Trump’s settlement – The Justice Department created a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who say the federal government was weaponized against them after Donald Trump dropped a $10 billion IRS lawsuit. The program is overseen by a five-person panel appointed by acting A
By the time the Justice Department announced a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who say the federal government was weaponized against them, the political timeline had already been set.
On May 18. the department said it created the fund in connection with President Donald Trump dropping his own lawsuit against the IRS—one in which he sought as much as $10 billion after a contractor leaked his tax returns in 2019. The Justice Department’s offer totals $1.776 billion, described as a settlement tied to what it called “lawfare.”.
The fund will be administered by a five-person panel appointed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Those panel members can ultimately be removed by President Trump himself.
The arrangement leaves little room to separate the remedy from the person who triggered it. The fund was created alongside Trump’s withdrawal of his IRS case, and everyone involved in setting it up and running it ultimately works for Trump—either in his capacity as president or as a private citizen.
There is also no congressional oversight described for the program. Instead of being handled through the normal judicial process, the department is setting up a separate mechanism to resolve grievances.
That structure matters because it changes the incentives. Critics say people overseeing a compensation system rooted in Trump-era disputes have reason to act in the president’s political interest. The fund’s backers insist Trump had nothing to do with its creation. but the origin point is hard to ignore: it emerged directly from the settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.
Even if Trump or members of his family never directly receive money from the fund. the potential uses described around it raise additional alarm. The money could potentially be used to compensate people such as Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol rioters or others who committed crimes in ways that politically benefited Trump.
A system that financially rewards people for breaking the law on behalf of a president is the kind of outcome that critics argue undermines the very purpose the program claims to serve. The fund also expires in December 2028. just weeks before the next president takes office—meaning Trump will be the only president with authority over it.
The timing sharpens the criticism further: the program ends before another administration could potentially alter course or enable claims from future targets of government action.
The department says the fund is meant to address weaponization of government power. But the program’s existence also lands with an irony critics say cannot be brushed aside.
Trump has shown more willingness than most presidents to use government power against political opponents. critics point out. and the same Justice Department that set up this fund has pursued investigations against adversaries on grounds critics describe as questionable. In the cases of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. the Trump administration has openly pursued investigations tied as much to political grievance as public accountability. according to critics. In other situations. the administration has been accused of using the threat of government action to pressure institutions into policy outcomes favorable to Trump politically.
Trump also threatened Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move widely seen as an attempt to pressure the Fed into decisions that could benefit Trump economically and politically.
In that light. critics say the idea that the fund could later be used to compensate people targeted under Trump-era prosecutions is hard for the Trump administration to embrace. They argue the expiration date conveniently prevents that possibility by ending before another administration takes office.
Republicans, critics note, would likely respond very differently if a similar arrangement were created by a Democratic administration. They point to Republicans’ fury when the Obama administration used comparable settlement funds in ways critics argued benefited political allies. Under that hypothetical. critics say a Democratic-created fund that could potentially compensate figures like Comey or Jimmy Kimmel would be treated by conservatives as blatant political patronage.
Trump, the argument goes, has not shown the restraint such a process would require. Instead, the fund is being portrayed less as a neutral effort to address abuse and more as another partisan mechanism for rewarding allies and punishing enemies.
The Justice Department’s announcement on May 18 created a new channel for grievance resolution outside the standard courts. But for critics. the most unsettling part isn’t just the size of the money—$1.776 billion. nearly $1.8 billion—it’s who appoints the panel. who can remove the panel. and how closely the fund’s origin is tied to Trump’s own legal fight against the IRS.
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