Trump's bid to pay off 'monsters' leaves national security journalist in disbelief

President Donald Trump promised just months ago that any money he won from his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS would go to charity. Now, according to a new analysis by national security journalist Marcy Wheeler, the settlement that's taking shape looks nothing like that pledge.

In February, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was "thinking about doing something for charity" with any proceeds from the lawsuit, which stems from a contractor's illegal leak of his tax returns during his first term.

"Nobody would care because it’s going to go to numerous very good charities,' Trump said at the time. He also told NBC News he would give "100 percent of the money to charity."

But ABC News reported Thursday that the actual settlement would instead create a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded "Weaponization Fund" with Trump expected to drop the IRS lawsuit in exchange. The fund would pay off allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, with the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack among those explicitly eligible to collect. Democrats have groaned that the arrangement amounts to the "largest single act of grand larceny in American history."

Wheeler, writing on her Emptywheel blog, noted the jarring reversal and highlighted several specific Jan. 6 defendants who could benefit, including Danny Rodriguez, who tased Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone, causing a heart attack, and Taylor Taranto, who drove an armed van to former President Barack Obama's Kalorama neighborhood using an address Trump had posted on Truth Social.

"If the $1.7 billion were split evenly among the 1,600 criminals and those charged, it would work out to be over a million dollars a person. And that’s on top of the restitution payments for the damage the mob did to the Capitol, of which many convicted criminals were excused with Trump’s pardon. Taxpayers have been stuck cleaning up after Trump’s criminals," Wheeler railed.

She noted many were "seditionists and adjudged terrorists" from the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

"Todd Blanche is already working to make their convictions go away, which will allow them to rearm. Now, Trump wants to pay those guys a million dollars for their criminal ways," she said.

She concluded: "It’s not just that these monsters are recidivist criminals. It’s that Trump’s coddling of them has led them to believe they have impunity for other crimes."

The settlement has not yet been finalized, according to ABC News.