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The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it plans to set up a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund for people and entities who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted for political, ideological or personal reasons, an effort critics say would violate constitutional principles and amount to corruption.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” would represent “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress,” according to the Justice Department announcement. Blanche’s statement, as described by the Associated Press, did not address how investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s political opponents under his watch have raised similar claims of politicized enforcement.
The Justice Department said the fund was announced as part of a deal resolving Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department over the leak of his tax returns. The settlement involved Trump, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization agreeing to drop the lawsuit, AP reported.
According to the Justice Department announcement, the money would come from the federal judgment fund, which pays out court judgments and compromise settlements of lawsuits against the government. The department said the fund would provide a formal review process for claims of alleged government political targeting, would allow formal apologies, and would provide monetary compensation to approved applicants.
In a separate statement announcing the fund, Trent McCotter of the Justice Department said, “The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any administration,” AP reported. The announcement framed the program as a remedy for claimants who believe they were targeted for improper reasons.
The Justice Department did not identify any named individuals who could qualify, AP reported, while saying that the fund would be available for people or entities making claims. The article noted that during the Biden administration, Trump allies faced multiple investigations, and it pointed to prosecutions connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including cases in which Trump in his second term either pardoned people, commuted prison sentences, or dismissed cases.
AP also reported that it remains unclear whether compensation would cover Jan. 6 defendants convicted of attacking officers, including those convicted of assault charges described as involving makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. When asked Monday whether those who committed violence that day should receive compensation, Trump said, “It’ll all be dependent on a committee,” and added, “I didn’t do this deal. It was told to me yesterday.”
Other Trump supporters cited by AP as having been investigated and charged include Steve Bannon, who served prison time for defying a congressional subpoena, and Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt, with both denying wrongdoing. AP said the Justice Department did not spell out who would qualify, and it did not provide a clear standard for resolving competing claims of political targeting.
The Justice Department said the fund would receive $1.776 billion and operate through Dec. 15, 2028. The department said oversight would be handled by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche, with one member chosen in consultation with congressional leadership, and that the president would have the ability to remove any member.
Democratic lawmakers and ethics watchdogs condemned the fund, with critics arguing it would be opaque, corrupt and vulnerable to becoming a taxpayer-funded “slush fund.” A group of nearly 100 members of Congress filed a brief setting up a legal challenge, AP reported.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the case was “nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing schemes.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the fund “corruption on steroids,” AP reported, adding that last month she and other Democratic lawmakers introduced the Ban Presidential Plunder of Taxpayer Funds Act, which would bar the sitting president and vice president from collecting settlement payments from the U.S., among other things.
Sources in AP’s account described the fund as consistent with Trump’s long-running claims that the Justice Department during the Biden administration was weaponized against him, even as Democrats said the policy would reward allies who, in some cases, were investigated, charged and convicted. The AP report said it was unclear how the commission would determine who should receive compensation.