Trump called reporter “sick”; brief omits whether he lost it, ordered him quiet in the Oval Office, or got personal

A new fraud reward plan

The White House planned to announce a program and tip line offering whistleblowers up to $30,000, or one percent of recovered funds, for exposing what the administration considers fraud. The first reward was set to go to Nick Shirley, a right-wing YouTuber whose videos helped prompt scrutiny of Minnesota day-care and home health care businesses run or owned by Somali-Americans.

Shirley said there had never been an incentive to expose fraud in the United States. But the False Claims Act, in place since 1883, lets whistleblowers sue on the federal government’s behalf to recover money taken from federal programs, and can pay more than the proposed program.

Questions about the law

Feinberg said he set aside prepared questions after learning of the planned tip line. He asked why someone would use the administration’s program when the existing legal process could offer a larger reward.

Trump replied that a one-percent payment could still mean millions of dollars for reporting routine crimes, while the cases under discussion involved billions or possibly trillions. Feinberg wrote that Trump may not have understood the question or the difference between one percent and the 10 to 25 percent available under the False Claims Act.

Vance challenges Feinberg

Vance joined the exchange, calling Feinberg’s question “dishonest” and arguing that some types of fraud are outside the False Claims Act. Feinberg said that claim was not true.

The two had clashed months earlier in the briefing room, when Feinberg asked Vance about Trump’s stock trading. Feinberg said he had encountered Vance many times over the decade he had covered him, including in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One.

Exchange turns personal

Feinberg said he tried to ask more questions, including one about Trump’s plans to renovate a popular D.C. golf course, but repeatedly faced the president’s anger. When it happened again minutes later, Trump called him a “sick person.” Feinberg said he had undergone an annual physical earlier that month and reported that he was in perfect health.