The Justice Department announced a $1.7 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate people who say they were unfairly targeted by prior Democratic administrations. The department said there are “no partisan requirements” to file a claim, even as Democratic
The Justice Department on Monday unveiled a $1.7 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” setting off an immediate backlash from Democratic lawmakers who said the money is designed to benefit people connected to the Jan. 6 attack.
The department said the program is meant to compensate people who believe they were unfairly targeted by previous Democratic administrations.. While the DOJ said there were “no partisan requirements” for filing a claim. critics framed the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as a pathway for Jan.. 6 defendants and supporters aligned with the Trump administration to seek compensation.
The fund is tied to a settlement agreement connected to President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. In exchange for creating the fund, Trump and his organization agreed to drop the lawsuit, along with claims related to the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that “The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American. ” adding that “it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again.” He said the settlement includes “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
Democratic members of Congress, however, called the arrangement a diversion of taxpayer money.. Rep.. Jamie Raskin. D-Md.. accused Trump of creating a “slush fund…to reward allies. ” including “the nearly 1. 600 defendants convicted or charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the Capitol.” Raskin also said. “This is pure fraud and highway robbery.. No one can be both plaintiff and defendant in the same case. ” arguing that “Trump’s DOJ is not arguing any of this because it is in on the scam.”
Raskin described the case as “nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists. rioters. and white supremacists. ” pointing to people he said “brutally beat police officers on January 6. 2021. ” along with “sycophant accomplices” to what he called “his election stealing schemes.”
The sequence of facts in the announcement and the settlement is tight: Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS is linked to the creation of a $1.7 billion compensation fund. and the agreement also covers dropping the lawsuit and claims related to the Mar-a-Lago raid—while the DOJ’s stated purpose of “victims of lawfare and weaponization” is paired with an assurance that there are “no partisan requirements” to file a claim.
For now, the fight is over how to read the same package: the DOJ portrays the fund as part of a lawful process to address alleged misuse of government power, while Democratic lawmakers argue it amounts to an end-run for allies connected to Jan. 6.
Department of Justice Anti-Weaponization Fund Todd Blanche Trump IRS lawsuit Mar-a-Lago raid Jan. 6 defendants Jamie Raskin settlement agreement