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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Todd Blanche's Department of Justice continues to let criminals off the hook so long as they are loyal to Donald Trump. Yesterday, Trump's DOJ forced a judge to throw out the charges against eight members of the radical extremist Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting the January 6 insurrection--horrendous. Doesn't get any more un-American than this. Doesn't twist America's values into a tortured knot.
Trump already gave the insurrectionists clemency. Now he is wiping their records clean, but there is no erasing what the Oath Keepers and the rest of the mob did at Trump's command on January 6.
I saw them in this building. They were not on a tour. They were aimed at destruction to maim and even in a few cases murder. We can't afford to forget what happened that day.
Now, Trump has sent the country a clear message: There are no consequences for sedition, no punishment for attacking police, no repercussions for ransacking the Capitol to steal an election, so long as you do it in Trump's name.
No wonder his numbers are so terrible. No wonder the American people are turning against him. No one in our history has done things as bad as this.
Trump won't just give you clemency for committing a crime on his behalf; he will give you a reward. The whole purpose of Trump's $2 billion MAGA slush fund is to funnel taxpayer dollars to the Oath Keepers and other Trump cronies. Just the other day, Trump himself defended his slush fund describing it ``a reimbursement for the pain that [January 6th insurrectionists] suffered.''
Donald, what pain have these insurrectionists suffered? You let them off scot-free.
Republicans don't get to yap about being the party of law and order when they are handing out pardons and cash rewards like candy to convicted cop beaters--convicted cop beaters. Do Senate Republicans want to give a promotion to Blanche, the same guy who came up with the idea of these reparations for rioters?
There is still no legal guardrail stopping Trump and Blanche from giving payouts to January 6 insurrectionists at the taxpayers' expense. That is unacceptable. The only thing these criminals deserve is a cold cell, not American's hard-earned taxpayer dollars.
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