The Department of Justice announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund of taxpayer money that would be used to pay off President Donald Trump’s allies, including Jan. 6 rioters, who say they were politically targeted by previous administrations.
The 79-year-old president, his two elder sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the family-owned Trump Organization agreed to drop their $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the establishment of the taxpayer-funded payouts, which will have little oversight or transparency.
The president and his sons say the IRS and the Treasury Department failed to stop a former employee from leaking their tax returns, but a judge overseeing the case gave the administration until Wednesday to explain “whether a case or controversy exists” after questioning why the court should weigh since Trump controls the Justice Department.
Trump’s personal lawyers argued Monday in a filing the court did not need to weigh in because they were voluntarily agreeing to dismiss the case, and the administration never replied to the suit.
The terms of the settlement sparked outrage across social media.
“Democrats should be saying anybody who takes this stolen money will see the government coming after them to claw it back,” demanded election law expert Andy Craig.
“As Jamie Raskin also tells me here, if Dems take back one or both chambers of Congress, they will shut down the slush fund, and use oversight power to compel release of a list of any/all payments made between now and 2027,” reported The New Republic’s Greg Sargent. “So Trump can’t necessarily hide these payments forever.”
“The largest federal reparations fund in US history goes not to indigenous tribes or descendants of formerly enslaved people or interned Japanese-Americans — but to J6ers who smeared s— on the walls of the US Capitol and attempted to hang the Vice President,” seethed meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus.
“So you CAN get reparations you just have to be a reactionary white person who tries to overthrow the government because black votes shouldn’t count,” noted writer Adam Serwer.
“I’ll be interested (and horrified) to see how much actually goes to violent J6ers as opposed to those who are already rich, powerful, and aggrieved, with ‘lawfare’ defined as friends of Trump prosecuted for tax fraud and domestic violence,” pondered writer Jeff Sharlet.
“A lot of people are talking about the $1.8 billion slush fund as though it’s going to Jan 6ers. Is this established somewhere? I would imagine it’s more likely to go to Trump’s family and allies who claim that criminal probes/sentences were political,” agreed journalist Philip Bump.
“This is THEFT. There is no other word for it,” denounced Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are stealing almost $1.8 BILLION dollars to pay Trump‘s allies, despite knowing that these people are not legally entitled to any money and be laughed out of court if they filed a lawsuit for money damages. It is my personal opinion that this is a criminal act and people should respond accordingly.”
“Can the law firms and universities targeted by the current administration apply for these funds?” wondered pollster Kevin Collins.
“The corruption and incompetence knows no bounds,” marveled Bluesky user Hari Seldon. “If there had not been push-back, this would have ended in a self-payoff, aka: blatant theft.”
“$1.7 billion is about to be paid out of the pockets of US taxpayers to J6 criminals who beat cops and Trump’s other dirty henchmen,” decried MeidasNews editor in chief Ron Filipkowski. “Trump set up a slush fund to reward these scumbags with your money and Republicans in Congress won’t say a word about this disgusting corruption.”
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