Trump family members, Jan. 6 defendants could pocket payouts from new ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’
President Trump said Monday that his family members and the Jan. 6 defendants could receive taxpayer-funded payments from his $1.776 billion “Arms Fight Fund,” which will pay reparations to people he says were treated unfairly by the Biden administration.
The president said a committee administering the fund would decide whether his family members and those facing charges over the Jan. 6, 2021, riots in the U.S. capital would be eligible for the payments.
“A committee is being set up, made up of very talented and well-respected people,” he said. “You have families that are completely destroyed, and everything will be determined by a committee of four or five people who are respected and very brilliant at what they do.”
Mr. Trump said last year that there should be compensation for people targeted by the Biden administration.
The Justice Department said the fund would be created “in exchange” for Mr. Trump and his co-plaintiffs, including the Trump Organization and his two eldest sons, dropping their suit against the IRS over the release of his tax returns and its demands for damages in connection with the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago residence and the Russian collusion investigation.
The fund was created before the IRS case was settled.
Under that structure, the massive fund would give Mr. Trump’s allies, including the Jan. 6 defendants pardoned by the president, a mechanism to obtain payments from taxpayers for allegations of government overreach. The fund can also issue a formal apology to people who have filed complaints against the government.
The fund will stop processing applications on December 15, 2028, about a month before Mr. Trump’s second term ends. Justice Department lawyers say nearly $1.8 billion in total was based “on the projected valuation of future plaintiffs’ claims.”
Democrats called the move a $1.7 billion “slush fund” that Trump will use to reward his allies, nearly 1,600 defendants convicted or charged in connection with the riots, which aimed to prevent the certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Rep. Jaime Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, called the fund “pure fraud and highway robbery,” while Rep. Joe Neguse, Democrat of Colorado, called it “one of the most egregious examples of corruption we have seen from this administration.”
The attorney general will appoint five members to the commission overseeing the fund, including one member who will be chosen in consultation with congressional leaders, the Justice Department said. Mr. Trump can remove any member of the commission at any time, according to the memo establishing the fund.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who issued the memo creating the fund, said “the machinery of government should never be used as a weapon against any American” and that the payments “will right the wrongs that were previously committed while ensuring that this never happens again.”
