weaponization fund – President Donald Trump is expected to trade a $10 billion IRS lawsuit for a $1.7 billion compensation fund for alleged Biden “weaponization” victims, sources say.
A looming showdown over President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS could be headed for a settlement, with Trump reportedly poised to drop the case in exchange for a new $1.7 billion fund meant to compensate people who say they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration.
Sources familiar with the discussions told ABC News that the proposed arrangement would be overseen by a commission with the authority to distribute roughly $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to settle claims brought by anyone alleging harm from what Trump and his allies call the “weaponization” of the legal system.. The pool of potential claimants is broad, sources said, including nearly 1,600 individuals charged in connection with the Jan.. 6 Capitol attack and potentially entities tied to Trump.
The settlement, the sources said, is expected to be agreed upon in the coming days. But they cautioned that the final terms would not be locked in until they are officially announced.
For Trump, the alleged trade appears to be tied to multiple legal battles with the federal government.. The compensation fund is described as a central condition for Trump to drop not only the IRS suit. but also a $230 million set of legal claims tied to the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate and the Russia-related investigation he faced during his first term.
Under the framework expected to be discussed, sources said, the settlement terms would likely bar Trump from directly receiving payments tied to those three claims. Entities associated with Trump, however, would not be explicitly prohibited from filing additional claims.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team. responding to a request for comment. argued that the IRS had enabled “a rogue. politically-motivated employee” to leak confidential information about Trump. his family. and the Trump Organization to outlets including The New York Times and ProPublica. which the spokesperson said was then “illegally released to millions of people.” The spokesperson added that Trump “continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.”
The Justice Department declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. Representatives for the IRS and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond.
Funding would come from the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund, a permanent appropriation used by the federal government to pay court judgments and settlements, sources said. Officials discussing the proposal described it as an unprecedented use of taxpayer money with limited oversight.
Under the proposed structure, sources said Trump would have the power to remove members of the commission that would run the fund without cause. The commission would also reportedly be under no obligation to disclose its procedures or decision-making for awards of more than a billion dollars.
The plan has also drawn ethical concerns inside the administration, according to sources, largely because Trump would both be suing the government and control an entity capable of distributing a large sum of taxpayer funds to his allies.
Trump has previously addressed the optics of his legal strategy.. When asked last year about the lawsuit. he said it “sort of looks bad. ” but maintained that he would donate any money received from the claims to charity.. “It’s interesting because I’m the one that makes a decision. right. and. you know. that decision would have to go across my desk. ” he said during remarks in the Oval Office in October.. “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.”
The settlement is also expected to blunt a pressure point raised by the judge overseeing the IRS case.. In a ruling last month, U.S.. District Judge Kathleen Williams questioned whether Trump and the defendants are “sufficiently adverse” for the case to move forward.. She wrote that although Trump says he is suing personally. he is the sitting president. and his named adversaries are government entities whose decisions are subject to his direction.
Williams also pointed to the “unique dynamic” of the litigation, according to the court’s reasoning.
The IRS case has faced additional scrutiny because the fight over “weaponization” has fed into a broader effort to compensate people swept up by investigations and prosecutions that Trump allies portray as politically motivated.. Since Trump’s blanket pardons related to the Jan.. 6 attack, hundreds of people have reportedly sought payouts from the federal government.
Trump has previously commented on the possibility of a compensation fund for those pardoned.. In remarks last year to Newsmax. he said “a lot of the people that are in government now talk about it” because they “really like that group of people.” He added. “They were patriots as far as I was concerned. ” and said they “were treated very unfairly.”
This proposal is also likely to face political backlash. Earlier this year, a group of House Democrats introduced a bill aimed at preventing Jan. 6 defendants from receiving such compensation.
Even before a final settlement is announced. officials and legal observers are focused on what the mechanism could look like in practice.. Sources described it as a hybrid model that combines elements of a victim compensation fund—similar to the civil claims process that followed the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill—with characteristics of a truth-and-reconciliation-style commission.
Examples cited in other countries of similar commissions include governmental acknowledgment of wrongdoing tied to apartheid in South Africa and Canada’s Indian residential school system.
Within the U.S.. government, the idea appears to be connected to a recent internal review.. Over the past year. the Justice Department used a “Weaponization Working Group” to examine what it described as abuses of power by the Biden administration. identifying allegations of anti-conservative and anti-Christian bias that former officials have disputed.
The proposed commission, sources said, would consist of five members who would issue monetary awards based on majority vote.. The process for awarding money and the identities of recipients could be kept private.. Any remaining funds would reportedly be returned to the government shortly before Trump leaves office.
With court deadlines approaching in the IRS case and ethical questions rising over oversight and control. the settlement talks now appear to center on a single question: whether Trump is able to convert a contested lawsuit into a sweeping. taxpayer-funded compensation mechanism for those he says were targeted by political legal action.
Trump IRS lawsuit weaponization fund Judgment Fund Jan. 6 pardons Justice Department Kathleen Williams
so basically the jan 6 people are getting paid now?? with MY tax money??
I dont understand why he dropped the 10 billion lawsuit just to get 1.7 billion back that doesnt even make sense mathematically. Like you literally lost 8 billion dollars in that deal and people are calling this a win?? I feel like nobody is actually reading what happened here.
this is exactly what they did to conservatives for years and years and nobody said a word when obama was doing it so now everyone wants to cry about it but where were you people then huh nobody cared when it was the other side getting targeted and i know people personally who lost their businesses because of audits that came out of nowhere and never got any explanation and now finally someone is doing something about it even if its not perfect its better than nothing and at least the conversation is happening which it wasnt before so i dont understand all the outrage to be honest
wait so the IRS is being sued by trump but also trump controls the IRS now so isnt he just suing himself at this point lol someone explain this to me