Jamie Raskin’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump Exposes MAGA’s Darkest Aim

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a shockingly brazen move, President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him $230 million stemming from certain federal actions against him. Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a scalding letter to the White House demanding all internal communications on this shakedown. What struck us was the letter’s forceful indictment of Trump’s corruption and criminality: It denounced Trump’s “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people” and his “outrageous and shocking” effort to “shake down” the Treasury, labeling this straight-up “theft.” There’s much more, and it made critical legal points as well. We talked to the University of Michigan’s Leah Litman, author of Lawless, a book on the Supreme Court. We discuss Raskin’s letter, the legal nitty-gritty of Trump’s heist, how it exemplifies the MAGA movement more broadly, and how the Supreme Court brought us to this dangerous moment. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:34.3	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
1:36.6	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
1:49.7	As you may have heard by now, President Trump is reportedly demanding that the Justice Department pay him $230 million in damages relating to certain federal actions against him.
1:56.5	It's a naked effort to help himself to huge gobs of taxpayer money on an extraordinarily corrupt basis.
2:04.4	Congressman Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee,
2:08.7	sent a scalding letter to the White House today on this, demanding all communications related to this shakedown.
2:15.6	What really struck us was how directly this letter indicted Trump's
2:19.4	corruption and criminality. It was one of the most forceful takedowns we've seen in a while,
2:24.6	and it made some critical legal points as well. This is a wild scandal, and we want to understand
2:30.4	it better. So we're talking about it all with the University of Michigan's Leah Littman,
	...

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