A Criminal Conspiracy that Changes Everything.

The most brazen abuse of taxpayer money in American history just took place. Spread the word.

I just really don’t have it in me to pull a picture to go with this article I wrote so here’s a dumpster full of trash to illustrate what the U.S. Government just did under the Trump administration.

Yesterday, my sister-from-another-mister-in-law (the wife of my childhood best friend Jesse) Ivirlei Brookes sent me a video that made my jaw drop. The video was by Liz Oyer, Former Pardon Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, putting Trump’s recent “anti-weaponization” fund into one of the most chilling contexts I can remember. And it involves you, the American taxpayer.

Oyer has spent years inside the American legal system watching its institutions bent and pressured in ways most citizens never see. But this, she says, is something she has never witnessed before: “The greatest abuse of our legal system in history—a criminal conspiracy between the president and the Justice Department.”

Here’s what happened. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS that an independent panel of legal experts called outright nonsense. Before the court could toss it, Trump’s lawyers quietly moved to dismiss it voluntarily. Gee. Why, I wonder! Because Trump had already gotten what he came for through an entirely different door.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a settlement that uses taxpayer money to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund—branded, with breathtaking audacity, as an anti-weaponization fund—to compensate “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” Five members, appointed by the attorney general and removable by the president, will distribute this money to anyone they choose, with no oversight, no transparency, and no public input.

“This is not a legal settlement,” Oyer says. “It is a slush fund for Trump’s allies and supporters, laundered through the machinery of the Justice Department.”

Blanche, as acting attorney general, had a fiduciary duty to protect taxpayer money from false and fraudulent claims. Oyer says he has abdicated it entirely—reaching into the U.S. Treasury to give away money no one has a legal right to, at the president’s request, with no court judgment and no valid legal claim.

Oyer doesn’t mince words: this is a theft of public property, a fraud on the American people, and “a criminal conspiracy at the highest levels of our government.” For someone who has spent her career defending the rule of law, this is a breaking poin— and a call to action.

Your creative call to action this week: Spread the word.

It’s a simple but mighty one—less creative and more straightforward. We are going to rely on good ‘ol fashioned word of mouth to try and spread this information as far and as wide as possible in the hopes something can be done about it. Today I want all of us to send this article to five people we know and ask them to send it to five people they know, and so on. The more noise we can make, the more awareness we can raise, the better chance we may have at effecting change.

I know every day is an onslaught of bad news coming out of the U.S.. It can feel so hard to engage some days. But some things take just a few minutes to do our small part, and with enough small parts, we become a much larger whole, working together to fight. Forward this email if you’re reading it in your inbox, or share it if you’re reading it on the Substack website. Five people. Clue them in. Ring the alarm. Ask them to join us in sending it to five more.

• First of all, yes I hand wrote and tore up the edges of the graphic directly above us to make it look cool and no it’s not AI. You’re welcome, America! Second: we have incredible Substack Live interviews coming up all summer long: feminism and smut with Roxane Gay (she’s writing a romance novel with Channing Tatum,) fiction and the wilderness of storytelling with R. O. Kwon 권오경 , poetry and the world of publishing with the esteemed poet and publisher of Wave Books, Matthew Zapruder , artistry in a weaponized world with Mahogany Browne Mo Browne – Djeli Said and SO MUCH MORE. Upgrade to a paid subscription to join the conversation, ask questions, and support The Sharpening. Paid subscribers also get the full interview recording.

• Next month, I’d love for you to join me in the mountains. Idyllwild Arts’ Writer’s Week (June 21–27, 2026) takes place in the San Jacinto Mountains in Idyllwild, California — an immersive week of craft talks, readings, and receptions. I’ll be joining guest authors including U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus Joy Harjo, Janet Fitch, LA Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson, and the brilliant L.A. poet, Brendan Constantine. Workshops cover poetry, fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction. Whether you’re deepening your practice or finally carving out time for your writing life, come join us — details and registration at idyllwildarts.org.

---

The Sharpening is a reader-supported newsletter run by me, Amber. Upgrading to a paid subscription keeps it going — and growing. Your support lets me dedicate real time to crafting original, timely creative prompts and bringing in some of the most compelling artists working today for interviews and webinars.

With a paid subscription, you get:

• Access to all Substack Lives and Zoom webinars featuring artists whose work sits at the intersection of the political and the personal.

• The ability to comment, ask questions, and engage directly with featured guests — plus recordings of everything, so you never miss a session.

• Invitations to in-person meetups and early access to virtual and in-person events.

• Behind-the-scenes updates on my upcoming projects, book tours, and events — plus three years of archived content from my previous newsletter.