“Crime doesn’t pay” was once a popular slogan adopted by the FBI that under the Trump administration has become laughable.

In his latest attempt to turn justice upon its head and to dress corruption in legal clothing, Trump and his personal lawyers settled a lawsuit against the IRS that not only creates a government $1.8 billion slush fund to pay restitution to Trump loyalists convicted of crimes and punished by the courts, but also says the IRS is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing” tax irregularities against the Trump family and businesses.

Trump may not know American history, but he’s well versed on the history of organized crime, including the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s prosecution of Al Capone for tax evasion.  He’s a thief with a “get out of jail” card.

Trump’s Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche said his department would “make right the wrongs” of a previous administration that Blanche claimed had “weaponized” the government against the current President and his supporters.  But this so-called “Anti-Weaponization” of government not only rewards lawbreakers, but attacks law defenders.  

Perversely, it would make “wrong the rights” achieved by defenders of the Constitution who have investigated and prosecuted the crimes and corruption of The Trump administration.  Those pillars of justice, like Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith; Former FBI Director, James Comey; New York Attorney General, Letitia James; Senator Mark Kelly; and Senator Adam Schiff have been harassed, prosecuted, and threatened by precisely the “lawfare” and government “weaponization” that Attorney General Blanche claimed he opposed. The hypocrisy of this settlement staggers the mind.

Consider, that among those eligible for monetary payment under this settlement are the January 6 insurrectionists who violently attacked the Capitol police, threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence for following the law, and interfered with a fair and honest election process.  

Like a Mafia Don, Trump pays his goons for their loyalty.  So, rather than serving out their prison sentences, these rioting insurrectionists were not only released from prison but their court-ordered $2 billion fines and restitution for victims and taxpayers were forgiven.  In other words, Trump’s innocent victims have paid the price of his corruption, and the violent offenders may be rewarded.  When it comes to the manipulation of history, reality and the mind, Orwell’s Big Brother has nothing on Trump.

And while innocent victims have paid the price for defending the law of the land, Trump cronies, like former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, received over a million dollars in his lawsuit settlement with Trump’s Justice Department.  That’s right; the Department of Justice paid Flynn for his self-admitted crime of lying to the FBI about his communications with a Russian diplomat.

There’s also Trump’s pay-for-pardons justice system.  Paul Walczak, who defrauded his employees of $10 million, received a pardon after his mother donated $1 million to Trump at a fundraiser. The President also pardoned Julio Herrera Velutini, a banker who contributed $3.5 million to a super PAC; and Trevor Milton, convicted of securities fraud, donated almost $2 million to Trump’s political committees before his pardon.

After Trump family’s World Liberty Financial $2 billion investment in Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange, the President pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, convicted of money-laundering.  And Trump’s claim that he has nothing to do with the family business amounts to a legal fig leaf that in no way obscures obvious conflicts of interest and corruption.

Meanwhile, under the President’s pay-to-play administration, the Department of Justice has halted or ended investigations into Meta, Tesla, and Google, whose CEOs were all front and center celebrating the President’s Second Inauguration, to which they had all handsomely contributed.  Including the money they spent on his Presidential campaign, these Masters of the Universe had collectively given Trump over a billion dollars. 

“To Big Tech corporations, this sends the message there is little risk in breaking the law in pursuit of profit—especially if you are an ally of the administration.” (Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization)

Trump also has flaunted conflicts of interest between his personal business and his political office.  The President and his family have made trades in corporate stocks, including Nvidia, Apple, and Amazon, all of which have profited from government policies.  The administration’s deregulation of crypto currency businesses serves to increase profits of his family business, run in name only by his two sons.

Conducting criminal activity so brazenly, Trump seems to have normalized institutional crime.  Despite the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause that prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without congressional approval; Trump enthusiastically accepted a luxury jetliner worth $400 million as a gift from Qatar.  Indeed, he brazenly wears his corruption like a badge of honor.

When the FBI adopted the motto, “Crime doesn’t pay,” it had never seen the likes of Donald Trump.  And as former FBI Director James Comey said of Trump’s slush fund, “It just can’t be the way we operate.  We can’t set up a multi-million-dollar ATM at Mar-a Lago for people who’ve committed crimes.”    

But I’d like to know if there’s anyone left in our government who will stop it.

Thomas Cangelosi is a retired teacher from Avon.