Trump drops USD10b IRS suit in exchange for USD1.8b anti-weaponisation fund
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The news: US President Donald Trump has dropped his USD10 billion ($14 billion) lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in exchange for the Justice Department creating a USD1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to pay legal claims from people who allege they were targeted by government overreach.
Acting attorney general Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump who defended him in three criminal cases, said in a statement that “the machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American.”
Blanche will appoint four of the five commission members who decide which claims are paid. One member will be chosen in consultation with congressional leadership.
The Justice Department said anyone can apply to make claims regardless of political affiliation. The fund will stop processing claims at the end of 2028, days before a new president is sworn in.
What they said: “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,” Blanche said. “As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
93 House Democrats simultaneously filed an amicus brief before Judge Kathleen Williams urging her to block the settlement and dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, arguing Trump is “effectively on both sides” of his own lawsuit.
Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin called it “pure fraud and highway robbery” and a “racket designed to take USD1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury.”
The fund could benefit around 1,500 individuals prosecuted for storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump will receive no money directly.
The lawsuit arose from former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn’s leak of Trump’s tax returns to The New York Times and ProPublica in 2019 and 2020. Littlejohn pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The sources: US Department of Justice, US House Committee on the Judiciary, Bloomberg
