Loading summary
Transcript11 lines
- [00:00]
A
The Trump administration's weaponization fund. Billions of dollars for Trump allies like January six defendants. It's here, it's arrived, it's official, it's announced. And the J6 defendants, the Trump allies, they are already scurrying like crazy to figure out how to get a piece of that sweet, sweet cheddar here to talk about it all, break it all down, break up, break down the infighting that's already taking place and a lot of other things. Will Sommer, our MAGA correspondent, our expert in all things online and Trumpy. There's a lot of that online TRUMPY stuff happening right now, Will. We've already done so much content about this awful, skeevy settlement fund, we can kind of set all that to the side about just how sort of grotesque the whole thing is for the time being and zero in on the sort of human tragicomedy that we're already seeing take place for some of these long suffering MAGA guys. You know, they got their pardon, but they were really hoping for a little bit extra on the off the top for their, for their loyalty under fire. Now they're maybe getting it and they're kind of fighting over what it's going to look like. Maybe. First, walk us through what, what kind of the, the intervening period has been the long fallow period for these guys where they just weren't hearing very much from the White House. And then where are we today?
- [01:10]
B
Yeah, so this is a tasty little plum we have to discuss. You know, for people like, like us who are upset about this settlement fund, who think this is crazy, you know, at least this is a little comedy for you. So we don't know who exactly is going to get money from this fund, but probably the biggest group that's going to be applying is January 6th. Rioters, defendants. And now for years even, you know, before they were pardoned by Trump last year, they were thinking, we deserve January 6th reparations. Now this is pretty crazy because they attacked the Capitol, they attacked police officers in many cases. It's crazy. Lucky of them, and another travesty of justice that they were pardoned. And yet they're still like, oh, by the way, I'm gonna need maybe a million or two break it off for. So they have long dreamed of these reparations. Our colleague Tim did a video mentioning that one of the, one of them was recently busted for child molestation and was vowing to bribe one of his victims allegedly with saying, look, I got the reparations money right around the corner. So the idea of reparations has loomed large in the January 6th world. And so the key figures here to understand are a guy named Peter Tickton, who's sort of a celebrity Trump lawyer, and Mark McCloskey, who people may remember. Yes. Your boy, I guess. Hometown hero, st. Louis Mark McCloskey, who is famous, of course, 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, he stood outside his mansion with his wife as protesters went through their neighborhood. He had like kind of an assault rifle, AR15 looking thing. And she had a pistol. Yeah. Iconic picture. And then they had some legal issues after that. But like last year, Tickton, McCloskey, they're both lawyers, they teamed up to get justice for January 6th.
- [02:53]
A
Yeah, I mean, I have not followed Tickton nearly as closely as I have McCloskey. I mean, McCloskey has been just sort of peripheral figure. Not just because, like me, he is a St. Louis boy, but also because he's been just sort of cropping up. I think he ran very briefly for governor of Missouri maybe, or senator. I can't remember what the last thing was. Yeah. Did not go very far in the primary before transitioning into this new grift. But unfortunately for Mr. Mark McCloskey, his timing on this has been poor. Right. I mean, like that meme of the man digging through the coal mine, who gives up like, right. With the diamonds. Right. Right in front. Right. Can you walk us through what his kind of.
- [03:29]
B
It's exactly, you know, every, every gambler stops right before hitting January 6th reparations. So, yeah, so these guys, they teamed up and they got, I think it's fair to say, hundreds of January, six people to sign on with them. Supposedly there was a. There were contracts signed, you know, like any other lawyer working on spec. Dominic Box, who's one of six defendants. He said McCloskey wanted 30% of any settlement. Which, you know, I guess maybe doesn't seem that unreasonable if you thought you had to sue the government. Right. So these guys get huge amounts of defendants. McCloskey delivers like all these boxes and boxes to the Justice Department. He posed for like a very swag looking picture and a double breasted coat. And he's like, you know, here I am in DC making it happen for you guys. And, you know, the other thing I would say about Peter Tickton is his claim to fame is that he went to high school with Donald Trump at this military academy and he's been coasting on this ever since. He's like, everything I knew about Trump I learned, you know, he was just such a cool guy. In high school. So these are our characters, right? So it looks pretty bleak, though. Last month, you know, it seemed pretty unlikely. You know, Trump had been in office for more than a year. It seems like they're going to get the pardons. And told to buzz off. Then McCloskey, he sends a letter to his clients, and they're kind of their mutual clients, and he says, you know, I had these personal issues. He later reveals that it's like a terminal lung disease diagnosis. He says, you know, as a result, I can no longer represent you in our quest for January six reparations. I'm going to have to hand you off to our buddy Peter Tickton, and I, you know, see you later. Unfortunately for him, a month later, of course. So ABC reported last week, I believe, Wednesday, that this reparations fund was going to happen the day after that, they reported on Thursday, on Friday. But Mark McCloskey reemerges, and he says, baby, I'm back. I'm better than ever. He says in his letter to his. He has a new letter to his clients. He says, I just got a CT scan. The lungs are killing it. You know,
- [05:25]
A
I'm happy for him. I'm happy for him.
- [05:27]
B
You know, I think it's great news.
- [05:28]
A
All the best on your personal health journey. Mark. Sorry.
- [05:33]
B
Yeah, he's huffing and puffing. It's great. He says, together, you and I, with God willing, we're gonna get our January 6th money. So Peter Tickton, he's sitting at Ticked and Incorporated or whatever, the Ticket and Partners, and he's like, wait a minute, I took this thing over. This guy ditched us. So this starts a feud, and Peter says, I don't want anything to do with you, buddy. So they start emailing the January 6th defendants. They're saying, you got to stick with me. So Mark McCloskey emails and he says, look, I'm back. Now, I understand you guys are with Peter Tickton now, but you got to come with me. I note that Peter Tickton is campaigning to be Attorney General to make himself the replacement for Bam Bondi. He's representing the Tiger King. He's representing a member of the Backstreet Boys who was involved in some kind of dispute on a beach where he used a homophobic slur. And he's representing Tina Peters now, you know, Tina Peters, the. Just recently pardoned last week. Frankly, I'd stick with her lawyer because apparently he knows how to get things done. But he says, look, he's too busy. He can't handle January 6th stuff. You guys gotta go with me. And by the way, he's been saying some ugly stuff about me and my wife, so let me know if he's talking any more trash on us. And it's a little unclear what that was.
- [06:43]
A
This has been the most amazing thing to me. So, first of all, let me just clarify. These emails that you have your hands on that you were showing me earlier. Are you reporting these? Are these emails out there, or is this.
- [06:52]
B
No, this required a little sleuthing by me. Sort of the initial, like, I'm sick, I gotta bow out. That one was public, but I had to do a little digging. This certainly set off a big buzz in the January 6th world. I can't stress enough how much of this is going down on Facebook. It's a lot of, like, aggrieved defendants and their relatives. And so when this Dominic Box guy, I mentioned this. This defendant, he posted like. He's like, Whoa. Tickton and McCloskey, they're tearing each other up. And then everyone was like, shut up. You know, don't. Don't spill the beans on what's up in January 6th world. And of course, that's when I go, hello.
- [07:28]
A
But I mean, it is just really funny. It really is just these two former business partners who kind of went their separate ways amicably before.