WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the Trump administration’s proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is definitively dead, seeking to close off questions about whether the Justice Department might revive the controversial payout plan through another mechanism.
“The fund is dead or whatever word you want to use,” Blanche told Fox News Sunday. “It never started. So, it’s not as if the fund is coming back.”
The proposal was created as part of a settlement framework connected to President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the federal government over IRS handling of his tax information. It was intended to compensate people who claimed they had been politically targeted by federal law enforcement, including potentially some Jan. 6 defendants.
Blanche first told lawmakers in June that DOJ was abandoning the fund after bipartisan criticism, but Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis demanded stronger assurances before supporting his attorney general nomination. Blanche later formally rescinded the May order establishing the fund, stating it “shall have no force or effect.”
The reversal helped clear the way for Blanche’s Senate confirmation. Trump had continued to express sympathy for compensating people he believes were victims of government “weaponization,” but has also acknowledged that the proposed fund itself is dead.
Democrats remain skeptical that similar compensation could be pursued through other Justice Department authorities, but Blanche said Sunday there is no alternate fund operating behind the scenes.
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