Key insights
- The Trump administration has abandoned a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund following bipartisan opposition. Initially intended to compensate victims of politically motivated investigations, the fund faced criticism as a potential slush fund and was subject to lawsuits. Its cancellation removes a point of contention that was blocking an immigration enforcement spending package.
Investing.com - The Trump administration is abandoning its $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund after facing opposition from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday.
"We are not moving forward with the fund. Period," Blanche told the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department during testimony on the department’s budget. Blanche had been one of Trump’s personal attorneys before the president appointed him to the Justice Department.
The fund was created as part of a settlement resolving President Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 leak of his tax information to the New York Times. The Justice Department said it would compensate those alleging they were victims of politically motivated investigations or legal action.
Democrats criticized the account as a taxpayer-financed slush fund for Trump’s political allies. Several Republican senators also balked at allowing federal money to be used for the purpose and demanded a public declaration the fund was dead before agreeing to lift a blockade on a Trump-backed immigration enforcement spending package.
A federal judge in Virginia temporarily barred the administration from taking steps to operate the fund while weighing a longer-term block. The fund faced multiple lawsuits, including from police officers who responded to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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