In between the nonstop Epstein revelations and the painful government shutdown, there was the most blatant act of Washington self-serving in recent memory. It was so inherently corrupt and done so sneakily and on the down low that it almost made it to law without the knowledge of any but a handful of insiders.
Here’s what happened: Just as the 43-day government shutdown was finally ending last week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune secretly slipped a gift to certain Republican senators into the shutdown-ending government funding package. Although it had absolutely nothing to do with the continuing resolution to fund the government, the result is a dirty secret.
The essence is a mini law tucked within the big law to refund the government and end the shutdown. It will award at least $500,000 to any senator whose phone records were subpoenaed without their knowledge as part of the investigation into President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Now you may well ask, what the hell does an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election have to do with funding the government in 2025? The answer is absolutely nothing, other than the fact that some scheming senators apparently thought they could get away with it without anybody noticing, until it was too late.
Flashback to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 2022 ‘Arctic Frost’ investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to invalidate the 2020 election, which culminated in the riots of Jan. 6, 2021.
As part of the probe, Smith was seeking telephone records from several senators who were Trump allies and may have played a role in attempting to further his goal of sabotaging the election. The investigation resulted in Trump’s indictment. After he received broad immunity from the Supreme Court, it was ultimately dismissed when he won the 2024 election.
Complaining that Jack Smith’s probe of the president was a fishing expedition, several of the senators targeted for subpoenas successfully played the Senate majority leader, Jack Thune, to insert the $500,000 taxpayer-funded windfall in the government funding bill.
It is now the law of the land that any senator whose phone records were secretly subpoenaed as part of Jack Smith’s investigation is owed at least $500,000 for each time the phone records were subpoenaed. That is taxpayer money. That is your money.
The senators you could be paying are Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Haggerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, Wyoming’s Cynthia Lummis, and Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.
So far, Lindsey Graham is the only one who has indicated he will take the money and run.
Most of the others are facing primary challengers who would hopefully rip them to shreds if they tried to cash in. Before that happens, Congress must repeal this sleazy provision.
