Taxpayer-funded defense for Trump?
They grow bananas in Floridonia, don’t they?
While Donald “91 Counts” Trump is mopping up the remaining 2024 Republican presidential field in New Hampshire this morning, MAGAfied Floridonia officials are hoping to fund Trump’s criminal defense with state tax dollars (Ron Filipkowski at Meidas Touch):
Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced today that he is supporting State Senator Ileana Garcia’s bill SB 1740 to create a “Florida Freedom Fighter’s Fund” to provide millions of dollars to fund Trump’s criminal defense legal team.
One day after Ron Desantis drops out of the presidential race, the push is on to use state resources and funding to finance a private citizen’s legal defense in criminal cases. While tens of thousands of indigent Floridians are represented by Public Defenders with massive caseloads due to limited budgets, Florida’s CFO wants the state to provide millions to Trump, who testified recently that his net worth is in excess of $10 billion and that his Florida home is the most expensive in the world.
Patronis said the fund would initially provide $5 million for Trump out of the state’s Public Campaign Finance program, but that will just be the start. Additional funding would be collected by state agencies from people who, for example, will donate when the [sic] renew their driver’s licenses. So state employees at government offices will be collecting money for Donald Trump’s lawyers.
I’m past being shocked at banana Republican corruption like this. But I’m not past checking the bill itself (emphasis mine):
16 Section 1. Section 17.691, Florida Statutes, is created to
17 read:
18 17.691 Authorized use of Defending Freedom Fighters Trust
19 Fund.—
20 (1) For purposes of this section, the term “qualified
21 person” means a person who:
22 (a) Meets the presidential eligibility requirements of s.
23 1, Art. II of the United States Constitution.
24 (b) Is a legal resident of the state as defined in s.
25 1009.21(1) or has a valid driver license issued under s. 322.18.
26 (c) Complies with chapter 106 and federal election law.
27 (2) Funds from the Defending Freedom Fighters Trust Fund
28 created under s. 17.69 must be used to provide grants to
29 qualified persons subject to political discrimination to pay for
30 legal fees incurred as a result of criminal charges brought by a
31 U.S. public entity as defined in 31 U.S.C. s. 802.243. For
32 purposes of this subsection, the department has the sole
33 authority to determine if a person has been subject to political
34 discrimination.
35 (3) The department shall distribute grants to a qualified
36 person in an efficient manner, prioritizing funding based on the
37 severity of criminal charges and the causal connection between
38 the charges and the political affiliation of the qualified
39 person.
40 (4) Subject to the availability of funds, a qualified
41 person may receive up to $5 million under this section.
♪ And The Grift Goes On
“Political discrimination” is left undefined. Conveniently, the bill filed January 11 awards Floridonia’s CFO “the sole authority to determine if a person has been subject” to it.
In a statement released Monday, Patronis said,
“We’ve got a Florida Man – Donald Trump – running for President, and he’s facing ongoing legal challenges from Democrats in New York, Washington DC, and Atlanta. The Left is really good at weaponizing the courts, and because President Biden is so unpopular, they’re not just trying to beat Trump at the ballot box, they’re trying to throw him behind bars, which is outrageous. We need this Freedom Fighters Fund because as the Free State of Florida, we’re facing an onslaught of attacks from the federal government against the Sunshine State. If we can help and support a Florida candidate for the White House, that’s just good from a dollars and cents perspective.”
Garcia added,
“We’re in the midst of an historic moment where we’re watching an election that’s trying to be stolen by Left wing prosecutors, the Biden Administration and even Blue States. They’re not trying to win at the ballot box; they’re trying to keep President Trump off the ballot by weaponizing the courts. Having a Floridian in the White House is good for our state – and anything we can do to support Florida Presidential candidates, like President Trump, will not only benefit our state, but our nation.”
Not so fast, says “Meatball Ron,” the man who endorsed Donald Trump before Nikki Haley’s political corpse (and his own presidential campaign’s) was cold.
Also conveniently, Republicans have veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the Floridonia legislature. So Gov. DeSantis can veto the bill if it reaches his desk (is anyone taking odds?) and still have his subjects fund Trump’s legal defense after the override.
Griftopia, as Matt Taibbi once defined it:
There really are two Americas, one for the grifter class and one for everybody else. In everybody-else land, the world of small businesses and wage-earning employees, the government is something to be avoided, an overwhelming, all-powerful entity whose attentions usually presage some kind of financial setback, if not complete ruin. In the grifter world, however, government is a slavish lapdog that the financial companies that will be the major players in this book use as a tool for making money.