The Justice Department on Monday announced it will create a nearly $1.8 billion fund for those who claim they were “wronged” by the Joe Biden administration, which critics warn will amount to a slush fund for President Donald Trump's political allies, including those associated with the January 6 insurrection in particular. The fund was announced as part of a settlement in exchange for Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, and in the opinion of one prominent conservative voice, it amounts to nothing less than an effort to “loot billions of tax payer funds.”
This is according to Gregg Nunziata, currently the Executive Director of the conservative legal think tank the Society for the Rule of Law and formerly an advisor to Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his time in the Senate. Responding to news of the slush fund, Nunziata was blunt in his assessment.
“Not enough attention is being paid to this outrageous attempt by the president to loot billions of taxpayer funds,” he tweeted on Monday. “This story isn't over.” Then later in the day, he posted over a DOJ tweet announcing the fund, “The thoroughly corrupted Justice Department intends to give away your money to the president's allies, while prosecuting his critics and pardoning his criminal friends, and will call it all patriotism.”
The DOJ is characterizing it as an Anti-Weaponization Fund, claiming that there is no “partisan requirement” to be eligible for it, but CNN legal reporter Paula Reid and many others have noted, “it's clear who the target audience is." The money will almost certainly go to Trump allies under various pretenses.
According to the Justice Department, “the Fund will consist of a Commission of five members appointed by the Attorney General. One Member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership. The President can remove any member, but a replacement must be chosen the same way as the replaced member was selected.”
The DOJ says that the commission will report to the Attorney General, and according to Mother Jones, “if Blanche’s previous decisions to protect Trump and go after his alleged enemies are anything to go by, there will therefore be little to no oversight beyond Trump loyalists.”
Per the New York Times, “Creation of the fund, which could be used to compensate Trump supporters who ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is sure to please a president who has demanded not only retribution but recompense. But it could create major political problems for congressional Republicans already dealing with the political ballast of his unpopularity — and who will now be forced to say if they support or oppose allocating taxpayer cash to his allies at a time when many Americans are struggling economically.”
Speaking to the Times, Donald K. Sherman, president of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said, “This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history.”