Who are the North Carolinians that could benefit from the Trump IRS deal, aka the president’s hugely controversial $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund?”
The Trump IRS deal is like reparations for domestic terrorists, says Cardinal & Pine Senior Newsletter Editor Billy Ball.
Read More: Whatley backs Trump’s $1.8 billion fund that could give cash to Jan. 6 rioters
Recently, the president reached a settlement with his own Department of Justice in a lawsuit over his leaked tax returns. Critics say it includes a “slush fund” that the president can use to pay people who were arrested and convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021 MAGA attack on the US Capitol.
Dozens of people from North Carolina were charged with crimes in the violent insurrection, many of them for attacking police officers.
In a new Billy Ball Explains NC, we break down who those people are that could benefit from the Trump IRS deal, what they were convicted of doing, and why they might be headed for an unprecedented payday from the federal government.
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Transcript on Trump IRS deal
David Gietzen of Sanford was convicted of attacking police at the US Capitol, including trying to choke one police officer and hit another with a pole.
Jeremy Bertino? He’s an alleged white supremacist from Gaston County who once attacked a Black church in Washington, D.C., and plotted to stop President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Nathan Baer of Asheville took part in some of the most violent clashes with police on Jan. 6. He allegedly helped to pass shields up to the front that were used to attack officers.
These are just a few of the North Carolinians convicted for their involvement in the January 6th, 2001 attack on the Capitol. And now, there’s a chance they could get some cash out of a hugely controversial $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization fund” President Trump created in a settlement deal with the IRS.
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Ok this week, we’re looking at which North Carolinians could benefit from what’s being called Trump’s “anti-weaponization fund,” money the president says should go to people he believes were prosecuted for political reasons.
First, a little background:
The president got this fund out of a settlement deal he reached with his own Justice Department. Trump sued the IRS after his tax returns were leaked between 2018 and 2020.
According to reporting from the New York Times back in 2020, those returns showed Trump—one of the richest people in the world—paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. The returns also showed he paid no income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years.
When you hear people say that the rich aren’t paying their fair share in America, this is the stuff they’re talking about.
Trump sued over the leak. The settlement eventually led to the creation of this new fund, which was announced in May.
A wide range of American leaders across the political spectrum have panned the fund as one of the most corrupt scams in US history. Essentially, Trump as the plaintiff negotiated a settlement with the Department of Justice, which he controls. Opponents say the deal raises major ethical questions.
The anti-weaponization fund has drawn criticism from Democrats across North Carolina.
Most Republican leaders aren’t talking about it. One notable exception is soon-to-be retired Sen. Thom Tillis, who called it a “payout pot for punks.”
Bill: Ever since he got that bolo tie, Tillis has been doing a Clint Eastwood impersonation.
But Tillis isn’t the only Republican raising concerns.
Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell described it as a “slush fund to pay people who assault cops.”
Even Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has called the fund “deeply offensive.”
For Pence, it’s personal too. You might remember that some of the rioters on January 6th wanted to hang Pence because he wouldn’t go along with overturning the 2020 election.
The pushback, which includes a few legal challenges to the fund, has some outlets reporting this week that the Trump administration is considering dropping the fund.
Axios quoted one official who said the fund is “dead, for now.”
But however this ends, the fact remains that our federal leaders wanted to use more than a billion dollars to pay off people who are, essentially, domestic terrorists.
I want to be blunt about this. There is no precedent in American history for this kind of fund.
You can search the history books up and down and you won’t find anything like it. It’s like reparations but not for the descendants of slaves, for people who tried to overthrow the government.
We’re talking about a big pot of your tax dollars that the president and his allies could use to pay people who were arrested, charged, or convicted for their actions on January 6th.
More than 1,500 people across the US were charged with federal crimes related to the attack. It was one of the largest federal prosecutions ever. Which makes sense. We really haven’t seen anything like January 6th in modern America—it wasn’t just some big protest that got out of hand. Five people died that day. One Capitol police officer died the next day. And several more officers who responded to the attack later died by suicide in the months after.
Despite that, on his first day back in office, Trump issued a blanket pardon to the January 6th mob, calling their prosecution “a grave national injustice.” He has repeatedly described them as victims of political persecution instead of criminals.
So let’s talk about the North Carolinians charged that day. According to a searchable database built by NPR, which we’ll link to in the description, at least 49 North Carolinians were charged in connection with Jan. 6.
Some faced misdemeanors for illegally entering restricted areas on the Capitol grounds. Others were charged with more serious felonies, including assaulting police officers or other conspiracy-related offenses.
That includes people like David Joseph Gietzen of Sanford. Jeremy Joseph Bertino of Gaston County. And Nathan Baer of Asheville.
But they’re not the only folks in NC who could benefit from this fund:
There’s Matthew Beddingfield from Middlesex, NC, who was reportedly captured on surveillance footage trying to jab at police with a flagpole. Beddingfield, by the way, was already facing charges of attempted murder at the time of the riots.
There’s Aiden Bilyard of Cary, who pleaded guilty to assaulting officers. Court records detailed how Bilyard was caught on camera spraying police with bear spray and breaking windows at the Capitol.
Then there’s John Joseph Carl from Pinetops. When he was arrested in 2024, Carl was working as a police officer. Investigators say footage from the Capitol showed him near the front of a crowd fighting with police.
Stephan Ethan Horn from Wake Forest, admitted entering the Capitol and making his way into then Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
And Curtis Davis from Snow Hill, who was convicted after prosecutors said he repeatedly punched officers, and tried to remove one officer’s protective shield.
Again, these are just a few of the North Carolinians charged in connection with Jan. 6. We’re not talking about people who protested. I’ve covered protests many times in my career.
We’re talking about people who violently attacked the Capitol and the police officers who were defending it. People died.
And now, the president of the United States and some of his allies want to use tax dollars to put money in their pockets.
We’re going to drop a link in the description to a searchable database of the charges filed after January 6th. Take a look and decide for yourself. Tell us in the comments what you think about this fund.
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