DOJ creates $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund for Trump allies; bipartisan backlash, Capitol Police lawsuit

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Monday a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that will, in the Justice Department's words, issue "formal apologies and monetary relief" to anyone who can argue the federal government wrongfully targeted them. The dollar figure — chosen to evoke the year of American independence — will be drawn from the Treasury's permanent Judgment Fund, requires no further congressional appropriation, and will be governed by a five-member board appointed by Blanche, with one member chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The fund will accept claims until December 1, 2028, reporting quarterly to the attorney general.

The fund is the consideration in a settlement of President Trump's January $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, filed after the agency's contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn — sentenced to five years in 2024 — leaked Trump's tax returns to The New York Times. As part of the settlement, Trump dropped the suit; the IRS is "forever barred" from examining his prior returns; and Trump and his sons receive a formal apology rather than a cash payout. Blanche, who served as Trump's personal criminal-defence attorney before his second term, signed the settlement. According to The New York Times, the arrangement also breaches a 2017 Sessions-era rule, reinstated last year by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, that bars the department from settling with parties unrelated to the underlying suit.

Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, both injured defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021, sued the Justice Department on Wednesday to block payouts. Their complaint calls the fund "the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century" and invokes the Fourteenth Amendment, which bars the United States from assuming or paying debts "incurred for the support of an insurrection or rebellion." On CNN's AC360, Dunn said Trump was "putting a retainer on a mob, on a militia that's already shown the violence that they're willing to enact on his behalf." Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people convicted in connection with the January 6 attack on his first day in office in January 2025. Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump ally and former Health and Human Services spokesperson, became the first known claimant on Tuesday, requesting $2.7 million.

Opposition has been bipartisan. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) wrote on X that "the administration should bring it to Congress to decide" — his latest break with the president since losing his Louisiana primary last weekend; he also became the fourth GOP senator to support an Iran war powers resolution that advanced 50-47 on Tuesday and called Trump's $1 billion White House ballroom funding request something he "just doesn't get." Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the senior Judiciary Democrat, wrote to Blanche demanding eligibility documentation by May 28 and called payments to Capitol attackers "absurd and offensive." Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he is "not a big fan" and signalled that Republicans may attach guardrails through the budget reconciliation package. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) sent Blanche a letter with a June 1 deadline asking which account holds the money and what authority justifies the disbursement, and said House Republicans will "try to kill" the fund. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) introduced the No Taxpayer-Funded Settlement Slush Funds Act; more than ninety House Democrats filed a legal document to block the fund on Monday. Senator Elizabeth Warren called it a "$1.7 BILLION slush fund for Trump's hand-picked stooges to hand money to January 6th insurrectionists"; Senator Ron Wyden called it the "most brazen theft of taxpayer dollars by any president in history." The Cato Institute published an analysis on Wednesday titled "Trump's Anti-Weaponization Fund Is a (Another) Slush Fund."

Blanche met Senate Republicans in the Capitol's Mansfield Room on Thursday to defend the structure, citing the 2011 Keepseagle v. Vilsack Obama-era settlement for Native American farmers as a precedent. Joseph Sellers, who led the Keepseagle plaintiffs, told PBS the comparison was "grossly inaccurate" because that case was a certified class action subject to judicial supervision; the new fund has neither. Under guidance from Blanche's office, once funds are transferred to a designated account the government has "no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of disbursed funds, even in the event of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other misuse of the funds."