Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, on Tuesday defended a new $1.8 billion program to pay people who claim mistreatment by the federal government, as he faced blowback to an initiative Democrats called a slush fund for allies of President Trump’s.
Mr. Blanche’s comments came during a Senate appropriations hearing, where he promised transparency even as he declined to disclose whether the money would go to pro-Trump rioters convicted of assaulting police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“There’s no limitation on the claims,” he said, insisting that the fund would review claims from an array of people, not just Republicans, and not just over perceived instances of mistreatment by the Biden administration.
Asked if Mr. Trump’s campaign donors could also seek taxpayer compensation, Mr. Blanche said they could. He also suggested that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter Biden, who was prosecuted and convicted by the Biden administration, could also apply.
Under an agreement announced on Monday, the president withdrew a $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S. after a leak of his taxpayer return information, as well as two claims totaling $230 million for past F.B.I. investigations of Mr. Trump and his associates. In exchange, the Trump administration established a $1.776 billion fund to compensate those it says were victims of “weaponization” under Democratic administrations.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department quietly disclosed an addendum to the terms of the deal, which bars the I.R.S. from pursuing tax audits of or claims against Mr. Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization.
At one point in the hearing on Tuesday, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, pointed out that Mr. Blanche had gone from serving as Mr. Trump’s personal defense lawyer to picking a handful of people to oversee a fund handing out more than a billion dollars, presumably to the president’s allies.
“I’m the acting attorney general, OK?” Mr. Blanche said angrily. “The fact that I used to be President Trump’s lawyer is just a fact. But I am the acting attorney general, so don’t say the president’s former personal lawyer will do something. The acting attorney general will do something,” he said, jabbing the witness table for emphasis.
“Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president’s personal attorney, and that’s the whole problem,” Mr. Van Hollen replied.
Democrats at the hearing emphasized that the deal struck between the Trump administration and lawyers for the president had no judicial or independent oversight, suggesting that the loosely defined rules for who receives payment could change at any time.
Mr. Trump and his allies have long argued that his indictments were politically motivated abuses of the criminal justice system meant to cripple or kill his political career. Administration officials said that Mr. Trump, his sons and his company would not receive compensation from the new fund.
“Is a dollar of this money going to Donald Trump personally? No,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Tuesday. “Is a dollar of this money going to Donald Trump’s family? No.”
At the hearing, Mr. Blanche also made clear that the fund was created in response to what Mr. Trump and his allies have argued was unjust overreach by Mr. Biden’s attorney general, Merrick B. Garland.
“There’s a flaw in the legal system because this legal system was not set up to compensate for what the Democrats and what Biden and what Garland did for four years,” Mr. Blanche said, repeatedly denying the initiative was a slush fund.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, interjected that the fund amounted to “corruption that has never been more blatant or more widespread.”
One Republican, Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, asserted that the Justice Department had violated his rights in 2023 when Jack Smith, the special counsel, seized the phone records of some G.O.P. lawmakers as part of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election results.
Mr. Smith and other former Justice Department officials have said the review of those records was appropriate and necessary to investigate Mr. Trump. But Mr. Blanche called those actions “in some ways the worst form of abuse by the Department of Justice,” seemingly suggesting that lawmakers could receive payments from the new fund.
Last year, Congress passed legislation that would have paid some lawmakers millions of dollars for having their phone records taken as part of that investigation. Criticism of the self-dealing led lawmakers to rescind that language.
The Justice Department program appears to offer a new avenue for the lawmakers to receive compensation for having their phone records taken.
At the hearing, Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, suggested his appropriations committee had little to say about the fund, because the panel “has no jurisdiction over this issue.”
Senator John Thune, the Republican majority leader, struck a more cautious note when he was asked by reporters about the fund.
He said he expected it would face opposition and undergo a “full vetting” by lawmakers during the appropriations process. “My assumption is that, based on some of the blowback that’s come since this was announced, that there would be a significant amount of attention paid to it,” he said.
Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, compared Mr. Blanche to a mafia boss’s right hand man.
“This whole hearing is exposing something which is to me very frightening,” Mr. Reed said. “You’re a very gifted lawyer, but from my perspective, you have very little faith to the Constitution and the people of America, and you’re the president’s consigliere.”
Mr. Blanche pushed back. “Your perspective is completely wrong, senator, respectfully,” he replied.
Mr. Reed paused. “Well, I think the facts will prove me right,” he said.
Megan Mineiro and Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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