Trump Allocates £1.3 Billion in Taxpayer Funds for ‘Biden Victims’
The Trump administration has announced the creation of a $1.7 billion fund to compensate individuals who identify as MAGA supporters and believe they were mistreated by the Justice Department under the Biden administration. This initiative, referred to as the ‘anti-weaponisation fund,’ was unveiled as part of a legal settlement between Donald Trump and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leak of his tax returns.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche emphasized that the fund is intended to provide a lawful process for those affected by what he described as ‘lawfare and weaponisation’ to seek redress. However, the announcement has sparked immediate backlash from Democrats and government watchdogs, who have labeled the resolution as ‘corrupt’ and unprecedented. They argue that the fund would unfairly benefit individuals close to the president and could lead to frivolous claims of political persecution.
The fund’s creation followed the dismissal of Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS in a court filing on Monday at a federal court in Florida. The case had been set to be thrown out before Trump’s legal team withdrew it, having reached a settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which Trump controls. On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of supporters involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Since then, his Justice Department has approved payments to supporters entangled in the Trump-Russia investigation and has prosecuted some of his perceived adversaries.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, criticized the fund as a ‘slush fund.’ He stated, “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 the 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.”
Trump’s legal team suggested in their court filing seeking to dismiss the case that the resolution would not be reviewable by a judge. However, a group of 93 members of Congress has since filed a brief, preparing for a potential legal challenge.
It remains unclear who will benefit from the fund, but its establishment reflects Trump’s long-standing assertion that the Justice Department during the Biden administration was weaponized against him. He has pointed to the dismissed criminal charges he faced between his first and second terms, which included allegations of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost, as well as retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Several of Trump’s aides were also prosecuted, as were hundreds of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of the election results in 2021. Merrick Garland, who served as attorney general during the Biden administration, has repeatedly denied allegations of politicization and stated that his decisions were based on facts, evidence, and the law. His Justice Department also investigated former President Biden for his handling of classified information and brought separate tax and gun prosecutions against Biden’s son, Hunter.
Despite this, Trump’s Justice Department has actively pursued his retribution campaign and grievances. It has brought criminal charges against some of his political opponents and launched a wide-ranging investigation aimed at proving a years-long conspiracy between law enforcement and intelligence officials to undermine Trump’s political prospects. However, no charges have been brought in that investigation, and it remains uncertain whether any will ever be.
