Body
The Justice Department announced a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund for people who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted, framing it as a response to “lawfare and weaponization.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will represent “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” The announcement drew immediate criticism from Democrats, who said the fund is unconstitutional, corrupt, and could function as a taxpayer-funded “slush fund.”
The department’s announcement links the fund to a separate legal resolution involving Trump and his family, including a Trump lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department said the money will come from the federal judgment fund, which pays out court judgments and compromise settlements of lawsuits against the government. Trump told reporters at the White House that the fund is dedicated to “reimbursing people who were horribly treated.”
U.S. officials said the fund will offer a formal mechanism for applicants who contend they were unfairly targeted by the government for political, ideological or personal reasons. Justice Department official Trent McCotter said in the statement that “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.” The Justice Department did not name which categories of people would qualify.
The department said the fund will be able to review claims and, for approved applicants, issue formal apologies and award monetary compensation. It added that the process would be overseen by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche, with one member chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The Justice Department said the president can remove any commission member. Critics, however, said key details about eligibility and how claims would be evaluated remain unclear.
Blanche’s announcement also drew attention for how it echoes Trump’s longer-running claims about the Justice Department under the Biden administration. The AP report noted that the fund’s rationale centers on the idea that prosecutors and investigators previously targeted Trump and his allies, while Democrats argued the Justice Department faced similar claims during Biden’s term. The fund’s framing did not address, in the Justice Department announcement, how investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s political opponents under his watch have raised similar allegations of politicized enforcement.
The announcement came after Trump and his family, along with the Trump Organization, agreed to drop their lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department. Their $10 billion suit alleged that a leak of confidential tax records caused reputational and financial harm and negatively affected their public standing. The Justice Department said that deal helped resolve that litigation and enabled the creation of the fund.
Asked Monday about whether individuals who committed violence in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack should receive compensation through the fund, Trump said, “It’ll all be dependent on a committee.” He added: “I didn’t do this deal. It was told to me yesterday.” The AP report said prosecutors charged about 1,500 people in connection with the riot and that Trump, on his first day in office of his second term, pardoned or commuted prison sentences or dismissed cases for those defendants.
In a separate critique, the AP report said critics pointed to the possibility that the fund could benefit allies who were investigated and charged during the Biden administration, including Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, both of whom have denied wrongdoing. Democrats and ethics watchdogs also argued that the administration’s ability to direct money without explicit congressional approval increases the risk that eligibility decisions could favor political allies.
A group of nearly 100 members of Congress filed a brief aimed at setting up a legal challenge, according to the AP report. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the case “nothing but a racket” and said it was 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.” The AP report also said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the fund “corruption on steroids” and that she and other Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation last month that would ban the sitting president and vice president from collecting settlement payments from the U.S., among other provisions.