DOJ sets up $1.8B ‘anti-weaponization’ fund after Trump drops IRS lawsuit

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced Monday that it was establishing a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” after President Donald Trump moved to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns.

Justice Department officials announced that Trump and his co-plaintiffs would drop their IRS lawsuit, as well as other claims of damages, in connection with the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, and in connection with the Russian collusion scandal “in exchange” for creating the fund, which the Justice Department said set up a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

The fund was established ahead of court deadlines in the IRS case, which would have required the Trump administration to explain whether there was an actual case to be heard, given Trump’s control over the Justice Department’s actions.

The massive fund would give Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump a mechanism to seek taxpayer payouts for their claims of government overreach. The fund could even issue “formal apologies” to people who made claims against the government, the announcement said. The fund will stop processing claims by Dec. 15, 2028, about a month before Trump’s second term is set to end.

The $1,776,000,000 available for the fund was based “upon the projected valuation of future claimants’ claims,” according to the Justice Department.

Trump, speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, said the fund was meant to reimburse “people that were horribly treated,” adding that he wasn’t involved in the fund’s creation.

Asked whether people who committed violence against Capitol Police officers should be eligible for compensation, Trump said “it’ll all be dependent on a committee being set up of very talented people, very highly respected people.”

The attorney general would appoint five members of the commission to oversee the fund, including one member to be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership, the Justice Department said, adding that Trump could remove any member.

The president did not respond to a question about whether his own family would seek compensation from the fund.

The Justice Department on Monday evening released a copy of the agreement between Trump and his administration that will result in the creation of the fund. The nine-page document was not filed in court.

A group of House Democrats called the move a “$1.7 billion slush fund” that Trump could use to “reward allies, including the nearly 1,600 defendants convicted or charged in connection with the January 6th attack on the Capitol.”

Trump’s two elder sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the Trump Organization, were the other plaintiffs in the IRS case and also moved to drop the lawsuit, according to a court filing Monday. (Source: NBC News)