Ben Ray Luján Explodes At Scott Bessent Over Trump's IRS Settlement: 'This Is Lawless'

Añadido: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Thank you, Senator Luhan.

[00:00:02]>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Bessant, should Americans who illegally evade their taxes be investigated and prosecuted?

[00:00:13]>> Yes, >> Secretary Beston. Should people organizations facilitating money laundering for Iran, North Korea, or Hamas be prosecuted?

[00:00:24]>> Uh, yes.

[00:00:25]>> What about laundering money for Mexican drug cartels?

[00:00:29]Yes.

[00:00:30]>> Should a person who traded and profited on insider information be prosecuted?

[00:00:35]Uh, >> according to the law, they should.

[00:00:38]>> Appreciate that. Uh, Mr. Secretary, as a result of President Trump's 10 billion dollar lawsuit, the Department of Justice on behalf of your department settled with President Trump by creating a 1.776 billion slush fund to pay for his supporters and criminals. Were you either directly or through your staff asked to sign the original agreement?

[00:00:58]>> Uh again, uh Senator, you were not here at the early part of the meeting.

[00:01:02]>> I saw you on TV.

[00:01:03]>> Well, congratulations. And you would know that I'm unable to answer those questions and they should be referred to as Secretary. What about the addendum to this agreement? Are you familiar with what the addendum is?

[00:01:14]>> Uh I'm not sure what you're referring to.

[00:01:16]>> Are you familiar with this giveaway from the IRS? that says President Trump and anyone that knows him or does business with him or part of a business, they get off scot-free. Are you aware of this?

[00:01:27]>> Again, I refer you to Attorney General Blanch.

[00:01:31]>> Are you Attorney General Blanch's client?

[00:01:34]>> The IRS and Treasury are a client of the Department of Justice.

[00:01:39]>> So, is that a nice way of saying yes, you're a client? He's he's your lawyer.

[00:01:44]Uh he represent >> you're the secret are you the secretary of treasury?

[00:01:49]>> Yes is the answer.

[00:01:50]>> The department of justice >> Scottant let me ask you this question sir. Are you the secretary >> my personal capacity to blanch is not my attorney. Correct sir the as >> are you for for the US secretary Scott let me ask you it this way Scott are you the secretary of treasury for the United States government?

[00:02:10]>> Yes.

[00:02:10]>> Appreciate that. The Department of Justice represents the IRS and the Department of Treasury in this lawsuit.

[00:02:16]Correct.

[00:02:16]>> Correct.

[00:02:17]>> Are you aware of this addendum? Did Did you're telling me DOJ gave the president this without you knowing about it?

[00:02:25]>> Again, they settle on our >> That's not how the law works, sir. I'm not a lawyer, but you have a bunch of them behind you. You should see the faces they're making at me behind you.

[00:02:34]They're all scalling at me back over here.

[00:02:35]>> Well, I I think that's a different reason, sir.

[00:02:38]>> Well, for whatever it is, they're doing it. Um, Mr. Secretary, my concern is that this addendum's not been getting a lot of attention. There's colleagues on this panel that think this slush fund is a bunch of and they've called out to say get rid of it. Now, people need to say, "Are you okay with one person in America because the Secretary of Treasury, I'm guessing, conferred with the Department of Justice because you're named on this lawsuit, sir.

[00:03:07]These are all the transactions from the president as well that I'm going to ask you this next question as well. You were bragging to one of my colleagues that you've been sanctioning people doing bad things in America.

[00:03:19]People that get sanctioned like Iran or terrorists, they're told not to do business in the United States with partners. Is that your understanding, sir? Me as a layman, >> it is.

[00:03:29]>> You hold these bad people accountable. I congratulate you for that. So this little giveaway to President Trump and his family gets them off scot-free. Does every American become part of this addendum? If if someone didn't pay their taxes or violated tax law or did bad things, are they told can't prosecute you? You're good. Everyone going back to the date of this or is this only for President Trump and his affiliates?

[00:03:57]>> Senator, do you have specific knowledge that President Trump's being audited?

[00:04:01]Sir, I I have specific knowledge of this addendum that you don't know a damn thing about that is for the Department of Treasury that your lawyer at the Department of Justice signed you up for.

[00:04:12]The reason I'm asking this question is because President Trump's sons signed a deal, as you know, with World Liberty Financial with a bunch of folks you sanctioned.

[00:04:28]And now as part of this, there's an addendum that says President Trump and his kids and anyone affiliated with him, I don't know if it's current wives, former wives, people that just did transactions with him, they're off scot-free. That, you know, that has a new way, a new ring to it. This scot-free because the Department of Treasury and the IRS is not going to go after him. Sir, this is wrong. This is lawless. I hope our colleagues will look at this addendum. If I could offer this into the record, Mr. chairman, for those that don't haven't seen it yet, >> without objection.

[00:05:01]>> Come on, man. There's a better way of doing this, sir. That's all we're saying here. So, look, I appreciate it if you don't want to talk about a lawsuit. That that's your prerogative to answer that way. But to say that you as a client, as Secretary of the US Treasury does not know what the Department of Justice is giving away to people, come on, man.

[00:05:21]That that's just not on the up and up, sir. I s you don't understand the way the the protocol works and we the we receive advice and accept their settlement.

[00:05:31]>> You're telling me as the secretary of US Treasury, you don't know that the president of the United States, who I think you work for, got a sweetheart deal from the Department of Justice, who's your lawyer.

[00:05:43]>> You're in line for the presidency, Scott. I I do know that the president president of the United States and 400 many of his employees had the largest tax leak in history. And I >> I know here's his filing shirt of all the insider trading.

[00:05:55]>> Do do you want to apologize on behalf of the American government?

[00:05:58]>> Scott, you should apologize to the American people for fleecing them and giving this away to Donald Trump. Man, that's what you should do.

[00:06:05]>> We we can agree to disagree. Senator >> War that we'll agree on.