President Donald Trump’s new taxpayer-backed $1.8 billion fund to pay alleged victims of a “weaponized” government is landing with Democrats about how you’d expect — with lawmakers calling it “insane” and “grotesque.”
What’s more surprising is that even Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing discomfort.
It’s unclear whether Republicans will actually vote to block the fund, but Democrats intend to put them to the question — potentially as soon as Wednesday when marathon votes on the GOP’s reconciliation bill are supposed to start.
Many Republicans told reporters Tuesday they want greater clarity about the fund, which would give Trump unprecedented and unchecked power to distribute money to political allies and others who claim they were harmed by what Republicans have described as a “weaponized” Justice Department under President Joe Biden.
Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., indicated they are not enthusiastic about the $1.8 billion plan.
Thune declared himself “not a big fan,” saying “I’m not sure exactly how they intend to use it.”
“I don’t see a purpose for that,” he said.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told reporters, “it’s a lot of money,” adding he wanted to know more about the “legality” of creating this sort of fund without congressional input.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told MS NOW he doesn’t see “any legal precedent” for the fund.
Noting that he was just on the campaign trail, Cassidy also questioned the fund’s political optics.
“People are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting a slush fund together without a legal precedent,” he said.
And Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said they’ve not seen a “lot of the details yet.”
“What about judicial review? And where does the legislature, Congress’ role fit into this?” Rounds asked.
Another question lawmakers have is who might actually qualify for the payments.
On Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explicitly wouldn’t rule out funds going to those prosecuted (and later pardoned by Trump) for assaulting police during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she’d have “serious and significant problems with that.”
Of course, there are several Republicans who quickly embraced the Department of Justice’s announcement of the settlement fund, including some of the lawmakers who claim they were unjustly targeted by the FBI as part of the agency’s probe of the Jan. 6 attack.
Last year, eight Republican senators and one member of the House claimed they had evidence their phone records were reviewed as part of that investigation.
One of them — Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn. — told reporters Tuesday that “there are a lot of people that have suffered severely” as a result of the “weaponization of government that took place under Joe Biden.”
Asked if he should be eligible for some of the money, Hagerty insisted he doesn’t “have any financial interest here.”
“I’m glad to see justice finally getting served,” he said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also told MS NOW he could “think of a lot of people who ought to be compensated.”
Democrats — who had already expressed concerns about Trump’s IRS lawsuit that paved the way for the DOJ to announce the fund — are now eying ways to try to put a stop to it.
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Democrats on the House Judiciary and Ways and Means Committees are also seeking answers from the Trump administration, with top leaders on the panels sending a letter to officials asking them to “retain all documents” related to the creation of the $1.776 billion fund. They asked for, among other details, answers about the fund’s functionality and safeguards against fraud.
Democrats on the letter also expressed an aversion to an addendum from the DOJ that would bar the IRS from pursuing any claims against Trump or his family — including for tax returns in the past or in the future.
“The American people and the world just witnessed one of the most brazen acts of public
corruption and self-dealing in American history,” Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote in the letter.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington — the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee — indicated she will work to block the fund “however possible,” including as her committee writes appropriations bills this summer.
Calling the fund “insane,” Murray accused the president of “colluding with the Department of Justice to steal from American taxpayers and send checks to convicted criminals and his closest friends.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., meanwhile, hinted Democrats could try to undo the fund even sooner.
Coons told MS NOW he expects Democrats to force a vote on the future of the settlement fund as part of the upcoming “vote-a-rama” process required under reconciliation.
This week, Congressional Republicans are working to pass funding for the remainder of the Department of Homeland Security through the party-line reconciliation process. The “vote-a-rama” process gives the party out of power — in this case, the Democrats — a chance to force votes on messaging amendments that can put the party in power in an uncomfortable place.
But to turn those proposals from a messaging exercise into actual legislative language will require at least some buy-in from Republicans — at least four, assuming full attendance and language that comports with the reconciliation rules, and up to 14, if the amendment is subject to 60 votes.
For now, Democrats are focused on calling out, as they’ve dubbed it, the “slush fund.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told MS NOW it’s “grotesque” and the “worst form of self-dealing and self-enrichment I think we’ve ever seen.”
And Coons said the president clearly shouldn’t be able to direct his attorney general to pay out more than a billion dollars in taxpayer funds “without any review by a judge or any review by Congress.”
“We have the power of the purse. We just need to exercise it,” Coons told MS NOW.
Jack Fitzpatrick, Peggy Helman and Lillie Boudreaux contributed to this report.
Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.