Rep. Neguse: “Speaker Johnson owes the country an answer. Will he allow January 6th rioters — convicted felons who assaulted Capitol Police officers — to be paid with taxpayer dollars out of Trump’s slush fund?
Washington, D.C. — Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse took to the House Floor to condemn Donald Trump’s ludicrous $1.776 billion slush fund for political allies, including individuals charged with crimes for their involvement in the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
Neguse, who led more than 90 House Democrats in an effort to lobby the courts to block Trump’s billion dollar fund, called out Speaker Mike Johnson directly—urging him to act in the best interest of American taxpayers and put a stop to this unparalleled corruption.
Click HERE to watch or download Rep. Neguse’s remarks.
A full transcript is available below.
NEGUSE: John F. Kennedy once said that “there are few if any issues where all the truth and all the right and all the angels are on one side.” Mr. Speaker, this is one of those issues.
Five years ago, I stood here on the House floor, just a few feet from where I stand today as the worst nightmare of our framers and our nation's founders came to life when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, this citadel of democracy, attacked police officers, attempt to enter this chamber, and subvert the peaceful transfer of power. Donald Trump, on the very first day that he was sworn in to his second term, pardoned 1,600 individuals who were convicted of crimes connected to January 6th—felons, people who attacked police officers here on Capitol grounds.
He pardoned them, gave them a get out of jail free card. And now, 15 months later, he again does the unthinkable. He sues the federal government that he administers, attempts to secure a $10 billion shakedown from the IRS—and when that fails, when he realizes that that isn't politically palatable, that the American people won't tolerate Donald Trump signing a $10 billion check of their hard-working money to himself, he dispatches the acting Attorney General, his former personal attorney, to negotiate a so-called settlement. The outcome, a nearly $2 billion slush fund where the Department of Justice will pay rioters who attacked our Capitol.
These individuals—they will be paid with your money. The money of hard-working taxpayers. It is unconscionable. It is corrupt. And my Republican colleagues in this Chamber do nothing about it. Where is the Speaker? Where is Mike Johnson? How can he look the officers who guard him every day—how could he look them in the eye, knowing that the people who attacked those officers will now be paid out of this Trump slush fund? It is outrageous.
If there were ever a time for political courage, now would be it. There are a handful of Republicans who have said publicly that they abhor what this is—just a handful.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, let me say it clearly: Mike Johnson owes the country an answer. Will he allow these rioters, these convicted felons, who assaulted Capitol Police officers, will he allow them to be paid with taxpayer dollars out of this slush fund? And if not, what does he intend to do to stop it?
We have a bill that's been introduced, I believe it will be bipartisan. There are members of the U.S. Senate on both sides who are pushing to try to stop this from materializing.
The Speaker could end it today. We're not asking him for much—show a modicum of courage.
I yield back.
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