Department of Justice officials have repeatedly stated that a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund that could give multi-million dollar payouts to Donald Trump’s allies is “not moving forward.”
That’s what Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told members of Congress under oath. A government lawyer told a federal judge the same thing in court on Wednesday.
But administration officials are quietly telling the president’s allies that they can expect checks from the government after they wait for the political and legal blowback to die down, according to insiders speaking to The Atlantic.
Top Republicans and administration officials have already indicated that the government could turn to an existing fund to start settling hundreds of lawsuits and other claims brought by Trump’s allies, including rioters who clashed with police and broke into the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A judge is now warning the Justice Department that the Trump administration could face legal consequences if the fund is back on. “Don’t play possum with this court,” Washington, D.C. District Judge Richard Leon told lawyers on Wednesday.
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Leon asked why the administration didn’t simply rescind an order that created the fund if it’s truly dead.
A lawyer for the Justice Department replied: “I don’t know.”
Last month, District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema blocked the administration from “taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund” — including transferring money to it, considering any claims and mailing any checks while that legal challenge plays out.
Brinkema’s ruling expires June 12 unless the fund is further blocked by the courts.
The Justice Department has said it “will abide by the Court’s ruling” and later wrote in court filings that the fund “will not” continue.
But according to The Atlantic, administration officials haven’t actually scrapped a plan.
Officials “are exploring whether elements of the fund can be reactivated while also examining alternative arrangements to make sure loyalists get compensated,” according to the outlet.
A White House official referred The Independent to comments from Blanche and the president stating that the fund cannot go forward due to Judge Brinekma’s order.
The official said any other reporting is merely speculation.
“Tools to provide restitution to victims of government weaponization have always been in place across both Democrat and Republican administrations,” a spokesperson for the Justice Department told The Independent.
“The fact that the media is now just realizing this does not mean it’s some new, novel campaign within the Department,” the person said.
Hundreds of January 6 defendants who were pardoned by the president are suing under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which taps into the government’s permanent Judgment Fund used to pay court judgments and other settlements involving the federal government.
The Judgment Fund is intended to “eliminate the procedural burdens involved in getting an appropriation from Congress to pay a particular judgment,” according to the Department of Treasury.
The Trump administration has already used it to settle multi-million dollar Federal Tort Claims Act claims from his supporters and allies since returning to office.
Last week, nine rioters filed another Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit seeking $1 million each for their “injuries and losses relating to the protest” on January 6.
Sen. Lindsey Graham also wrote on X that alleged victims of government “weaponization” should still be able to collect checks if they “can prove their claim against the federal government through the Federal Tort Claims Act.”
“We have a legal system already in place for people to make claims against the government,” he wrote on X. “That does not need to be reinvented.”
In response to Graham, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote: “We’re on it.”
He later deleted the post.
Woodward also said during a press conference last month that the Justice Department has the ability “to settle any claim that is brought against the United States of America.”
Trump has also explicitly said he “loves” the fund and has called it a “beautiful thing.”
“If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve,” he told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. “People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them. … So me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
He said he wouldn’t be “inclined” to approve taxpayer-funded payouts to January 6 rioters who attacked police officers, but he hasn’t ruled it out.
Members of Congress are pushing for legislation that would ban payouts to January 6 rioters and other Trump allies while also ensuring that the government cannot settle future claims brought by Trump himself.
But Republicans defeated multiple proposals from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that would have permanently blocked the fund.
Eight Republican senators joined Democrats in supporting an amendment to a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill that would have blocked payments to rioters convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers. That amendment failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass.
