Seoul Gazette - Trump admin creates $1.7 bln fund to compensate allies prosecuted under Biden

Democratic lawmakers and watchdog groups immediately attacked the plan as a brazenly corrupt "slush fund" that would reward the Republican president's loyalists with taxpayer money.

In exchange for the creation of the "Anti-Weaponization Fund," the Justice Department said Trump was dropping a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for a leak of his tax returns.

Trump, his two eldest sons Eric and Donald Jr. and the Trump Organization filed a lawsuit against the tax-collecting agency in a federal district court in Florida in January seeking $10 billion in damages over the tax returns leak.

A former IRS contractor pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the tax returns of Trump and other wealthy Americans to the media and received a five-year prison sentence.

The Justice Department, which is currently headed by Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, said the "Anti-Weaponization Fund" was being created as part of a settlement in the IRS case.

"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," Blanche said 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," the acting attorney general said.

The Justice Department said Blanche will appoint five people to oversee the fund and the Trumps "will receive a formal apology but no monetary payment or damages of any kind."

- 'Depraved' -

After leaving the White House in 2021, Trump was accused by special counsel Jack Smith of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and of mishandling classified documents.

Both cases were dropped after the Republican won the 2024 presidential election.

While Trump will receive no payments, the compensation fund could be tapped by others who believe they were unfairly pursued by the Biden administration.

This could include, for example, the hundreds of Trump supporters who were prosecuted for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. The riot sought to prevent congressional certification of Biden's election victory.

Trump issued a mass pardon to January 6 defendants on his first day in office last year.

The compensation plan for Trump's political allies prompted fierce criticism from Democratic lawmakers.

"Donald Trump sued his own government. Trump's DOJ settled with Trump. And now Trump gets a nearly $2 billion slush fund to reward his own allies, loyalists, and insurrectionists," Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

"Of all the corrupt things he has done, this is one of the most depraved," Schumer said.

Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, called it a "monstrous theft of taxpayer resources." It urged Congress to block the fund from doling out any payments.

Hillary Clinton, whom Trump beat in the 2016 election, said: "Trump didn’t just pardon his followers who stormed the US Capitol. He’s now set them up for payments through a slush fund he created to reward his allies -- out of your tax dollars. You could not make this up."

Since taking office for a second time, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies.

He has pushed for criminal cases against political opponents, purged government officials he deems disloyal, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.

O.Kwon--SG