The Justice Department has announced the creation of a new “Anti-Weaponization Fund” designed to compensate individuals who allege they were unfairly targeted by the government—as President Donald Trump has long claimed he and his allies were under the Biden Administration.
The $1.776 billion fund was established as part of an agreement to settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the I.R.S. over the leak of his tax returns. Under the agreement, the President, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization will also receive a formal apology, but no direct monetary damages.
Instead, the DOJ said in a Monday press release that, in exchange for the plaintiffs dropping the suit and other claims, it will create a process for others who claim they were harmed by what the department described as “weaponization and lawfare” to seek financial compensation or formal apologies through the creation of the new fund.
Read more: Trump Drops IRS Suit Amid Reports of Deal for $1.7 Billion ‘Weaponization’ Fund
Here’s what to know.
What is the Anti-Weaponization Fund?
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the fund is intended to provide “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
“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.
According to the DOJ, the fund will receive $1.776 billion from the federal Judgment Fund, a permanent Treasury appropriation used to pay certain legal settlements and judgments against the federal government.
The Anti-Weaponization Fund will be overseen by a five-member commission appointed by the Attorney General, with one member selected in consultation with congressional leadership. The commission will have the authority to issue both monetary awards and formal apologies to claimants.
Justice Department officials said submitting the claims will be voluntary, and that there will be “no partisan requirements” for eligibility.
The processing of claims is set to conclude no later than Dec. 15, 2028. Any funds remaining when the program ends will revert to the federal government.
Who could receive compensation or apologies through the fund?
While the DOJ did not release detailed eligibility criteria, officials said the fund is intended for individuals who believe they were improperly targeted by the federal government on political, personal, or ideological grounds.
Previous reporting by The New York Times and ABC News ahead of the fund’s official announcement indicated that it could be used to compensate Trump allies, including the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, who claim they were unfairly prosecuted.
Trump has for years claimed that the Biden Administration weaponized the Department of Justice against him and his allies for political purposes, pointing to multiple federal investigations, including charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Several of his aides and supporters have also faced prosecution in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and other efforts to challenge the election outcome.
The President previously filed administrative claims seeking damages related to the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which was conducted as part of the classified documents investigation, as well as federal investigations into alleged ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia. The settlement also resolves those claims, according to the DOJ.
The department has not yet announced when applications will open or how claims will be evaluated.
Backlash from Democrats and ethics experts
The announcement of the fund quickly prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts, who have questioned whether a President should be able to negotiate a settlement that creates a taxpayer-funded compensation system potentially benefiting political allies.
On Monday, 93 House Democrats filed an amicus brief in federal court seeking to block any potential settlement, warning that the arrangement creates a “specter of corruption unparalleled in American history” and could allow Trump to improperly direct public funds to himself, his family, and his allies.
The lawmakers argued that Trump is effectively operating on both sides of the dispute, serving as both the plaintiff suing the IRS and the president overseeing the agency. They contended that this raises concerns about unconstitutional “self-dealing”.
In the motion, they requested that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams dismiss Trump’s lawsuit and subject any agreement between the President and his Administration to close scrutiny.
“Never in the history of the United States has a sitting President sought a monetary settlement from the government he leads—let alone sought many billions of dollars in taxpayer funds,” the lawmakers wrote.
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, who was among the lawmakers leading the legal challenge, accused the Administration of “finding new ways to steal from the American people” in a post on X and said Democrats were acting to “protect the money you’ve worked hard to earn.”
Other Democrats have also publicly slammed the settlement deal.
“Trump deserves no credit for dropping this lawsuit. He’s doing it to set up a $1.7 billion slush fund for right-wing political violence,” Sen. Ron Wyden wrote on X. “If Trump follows through, it will be the most brazen theft of taxpayer dollars by any president in history.”
Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the proposal “an insane level of corruption” in a post on X, describing it as “a $1.7 BILLION slush fund for Trump’s hand-picked stooges to hand money to January 6th insurrectionists and his political allies.”
Critics have also pointed to Blanche’s role in the settlement, noting that the acting Attorney General previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney, including in the federal cases against the President over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling of classified documents.
Read more: Who Is Todd Blanche, Trump’s Former Lawyer and the New Acting Attorney General?
When asked for comment, the White House referred TIME to the DOJ. The DOJ referred TIME to its press release announcing the fund.
The department said in the release that the fund is in line with previous precedent.
“Most notably,” in the department’s words, it pointed to the settlement of the Keepseagle v. Vilsack lawsuit, in which the Obama Administration established a $760 million fund to compensate Native American farmers and ranchers who alleged discrimination by the Department of Agriculture.
The DOJ noted that, unlike in the case of the new fund, hundreds of millions of dollars left over from the one created in the Keepseagle settlement were later distributed to nonprofit organizations “that had not even submitted claims.”
The post What to Know About the DOJ’s $1.7B ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ That Could Compensate Trump Allies Investigated Under Biden appeared first on TIME.
