Trump's Attorneys Defend the $1.8 Billion January 6 Compensation Plan

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:34)
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Ditch the clowns on the left.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:01)
And the jokers on the right.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:03)
And join Michael Smerconish right here, in the middle.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:07)
This is The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (1:10)
So you thought that $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund was dead, did you? Yesterday in the Oval Office, the president was asked about it. And here's part of what he had to say.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:23)
Mr. President, can you explain why you decided to drop the anti-weaponization fund?

**SPEAKER_5** (1:28)
So I love it.
I think it's so important. People were, this is a victim right here, but not only a victim, he was also a student of it. What happened to great people, great American people, the way they were victimized, the way they were savaged, you have suicides, they killed themselves, they went bankrupt, they were weaponized by, by the Biden administration, by a bunch of thugs, including Obama people.
And like nobody's probably ever been. I mean, I can think of maybe two instances in this country where they've had it, to somewhere to that extent. I'm not even sure if it was so much. They were put in jail for long periods of time. They were accused of things that never happened. They had prosecutors that were radical lunatics, and their lives were destroyed.

**Michael Smerconish** (2:22)
So, the president was also asked whether he was scrapping the fund permanently. His answer was, I'd have to ask the lawyers. Well, I've got a couple of his lawyers in front of me right now. Welcome back, Michael Van Der Veen and veteran criminal defense attorney William J. Brennan. Nice to see you both. Hey, help me introduce you properly. Michael, starting with you, you were the public face of Trump Impeachment II. You argued the case in the United States Senate and Brennan was like back of the house, right? I mean, is that a fair way to explain your respective roles?

**Michael Van Der Veen** (2:59)
Fair way to do, but just to be clear, the lawyers he's consulting on this now are not us. Although Bill talked to him the other night, he's not consulting with us on this fund.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:12)
Okay, but historically, you were the guy who argued the impeachment.

**Michael Van Der Veen** (3:16)
I am.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:17)
Well, actually, hang on a second.
I have a clip. PJ, remind us of Michael Van Der Veen's role at impeachment too. Let's do it.

**Michael Van Der Veen** (3:25)
Not only is this impeachment case preposterously wrong on the facts, no matter how much heat and emotion is injected by the political opposition, it is also plainly unconstitutional.
In effect, Congress would be claiming that the right to disqualify a private citizen no longer a government official from running for public office. This would transform the solemn impeachment process into a mechanism for asserting congressional control over which private citizens are and are not allowed to run for president.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:06)
Have you gone back, by the way, and watched the arguments that you made at impeachment?

**Michael Van Der Veen** (4:10)
Not one minute.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:11)
Not one minute? Is that the first that you've heard it?

**Michael Van Der Veen** (4:14)
Since I was on your show, maybe the first time I was on after. And it's not that I don't want to.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:19)
You're just too busy?

**Michael Van Der Veen** (4:21)
Way too busy.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:22)
Well, it's because you got all these J6ers you're representing. Oh, you're not denying that, huh?

**Michael Van Der Veen** (4:27)
No. Bill and I probably represented together more J6ers than anybody else.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:32)
Yeah, that's why I wanted you here. By the way, Billy, where were you when Van Der Veen was making that case? Like, paint the picture. Where were you in the moment?