Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton (Photo: Screen capture)
One of President Donald Trump's U.S. attorneys at the Justice Department doesn't think Americans will care much about the billions of dollars that the president is demanding from the taxpayer.
Speaking to CNBC on Thursday morning, Jay Clayton, who oversees the Southern District of New York, said that Trump's taxpayer-funded slush fund will disappear from the narrative by next week.
"I don't think we're gonna be talking about this issue in a week because the American people are gonna say, 'Look, they leaked his tax returns, they tried to destroy him. Okay, we resolved that,'" said Clayton.
The IRS told House Republicans in Feb. 2025 that the IRS contractor who leaked Trump's taxes also leaked the private data of more than 400,000 taxpayers. It is nearly six times what was initially thought.
Trump and the Justice Department made an agreement among themselves to start a $1.8 billion fund to give handouts to people who think they were "wronged" by "weaponization."
The discussion quickly turned into a debate as Clayton became defensive.
Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen, a frequent Trump apologist for the show, said he read an article about "some guy" who was "absolutely harassed" by the previous administration and plans to apply for a settlement. He couldn't remember the man's name or any details about him, other than swearing that he wasn't a Jan. 6 attacker who "beat up cops."
"I don't — I didn't read the specifics," said Kernen.
The overarching concern from Democrats is not only that Trump will use the fund to loot taxpayer dollars for himself and his friends, but that those whom he pardoned for their actions on Jan. 6 will not also be handed cash for their troubles.
Kernen said that before anything happened with the IRS, Trump "hated the IRS." He added that Trump is likely right for hating them. "Probably there's some merit to how he feels about this," he said.
"So he's able to do this with Todd Blanche, who was his personal attorney. He can do it fine. And I think he does it because he can. But it doesn't mean that it helps matters in terms of perception for someone like you that has to defend it?" asked Kernen.
Clayton said that it isn't a problem for him.
"I'm trying to help you, Andrew, and you're silent," Kernen said to co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin.
"You said you [would] take the settlement on either side. And I'm just trying to understand why you take the settlement on either side," Sorkin said. "Pretend it's not the president. Pretend it's me. Let's say you thought that I was a tax cheat. Why would you? I'm not saying that he was a tax cheat. I'm just saying, let's say you thought that I owed the government money. Wouldn't you want me to pay the money? Why would the government not want me to pay the money?"
Clayton said that there were two things afoot, first, the government "intentionally leaked your tax returns to embarrass you." The second part is that they dropped the audit. He called it a "pretty good deal for the government."
Sorkin's question was whether it changes the dynamic when the person deciding the matter is the president and he's deciding his own case.
Clayton ultimately dismissed all of Sorkin's concerns, saying that no one will care about it in a week or so anyway.
"They tried to name and shame him. They tried to destroy him. Okay. We resolved that in terms of the audit that had been going on for years, with obviously, you know, no findings to date. That's gone. Let's look forward. This, as I read the settlement, the audit going forward, the tax returns that are filed going forward are subject to the same scrutiny as anybody," he said.
He then said that people say "let's move on," but when they actually do move on, people don't like it.
"I think the American people are going to be satisfied," Clayton added.
