This week, President Donald Trump and the Justice Department announced a $1.8 billion fund widely expected to go to people who stormed and attacked the Capitol after he lost the 2020 presidential election as well as anyone who claims they were wrongly prosecuted by Democratic administrations.
The enormous taxpayer legal fund designed for the president’s supporters has shocked ethics experts and stirred impeachment talk among some Democrats.
“This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history,” Donald K. Sherman, president of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told my Washington Post colleagues.
Here’s what’s going on.
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It came about after Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion
Trump sued the Internal Revenue Service this year after a contract worker stole and leaked his tax documents, leading to an extraordinary situation where the president was suing his own administration.
“It looks bad,” Trump said this fall of other legal claims he has against the government. “I’m suing myself, right?”
The lawsuit also came as those accused in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol were demanding payment for being prosecuted in the first place.
Trump pardoned almost all of them his first day in office, letting hundreds of people out of jail, but many say they deserve reparations as well. Some marched on Washington earlier this year, on the fifth anniversary of the attack, to show their support for Trump and demand more.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Robert Morss, who was sentenced to more than five years in prison for assaulting police offers, among other charges, told my Post colleague. “We’re here to fix history, set the record straight, and we’re going to make America great again, whether they like it or not.”
Trump’s IRS lawsuit quickly transitioned to an ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’
Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS faced headwinds in court. And this week his legal team and the Justice Department — led by his former personal lawyer — reached a deal where Trump would drop the lawsuit in exchange for the government setting up an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
The parameters of the fund are broad, with a focus on people who claim they were “wronged” or persecuted by Democratic administrations. The fund will abruptly close when Trump leaves office.
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday that more details on how the fund works will be released soon.
This could go to anyone, with very little oversight
This settlement appears more like an agreement between Trump and his administration than a real legal settlement.
Trump won’t get the money, but he will have ultimate authority over appointing a five-member panel deciding how much to dole out and to whom, and there is no requirement this information be released to the public. “This is reimbursing people who were horribly treated,” Trump said this week.
On Tuesday, Blanche told senators there would be “full transparency.”
Already hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants have filed claims for it, my Post colleagues report. Blanche said that people convicted of assaulting law enforcement will be eligible: “Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were victims of weaponization.”
The fund has no equal in modern American history
In announcing the fund, the Justice Department pointed to the Obama administration setting up a fund to resolve claims of discrimination made by Native American farmers and ranchers.
But that was not directed explicitly at a president’s political allies, nor derived from a lawsuit by the president and not nearly as costly.
It’s not clear if this is legalor who might even claim standing to sue the Trump administration over it. The Treasury Department is supposed to sign off on legal payments, and its top lawyer resigned Monday as the fund was announced.
But there could be political consequences. Trump’s pardon of Jan. 6 attackers was deeply unpopular, and a taxpayer fund for them comes as Americans increasingly say their life is unaffordable and blame Trump for some of it.
Trump has also made headlines lately for boldly trading millions of dollars of tech stocks and investing in cryptocurrency. And his family company, run by his children, is making real estate deals in the Middle East.
“Trump’s theft of taxpayer money, while people are losing healthcare coverage and food aid while suffering from Trump-induced higher prices,” wrote left-leaning economist Paul Krugman, “is perfect fodder for the Democrats in the upcoming elections.”
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