President Donald Trump was criticized for sharing why taxpayers should be on the hook for a $1.776 billion "slush fund" that will likely go to insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the day a mob of his supporters stormed the building in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 general election.
The Justice Department said Monday it was creating the fund as part of a deal in which Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. But despite a press release, memo, and a newly released settlement agreement, many details about the program remain unclear.
The agreement states that within 30 days, the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will establish its own funding structure, rules, conditions, and claim requirements. The DOJ has so far provided few specifics about who qualifies, how applications will be reviewed, or how officials arrived at the fund’s $1.776 billion price tag, besides it being a reference to the nation's founding in 1776.
The department suggested the money is intended for people allegedly targeted because of their political beliefs, and the fund is widely expected to include Jan. 6 rioters among potential recipients. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers that “anybody could apply,” with decisions left to a panel of commissioners that he will help appoint.
The agreement also says time spent in prison or federal custody because of alleged “lawfare and weaponization” from “any source” could factor into compensation decisions.
When a reporter questioned why taxpayers should be on the hook for "January 6ers," Trump replied:
"Well, it's been very well received, I have to tell you. I know very little about it. I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the whole negotiation but this is reimbursing people who were horribly treated, horribly treated."
"Anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized. They've been in some cases imprisoned wrongly, they've paid legal fees they didn't have, they've gone bankrupt, their lives have been destroyed, and they turned out to be right."
"It was a terrible period of time in the history of our country and they worked on it. I know the Justice Department has been working on it very hard. There's been numerous other occasions over the years where things like this have been done, but these were people who were weaponized and really treated brutally by a system that was so corrupt with corrupt people running it."
"And they're getting reimbursed for their legal fees and the other things that they had to suffer."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Trump was criticized for his remarks.
Trump previously issued a mass pardon for January 6 rioters.
Rioters imprisoned for their involvement in the attack were released, and judges began dismissing dozens of pending cases following Trump’s inauguration, after which he granted a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus individuals charged in the insurrection.
Trump’s executive order upended what had been the largest prosecution in Justice Department history, freeing individuals captured on camera brutally assaulting police officers as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of plotting violent efforts to halt the peaceful transfer of power after his election defeat.
@EdwardLawrence/X
