Senate Republicans are debating restrictions on how President Donald Trump could use his $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as part of their reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement, Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday evening.
This comes after widespread outrage about the fund, which was created as a so-called “settlement” after Trump dropped his $10 billion suit against his own IRS for failing to secure his tax information.
The money is meant to be paid out to pro-Trump individuals who supposedly were victims of “lawfare” investigations, potentially even including Jan. 6 rioters.
“The potential guardrails — which could come in multiple different forms — would place conditions on who’s eligible for a payout from the nearly $1.776 billion fund,” said the report. “Senate Republicans could include language on this issue as part of the base text of the still-unreleased bill. They could also introduce an amendment for the vote-a-rama in an effort to counteract an all-but-certain Democratic push to put Republicans on the spot over the issue.”
“Democrats especially want to prevent payouts for rioters who assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol,” noted the report. “Senate Majority Leader John Thune said earlier this week that he’s ‘not a big fan’ of the fund, adding that he doesn’t see a purpose for it.”
Many of the broad strokes of how the fund would be set up and administered have not been revealed by the Justice Department, to the extent that even Republican lawmakers are demanding more details.
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