The Department of Justice announced a $1.7 billion fund to compensate people who believe they were unfairly targeted by previous Democratic administrations on Monday. While the DOJ shared that there were “no partisan requirements” to file a claim, the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is seen by critics as a way for Jan. 6 defendants and allies of the Trump administration to seek compensation.
The fund is part of a settlement agreement in President Donald Trump‘s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. In exchange for the creation of the fund, Trump and his organization have agreed to drop the lawsuit, as well as claims related to the raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche shared in a statement. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
Democratic Party lawmakers 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.”
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“This is pure fraud and highway robbery. No one can be both plaintiff and defendant in the same case,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., shared in a statement. “But Trump’s DOJ is not arguing any of this because it is in on the scam. This case is 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, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing schemes.”
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