Rachel Maddow

Eric was there to promote World Liberty, a crypto venture the Trump family had founded months earlier. For World Liberty, Binance's market power could help turn it into a serious player in the crypto industry. Binance has more than 250 million users. The more World Liberty cryptocurrency in circulation, of course, quote, the more the Trump family could profit.

Again, ignore the word like cryptocurrency. This could be anything. I mean, say the Trump family had launched a new company that makes doohickeys. Well, Binance, if they partnered with the Trump family in this enterprise, they could get Trump doohickeys in front of hundreds of millions of potential customers, which would, of course, mean lots of profit for the Trump family.

Again, ignore the word like cryptocurrency. This could be anything. I mean, say the Trump family had launched a new company that makes doohickeys. Well, Binance, if they partnered with the Trump family in this enterprise, they could get Trump doohickeys in front of hundreds of millions of potential customers, which would, of course, mean lots of profit for the Trump family.

That is what Binance is offering. to the Trump family. What does Binance want? Well, their convicted felon founder, quote, has been pushing for a Trump administration pardon. Has been pushing for the Trump administration to grant him a pardon. And the Wall Street Journal reports, quote, executives from Binance met with Treasury Department officials last month and discussed loosening U.S.

That is what Binance is offering. to the Trump family. What does Binance want? Well, their convicted felon founder, quote, has been pushing for a Trump administration pardon. Has been pushing for the Trump administration to grant him a pardon. And the Wall Street Journal reports, quote, executives from Binance met with Treasury Department officials last month and discussed loosening U.S.

government oversight on the company. Quote, Binance executives are optimistic the Trump administration will acquiesce. Oh, they are, are they? Maybe that's because as president, Donald Trump has already pardoned a whole slew of crypto felons and his justice department has just disbanded its crypto policing unit.

government oversight on the company. Quote, Binance executives are optimistic the Trump administration will acquiesce. Oh, they are, are they? Maybe that's because as president, Donald Trump has already pardoned a whole slew of crypto felons and his justice department has just disbanded its crypto policing unit.

And also because Trump's SEC halted an investigation of another crypto executive after that executive dumped $75 million into the Trump family crypto company.

And also because Trump's SEC halted an investigation of another crypto executive after that executive dumped $75 million into the Trump family crypto company.

So if the Wall Street Journal's reporting on this bears out, this is not even like, this isn't even like textbook corruption, because you would not need to get to the level of school that uses textbooks in order to get to this level of understanding of corruption. This is like a coloring book of corruption.

So if the Wall Street Journal's reporting on this bears out, this is not even like, this isn't even like textbook corruption, because you would not need to get to the level of school that uses textbooks in order to get to this level of understanding of corruption. This is like a coloring book of corruption.

This is like corruption that you could understand if you'd never been to any school ever anywhere. In any other time in American history, this scandal, one-tenth of this scandal would be the end of a presidency. But this is just like day that ends in Y. This is our life now. We'll be right back. So Donald Trump's nominee to lead the IRS is this man. His name is Billy Long.

This is like corruption that you could understand if you'd never been to any school ever anywhere. In any other time in American history, this scandal, one-tenth of this scandal would be the end of a presidency. But this is just like day that ends in Y. This is our life now. We'll be right back. So Donald Trump's nominee to lead the IRS is this man. His name is Billy Long.

He is not an accountant. He's not a tax lawyer. He has no background in tax, like bookkeeping or math or anything that would be a typical credential for somebody who was appointed to lead the IRS. His only relevant credential appears to be that he used to be a member of Congress. He then tried to run for Senate in 2022, and he lost his Senate race.

He is not an accountant. He's not a tax lawyer. He has no background in tax, like bookkeeping or math or anything that would be a typical credential for somebody who was appointed to lead the IRS. His only relevant credential appears to be that he used to be a member of Congress. He then tried to run for Senate in 2022, and he lost his Senate race.

Billy Long is one of the last big Trump nominees who has not yet been confirmed. And that's bad timing because, hoo boy, the work is really piling up over at the IRS. But look at this.

Billy Long is one of the last big Trump nominees who has not yet been confirmed. And that's bad timing because, hoo boy, the work is really piling up over at the IRS. But look at this.

Just this week, two Democratic senators on the Finance Committee wrote to the IRS asking the agency to open a criminal investigation into a handful of companies that they say have been selling tax credits that don't actually exist.

Just this week, two Democratic senators on the Finance Committee wrote to the IRS asking the agency to open a criminal investigation into a handful of companies that they say have been selling tax credits that don't actually exist.

And that obviously is problematic on its face, but it's even more concerning that Billy Long, Trump's choice to run the IRS, has, quote, direct financial ties to some of the companies implicated in this alleged scheme. The senators write that one of the companies, a company called Lifetime Advisors, hired Billy Long to do substantial work for it.