Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast.

Today we examine how Trump turned a sham lawsuit into a $1.8 billion reward fund for his

political allies who attacked the capital on January 6th, while implementing a counterterrorism

strategy that erases right-wing extremism from the threat landscape,

refocuses on left-wing violence that hardly exists, and threatens to find and kill those they deem enemies.

For those looking for a quick overview, the sources providing our top takes in about 60 minutes today

include Trump's terms, legal AF, Democracy Now, the NPR Politics Podcast, here and now anytime,

the intercept briefing, and the Hartman Report.

Then in the additional deeper dives have of the show, there will be more in three sections.

Section A, anatomy of the

heist, section B, the bigger pattern, and section C, enemies of the state. And now, on to the show.

The IRS won't investigate the past tax returns of President Trump, his family, or his businesses.

That's part of a settlement signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche ending a lawsuit brought by the president against his own government.

Blanche spent much of a Senate hearing Tuesday defending that settlement and its creation

of a fund to pay people who claim they were targets of politicized prosecutions. NPR's Ryan Lucas

reports. The nearly $1.8 billion pot of taxpayer money dubbed the anti-weaponization fund by the Justice

Department was created as part of a settlement agreement with President Trump, who in return dropped his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.

Democrats had blunt words for Blanche about the arrangement. Here's Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen.

Mr. Attorney General, this is an outrageous, unprecedented slush fund that you set up.

And Washington Senator Patty Murray.

This is corruption that has never been more blatant or more rights spent.

What is happening is you write the check, Trump and his coronies cash it, American taxpayers who are already being whacked with high prices are going to foot the bill.

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