and we do take the white House back, because corruption. right now is a total threat to the democratic system of government. They basically think they can have a system. where the president says, literally, I don't care about the financial condition. of the American people. I don't care at all. He said that this week. He said, I don't care about the finance of the American people.

He does care about his own finances. That's priority number one. But he also cares about the finances. of his political lieutenants and his private militia in waiting. The people who attacked our police officers stormed the Capitol and tried to. overthrow the 2020 presidential election, which they maintained to this day. Donald Trump won despite the fact that Joe Biden beat him. by more than 7 million votes, 306 to 232, in the Electoral College, despite the fact that 60 federal and state courts rejected every claim.

of electoral corruption and fraud that they mounted in the courts, Donald Trump wasn't trying to stop electoral corruption and fraud. He was trying to commit electoral fraud and corruption. And we saw that graphically. in a number of places, including when he called up. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Georgia and said, just find me. 11,780 votes caught red handed trying to steal an election.

in the Electoral College votes coming from the people of Georgia. I want to talk. about what could happen if Democrats do take that majority in the midterms. One of the investigations that you did launch is looking specifically. into the president's health, and you've demanded that he take a cognitive test. What exactly about the president's health right now is the most concerning to you? Well, obviously, the most troubling to the American people in the world.

were his remarks about obliterating a civilization and ending a civilization. I mean, this has always been the fear in the nuclear age. that the concentration of power. in the presidency and the use of patient of congressional war. powers could lead to a situation with a president drunk on power. and mad with rage, who goes nuclear and kills millions of people. So I guess that would be the most troubling.

That goes right to the 25th amendment, which was adopted in the nuclear age in 1967. And the author of that, Senator. Birch Bayh and Senator Robert F Kennedy, who had lost his brother to an assassination, were concerned. about the stability of government and the continuity of. political operations in the presidency. And so the first part of the 25th amendment. said that if the presidency is vacant, the vice president becomes the president.

The second part said, the vice president is vacant. The president nominates. someone to become vice president and bicameral majority vote in Congress. They become vice president. The third part says the president can voluntarily surrender power. to the vice president. And that's why I like to think of this one as the the provision. Because a number of presidents have gone under.

anesthesia for colonoscopy or other minor surgery, and then they turn over the powers of government voluntarily. Section four is the part everybody's talking about today. Section four says that if the president is unable. to discharge the powers and duties of office and for whatever. reason, can't voluntarily relinquish the powers, as in section three, then the vice president and a majority of the cabinet or. the vice president, and a majority of the body set up by Congress.

can decide that the president is unable to execute the powers. and duties of office and transferred that power to the president. The the legislation that I've got simply says it establishes. the body that's contemplated in section four of the 25th amendment. It's never been set up since it was passed back in 1967. And so it's not just about Donald Trump, it's about any president. And, you know, one of the things that that those guys were saying on the floor.

of the Senate was, hey, we've got 535 members of Congress. We've just got one president. So the physical and mental ability and fitness of the president are matters. of national security, especially in the nuclear age. When it comes to that. Why why do you think that this has not ever happened before now, you said it hadn't been set up since the amendment passed. What led to this just being overlooked?

And now that now is the time specifically because of Donald Trump in your mind? Well, I know exactly why it's not been done, or at least I think I do, because I've been through this. and I've been the person. trying to champion people taking the 25th amendment seriously. I think it's that whichever. party. has a member in the white House. takes the whole thing is an insult and an affront. So if we set it up, it looks like we're doing it because of Donald Trump.

Now, when Biden was president and people were raising questions, I told the Republicans, I said, I'm very happy to reintroduce this. If you do it with me. They didn't do it during the first Trump administration, but they wouldn't. even do it under Biden because they didn't want that body to exist. If and when Donald Trump resumed office, which is what they were planning on. And so I at least tried to be principled about it and say, I will co-sponsor this.

with you during the Biden administration, because I do think it's a problem. for all time. But the Republicans didn't want to do it. And the Republicans are in absolute denial. about the completely deranged behavior and statements. being made by Donald Trump about things like launching nuclear war. But also, you know, his personal insults. lobbed at the pope, saying the pope is weak on nuclear weapons.

and the pope is weak on crime, and then rich, witty, retweeting images of him as a Jesus Christ figure and so on. I mean, can you imagine if any other president had done these things? I mean, any one of them would have led to a 25th amendment. conversation in arraignment or impeachment before that. But we get this as a daily onslaught. against the rational faculties of the country.

One challenge that. that we've had covering the president is raising questions. specifically about his health and being able to ask those. to the white House physician, who we were originally referred to. with some of our questions last summer, but then they never made him available. You've actually called for him to go before your committee to testify, to explain some of the information about where the president's health stands. Are you confident that that will be.

able to happen, or what's the battle you expect in the future. with this specific line of questioning for his doctor? Well, I mean, that's the whole point of setting up this body. that is contemplated by the 25th amendment. But given that the Republicans won't. bring our legislation forward, I think we've got 9100 co-sponsors now. They won't allow hearings or a vote on it. Then we have to go directly to the white House physician, just write in the letter. And that's what I did.

And it just says, you've got to do a checkup. and you've got to tell us what's going on. The American people have a right to know, because the US government. doesn't belong to the president. The US government belongs to the American people. The president's job is just to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not to behave like a king, much less a mad king. So this is a matter of democratic representative government, and it is a matter of national security to.

I'm curious if Democrats take the majority in the House. moving forward, you become the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. who gets subpoenaed first, who's top of mind for you and your members. right now in the Trump administration? I don't know. I can't say, you know, there's quite, quite a bit of time between now and then. And if I did, no, I probably wouldn't say, because, look, we're spending every weekend that we've got on the road. I was. just out in Nebraska, I was in California,

I was in Oregon, I was in North Carolina, I was in Florida. I mean, headed to New Hampshire. We're out campaigning for our people. You know, we don't take anything. for granted here, and we believe we are in a civic emergency. We are in the fight of our lives. And so we've got to get elected first. And in terms of which day we're going to have which hearing. and which one we're going to launch first, that's a question for another day. Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you so much.

I appreciate you taking the time. It's great to be with you, sir. Thank you. That was my conversation with Congressman Jamie Raskin. I really was interested in what he had to say. With the vast extent of the corruption within the Trump administration. and how it has really changed from presidents, both Democrats and Republicans in the past. I also found it interesting what he had to say about invoking the 25th amendment,

and why his Republican colleagues have not joined in, even under President Biden. With that, thank you so much for viewing our podcast. Please remember to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. I appreciate you taking the time. So the good news is we have so many beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support. Thanks to our production team Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Pissarro, Neil Rosenhaus.