“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night said the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” the Justice Department set up on President Donald Trump’s behalf isn’t as bad as it appears.
The fund, created as part of a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, is supposed to be used to pay alleged victims of “weaponization and lawfare,” potentially including Jan. 6 rioters.
“That means people who stormed the Capitol, rubbed their poop on the walls, assaulted police officers and tried to hang Vice President Mike Pence could be getting this cash,” the late-night host said.
Then, Colbert made a prediction for what would really happen.
“But they won’t,” he said. ”’Cause Trump’s going to steal it all.”
Colbert pointed to specific language in the agreement that states “once the funds are deposited into the Designated Account, the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse of the funds.”
Colbert called it an “all-you-can-fraud buffet” and “an unprecedented level of grift.”
“Funds of this scale typically are either created by an act of Congress or supervised by a court,” he said. “And this settlement is just some piece of paper they printed out saying that Trump can do anything he wants with a bunch of your money.”
See more in his Tuesday night “Late Show” monologue: