The Justice Department announced on Monday a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that could help compensate Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants and allies of President Donald Trump who say they were politically targeted during the Biden administration.
The fund, announced in a DOJ press release Monday morning, was created as part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his confidential tax records.
Under the agreement, Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization will receive no direct financial damages. Instead, the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their lawsuit with prejudice in exchange for the DOJ establishing a formal claims process for alleged victims of “lawfare” and political weaponization.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the use of federal power “to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any administration.”
While DOJ officials stressed there would be “no partisan requirements” to file claims, some Democrats critical of the president’s decision immediately warned the fund could become a vehicle for compensating Jan. 6 defendants and other Trump-aligned figures who have claimed they were unfairly prosecuted during the Biden administration.
“This, of course, is a political grievance fund that Donald Trump can use to pay off his friends,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a Sunday interview on ABC News’s This Week.
The settlement announcement comes as many Jan. 6 defendants have already sought restitution refunds or multimillion-dollar payouts tied to their prosecutions after Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people connected to the Capitol riot earlier this year.
The fund will have the authority to issue both formal apologies and monetary compensation to successful claimants. It will be financed through the federal Judgment Fund, a permanent congressional appropriation used to pay settlements and legal claims against the government.
The department pointed to the Obama-era Keepseagle settlement as precedent for the arrangement. That case created a $760 million compensation fund for Native American farmers who alleged discrimination by the federal government.
DOJ officials contrasted the new program with Keepseagle by emphasizing that leftover money from the Anti-Weaponization Fund cannot be redirected to nonprofits or outside groups. The fund will instead issue quarterly reports to the attorney general and remain subject to audit oversight.
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The announcement also landed as U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams had been weighing whether Trump could legally sue agencies he controls as president, raising broader constitutional and ethical concerns about the litigation.
DOJ officials said the fund will sunset on Dec. 1, 2028, and that any remaining money would revert to the federal government rather than to outside organizations.