{"id":17276,"date":"2026-06-04T19:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=17276"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:00:10","slug":"im-not-a-victim-i-was-a-criminal-j6er-says-no-to-trumps-weaponization-slush-fund-money-bradcast-6-4-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=17276","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I&#8217;m not a Victim. I was a Criminal&#8217;: J6er Says &#8216;No&#8217; to Trump&#8217;s &#8216;Weaponization&#8217; Slush Fund Money: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 6\/4\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center style=\"margin-bottom: 32px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_J6-USCapitol-JasonRiddle_060426.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Today on <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>The BradCast<\/i><\/a>: One of the convicted J6ers tells me he wants nothing to do with any payments from <b>Donald Trump<\/b>&#8216;s so-called &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; slush fund, whether it&#8217;s merely dead or really most sincerely dead&#8230;or not really dead at all. [<i>Audio to full show follows below this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>What Trump&#8217;s corrupted Dept. of Justice describes as a $1.776 billion &#8220;settlement agreement&#8221; to Trump&#8217;s ridiculous $10 billion lawsuit against Trump&#8217;s IRS, isn&#8217;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 In fact, 35 former federal judges argued last week in a motion in the federal court overseeing the now withdrawn lawsuit that, in fact, the entire thing was a &#8220;fraud&#8221; against the United States. The judge has now <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=17162\">reopened the case in order to investigate<\/a> those serious charges.<\/p>\n<p>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, <b>Todd Blanche<\/b>, Trump&#8217;s personal defense attorney who is now also Trump&#8217;s Acting Attorney General, claimed the entire thing is now dead. Though he <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/murray.senate.gov\/post\/3mnfncrhb522q\">repeatedly refused<\/a> during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to commit to that assertion <i>in writing<\/i>, for some reason. And Trump, the very same day, when asked if the fund was actually dead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/03\/politics\/anti-weaponization-fund-trump\">told a reporter<\/a>: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I&#8217;d have to ask the lawyers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(For the record, even if the so-called &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; fund is really most sincerely dead, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/media\/1441216\/dl\">one-page Addendum<\/a> to the original agreement, signed and published by Blanche the following day, giving Trump and his family and his companies unprecedented immunity &#8220;forever&#8221; from IRS audits, investigations or delinquent payments &#8212; reportedly to be as high as $100 million &#8212; is <i>not<\/i> currently dead at all to anyone&#8217;s knowledge. Don&#8217;t get <i>too<\/i> distracted from that by the slush fund circus!)<\/p>\n<p>When this scammy, unlawful, unfunded slush fund was announced, convicted J6ers immediately began <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-capitol-riot-settlement-fund-payouts-crimes-0a46024bd86b84d12ede1c2e34bb8507\">clamoring to get paid for their crimes<\/a>, which Trump pardoned all of them for on his first day in office in his second term. <\/p>\n<p>But not <i>all<\/i> of them are hoping for a payday. A few, including our guest today, who also refused Trump&#8217;s pardon, have said they want nothing to do with it. <\/p>\n<p><b>JASON RIDDLE<\/b> is a U.S. military veteran who traveled from New Hampshire to D.C. to take part in the &#8220;wild&#8221; events of January 6, after years as a diehard MAGA &#8220;obsessor,&#8221; as he describes it to me on today&#8217;s show. He says he knew trump was &#8220;lying&#8221; about his stolen election claims, but he didn&#8217;t care. He went anyway. &#8220;I thought I was going to my final Trump rally, as my life was falling apart,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;I was drinking every single day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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 &#8220;souvenirs&#8221; from one of the Congressional offices. (You can read about his crimes and punishment <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jason_Riddle\">at Wikipedia<\/a>. You can read his story in his own words <a href=\"https:\/\/leavingmaga.org\/they-left-maga\/jason-riddle\/\">at the Leaving MAGA organization<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had nothing that was working in my life,&#8221; he tells me today. &#8220;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.&#8221; He says he found community in idolizing Trump. &#8220;It gave me a fake uniform to wear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Time in prison offered perspective, he says, though probably not in a good way. It wasn&#8217;t until 2024, when Trump was <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0\">facing 34 counts of fraud<\/a> 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 &#8212; even though it might get them killed, like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Killing_of_Ashli_Babbitt\">Ashli Babbitt<\/a> at the Capitol on January 6. Trump didn&#8217;t care. <\/p>\n<p>Unlike so many of his fellow rioters at the Capitol, Riddle now wants nothing to do with Trump or his slush fund.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not a victim of January 6,&#8221; he tells me today. &#8220;I was a criminal. I stood right next to someone who was spraying a police officer with pepper-spray from top to bottom. It&#8217;s something that keeps me up at night, and it sucks.  I can&#8217;t take that back, but I can not do it again. And the way you don&#8217;t do it again is by acknowledging it happened in the first place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So for me to accept money,&#8221; he says, &#8220;that would be claiming that somehow I&#8217;m a victim. I&#8217;m not. I was a criminal on that day. I can&#8217;t accept money for that. This money is a slap in the face to the officers who were killed. If there&#8217;s any money, if anything, it should be going to their families. Not to us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So what really helped to turn Riddle&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Also today, a few words on the Team Trump takeover and gutting of CBS, CBS News and now the iconic and embattled news magazine, <i>60 Minutes<\/i> in the wake of this week&#8217;s firing of <b>Scott Pelley<\/b>, the award-winning 20-year veteran correspondent on the show. This week, Pelley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2026\/jun\/03\/60-minutes-scott-pelley-cbs-accusations\">alleged<\/a> that new executives at the network, now under the ownership of Paramount\/Skydance, pressured him to include &#8220;falsehoods&#8221; and &#8220;bias&#8221; in his reports and the long-time, highly-rated and well-trusted news magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=17267\">our latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a>, with a number of stories that &#8212; if we worked for CBS &#8212; they <i>definitely<\/i> would not allow us to cover&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman_JasonRiddle-SlushFund-J6-MAGA_60Minutes_060426.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/256-the-bradcast-w-brad-friedm-30973643\/\">iHeart<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\">The BRAD BLOG<\/a>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today on The BradCast: One of the convicted J6ers tells me he wants nothing to do with any payments from Donald Trump&#8216;s so-called &#8220;anti-weaponization&#8221; slush fund, whether it&#8217;s merely dead or really most sincerely dead&#8230;or not really dead at all. [Audio to full show follows below this summary.] What Trump&#8217;s corrupted Dept. of Justice describes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,2150,89,675,379,543,223,479,451,1590,176,477,1052,724,2152,1365,2151,2088],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2106],"class_list":["post-17276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-bari-weiss","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-cbs","category-climate-change","category-dept-of-justice","category-donald-trump","category-epa","category-insurrection","category-journalist-intimidation","category-kpfk","category-new-orleans","category-oceans","category-paramount-skydance","category-pollution","category-scott-pelley","category-todd-blanche","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17276"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17280,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions\/17280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=17276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}