Today on The BradCast: One of the convicted J6ers tells me he wants nothing to do with any payments from Donald Trump‘s so-called “anti-weaponization” slush fund, whether it’s merely dead or really most sincerely dead…or not really dead at all. [Audio to full show follows below this summary.]
What Trump’s corrupted Dept. of Justice describes as a $1.776 billion “settlement agreement” to Trump’s ridiculous $10 billion lawsuit against Trump’s IRS, isn’t really a settlement agreement at all. At least not a lawful one overseen by any court. In fact, 35 former federal judges argued last week in a motion in the federal court overseeing the now withdrawn lawsuit that, in fact, the entire thing was a “fraud” against the United States. The judge has now reopened the case in order to investigate those serious charges.
In the meantime, facing pushback against the nearly $1.8 billion slush fund by members of his own Republican Party in the U.S. House and Senate, Todd Blanche, Trump’s personal defense attorney who is now also Trump’s Acting Attorney General, claimed the entire thing is now dead. Though he repeatedly refused during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to commit to that assertion in writing, for some reason. And Trump, the very same day, when asked if the fund was actually dead, told a reporter: “I don’t know. I’d have to ask the lawyers.”
(For the record, even if the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund is really most sincerely dead, the one-page Addendum to the original agreement, signed and published by Blanche the following day, giving Trump and his family and his companies unprecedented immunity “forever” from IRS audits, investigations or delinquent payments — reportedly to be as high as $100 million — is not currently dead at all to anyone’s knowledge. Don’t get too distracted from that by the slush fund circus!)
When this scammy, unlawful, unfunded slush fund was announced, convicted J6ers immediately began clamoring to get paid for their crimes, which Trump pardoned all of them for on his first day in office in his second term.
But not all of them are hoping for a payday. A few, including our guest today, who also refused Trump’s pardon, have said they want nothing to do with it.
JASON RIDDLE is a U.S. military veteran who traveled from New Hampshire to D.C. to take part in the “wild” events of January 6, after years as a diehard MAGA “obsessor,” as he describes it to me on today’s show. He says he knew trump was “lying” about his stolen election claims, but he didn’t care. He went anyway. “I thought I was going to my final Trump rally, as my life was falling apart,” he explains. “I was drinking every single day.”
Riddle is now a recovering alcoholic, after having recovered from MAGA as well. But first he served 90 days in prison for crimes related to entering the Capitol on January 6, including stealing some “souvenirs” from one of the Congressional offices. (You can read about his crimes and punishment at Wikipedia. You can read his story in his own words at the Leaving MAGA organization.)
“I had nothing that was working in my life,” he tells me today. “Trump rallies were the only place where I felt like I belonged. And it had to be complete strangers who I would never see again. Those were the only people who I could get along with.” He says he found community in idolizing Trump. “It gave me a fake uniform to wear.”
Time in prison offered perspective, he says, though probably not in a good way. It wasn’t until 2024, when Trump was facing 34 counts of fraud in New York related to his affair with a porn star, that Riddle realized Trump was doing it again, in asking his supporters to come to the courthouse in NYC to support him — even though it might get them killed, like Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol on January 6. Trump didn’t care.
Unlike so many of his fellow rioters at the Capitol, Riddle now wants nothing to do with Trump or his slush fund.
“I am not a victim of January 6,” he tells me today. “I was a criminal. I stood right next to someone who was spraying a police officer with pepper-spray from top to bottom. It’s something that keeps me up at night, and it sucks. I can’t take that back, but I can not do it again. And the way you don’t do it again is by acknowledging it happened in the first place.”
“So for me to accept money,” he says, “that would be claiming that somehow I’m a victim. I’m not. I was a criminal on that day. I can’t accept money for that. This money is a slap in the face to the officers who were killed. If there’s any money, if anything, it should be going to their families. Not to us.”
So what really helped to turn Riddle’s life around? And what does he recommend for others like him, trying to escape the MAGA lifestyle? And for the families and loved ones of those people? Tune in for a fascinating conversation.
Also today, a few words on the Team Trump takeover and gutting of CBS, CBS News and now the iconic and embattled news magazine, 60 Minutes in the wake of this week’s firing of Scott Pelley, the award-winning 20-year veteran correspondent on the show. This week, Pelley alleged that new executives at the network, now under the ownership of Paramount/Skydance, pressured him to include “falsehoods” and “bias” in his reports and the long-time, highly-rated and well-trusted news magazine.
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with a number of stories that — if we worked for CBS — they definitely would not allow us to cover…
