in case you missed it dond trump made history today becoming first president-elect to be depossessed. stemming from a lawsuit trump filed after the chef back out of a plan open restaurant. the first president to be depossessed was president grant. a hundred years later president ford gave a video deposition in the trial of froem trying to assassinate ford. including over his family s peanut warehouse. another clinton when he denied
but apparently he decided to help himself year after year to basically the farm s bottom l e line. rerepeatedly took the retained earnings from the farm, basically took money out of the business year after year until it ultimately attracted the attention of republicans in congress who persuaded the department of justice to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the peanut farm to investigate if president carter was using it to hide some political slush fund because where was all that money going out of the business? yeah, it turns out there wasn t a slush fund. it was billy! billy was not a model employee of the peanut warehouse. but that was i mean, that was not exactly a scandal at that point given what everybody had come to learn about the president s beloved younger brother. and the republicans in congress convinced the justice department to spend six months and a ton of money trying to turn that into something, but that was how it ended. that was peanutgate, that was
investigate if president carter was using it to hide some political slush fund because where was all that money going out of the business? yeah, it turns out there wasn t a slush fund. it was billy! billy was not a model employee of the peanut warehouse. but that was i mean, that was not exactly a scandal at that point given what everybody had come to learn about the president s beloved younger brother. and the republicans in congress convinced the justice department to spend six months and a ton of money trying to turn that into something, but that was how it ended. that was peanutgate, that was the big scandal. and that, in the modern era, is the closest we have ever come as a country to a presidential scandal involving the dispensation of the president s personal assets and personal finances during his time running for the presidency and being the president. that s as close to a scandal as we have ever come. and that was a pipsqueak s worth of presidential assets.
his car, chose a can of beer and popped the cap. jimmy carter seemed to shudder, end quote. jimmy carter and his younger brother billy could not have been more different. but president carter absolutely loved him. and he did put his peanut farm and his peanut warehouse, this business that he had built, he put it into a blind trust when he became president because that s the sort of thing a president has to do even if they do not have considerable assets. and he handed over his own asset, his own stake to a trustee who assumed complete responsibility so that he would have no further role whatsoever. but part of the arrangement was that the trustee would keep on the existing employees at the peanut farm and the warehouse including billy who worked at the warehouse. and the arrangement was a little rocky. billy at one point tried to buy the peanut farm and the warehouse in 1977. the trustee said no, no, you can t buy it.
but what it actually went by at the time in all seriousness because it was supposed to be a very, very serious thing, they restrained themselves, they didn t call it goobergate. they called it peanutgate. very seriously. oh, my god, did they want it to be a big deal. the republicans in congress have been calling loudly for a special prosecutor to investigate the carter family s peanut business. peanutgate, investigate the carter family s peanut business. scandal. this was 1979. peanutgate had a perfect name. in the end, though, substantively it did not exactly distinguish itself as a scandal. this was six months later. good evening. jimmy carter was cleared today of any wrongdoing in the handling of funds at his peanut warehouse during his campaign for the presidency. i believe it s appropriate to state right here that there is no evidence to establish that president jimmy carter committed any crimes. no indictment can or should be brought against anyone. none will be filed. th