Nearly two weeks after a Republican meltdown over President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion lawsuit settlement fund, Democrats are determined to force GOP lawmakers to answer for the issue — repeatedly.
Bills, amendments, investigations and lawsuits are all in the works, as Democrats say the appearance of corruption has broken through to the public.
“Everyone’s talking about it,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told MS NOW. “People are absolutely talking about it. It’s absolutely a big issue.”
The Department of Justice said the fund would benefit those “who suffered weaponization and lawfare,” and hasn’t ruled out payments to people convicted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Democrats say the deal is a slush fund to pay Trump’s political allies.
The Democratic response — along with some notable Republican objections — is an all-of-the-above approach.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., aims to put Republicans on record on the issue repeatedly. She’s introducing three bills to divert the $1.8 billion to other programs: to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to Medicaid and to the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program and other public safety measures.
“These are taxpayer dollars that should be used to help lower costs for hardworking families and keep them safe,” Rosen said in a statement to MS NOW.
Democrats had previously discussed forcing votes on measures to block or limit the fund as part of the Republican-only bill to provide $72 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. During a closed-door meeting before Memorial Day, Republican senators raged over the fund, forcing Senate leaders to abandon plans on a funding bill for immigration enforcement. Since then, GOP leaders have kept quiet about their plan to pass the reconciliation bill.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that if Republicans forge ahead with their plan to pass the partisan reconciliation measure, Democrats will continue with the plan to force votes on amendments that block the settlement fund.
“We’ll do everything we can to stop this slush fund, whether it’s in the courts, whether it’s legislative, whether it’s through reconciliation, or any other legislative means,” Schumer told reporters.
Trump already suffered a setback on Friday, when a federal judge barred the administration from moving ahead with a plan to create the fund, an initial ruling to avoid the expenditure of funds while a lawsuit continues through the courts.
Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., are also offering a standalone bill to block the fund and prevent federal dollars from paying the president or allies convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. In a statement, Schiff called the fund “one of the most brazenly corrupt schemes we’ve ever seen from a U.S. President.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., raised the prospect of impeachment over the fund, though no other Democrat has joined him yet.
“This is a complete impeachable offense that was the very thing that our founding fathers were concerned about, in ensuring that we had a president with checks and balances and not a king who could compromise our government,” Markey said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.” “So this is exactly what the founding fathers, what the Constitution was meant to protect against.”
House Democrats are also champing at the bit to push back on the fund, Garcia said.
“We should absolutely do everything we can, including House votes to stop the funds,” Garcia said. “Oversight — we’ve also been committed to investigating anyone that takes money from the fund.”
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Garcia also touted state efforts to tax anyone who receives payments from the fund, including by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Democrats have already started to investigate the details of the arrangement. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. — two key members on the Judiciary Committee — sent acting Attorney General Todd Blanche a letter asking him to “preserve any existing and future records, documents, and materials” related to the fund, including “electronic messages sent using both official and personal accounts or devices.”
Whitehouse called the arrangement “the very definition of corruption” in a statement, saying it “merits further investigation.”
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Scott Bisignano asking for information about IRS audits that were dropped due to Trump’s agreement, and about a reported IRS memo arguing that the DOJ should move to have Trump’s case dismissed. The duo additionally sent a letter seeking an investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., led all Judiciary Committee Democrats in asking the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the arrangement, seeking a response by Tuesday.
As the minority party, Democrats are largely dependent on Republican support — or on a successful result in the November midterms — to follow through on their proposals. So far, they have seen mixed results from Republicans. But during that private meeting with Blanche in May, a broad group of GOP senators lambasted the plan.
Out of roughly 45 senators meeting with Blanche, “at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on his podcast.
In the House, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., has also sought answers on Trump’s deal with DOJ, including where the $1.8 billion is coming from.
“Ultimately, this will be followed up with legislation once we get to the root cause of where, what the source of the funds is,” Fitzpatrick told MS NOW.
For now, the Republican concern about the deal hasn’t turned into specific votes to block it. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee offered an amendment to the bill to fund Congress next year, seeking to bar elected officials from receiving money from the settlement fund.
The measure, offered by Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., failed, 27-32, along party lines.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from Arizona State University.