The Trump administration on Monday created a fund of nearly “$1.8 billion” to compensate victims of political “weaponization” to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump had filed against his own government over the alleged mishandling of his tax records.
The agreement resolves a lawsuit brought by Trump, in which he sought $10 billion from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), arguing it should have done more to prevent a former contractor from leaking his tax returns to the media.
According to reports, this fund will also allow people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes, including by the Biden administration Justice Department, to apply for payouts, creating what acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
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“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in a statement. Blanche is expected to be pressed on the fund when he testifies Tuesday on Capitol Hill about the Justice Department budget.
Critics claim that Trump’s lawsuit and the resulting settlement are an attempt to direct taxpayer money to his own purposes. “This case is 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,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
The Department of Justice said that filing a claim with the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” does not have a partisan requirement.
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Federal prosecutors who worked on cases against Trump and his allies have rejected accusations of political motivation. Blanche will appoint four of the five members of the commission who will decide the merits of the claims.
The settlement agreement says that the commission can authorize payments to those who demonstrate they were targeted for “improper and unlawful political, personal and/or ideological reasons.” As examples, it mentions Biden-era moves that conservatives have condemned, including prosecutions of activists for obstructing access to abortion clinics.
Legal experts said this move was “completely unprecedented.” “This is completely unprecedented for a variety of reasons,” said Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department lawyer who oversaw a fund for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks. “For taxpayer money to be given to the executive branch to dole out in a way with such little restriction just lends itself to abuse and corruption.”