Washington ― Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin said she introduced a bill Monday to block the nearly $1.8 billion fund intended to compensate victims of what President Donald Trump has called government “weaponization.”
The legislation introduced in the Senate with Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Mark Kelly of Arizona would prohibit the use of taxpayer money for payments to the president, his associates, individuals convicted of crimes or those involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, according to a summary.
The bill also would bar any settlements or payments arising from claims or lawsuits brought by a sitting president or vice president and would be retroactive to the first day of Trump’s presidency, Jan. 20, 2025, to block any pending settlements.
“This so-called $1.7 billion anti-weaponization fund is an unprecedented misuse of taxpayer money, and it must be stopped,” Slotkin said in a Monday statement. “Our bill does just that. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are crying out for the President to focus on the economy and lowering their costs.”
The bill’s introduction came before the U.S. Department of Justice said it would abandon the “anti-weaponization” fund.
Senate Democrats this week are looking to use the budget reconciliation process that GOP lawmakers are using to pass their immigration enforcement bill to introduce amendments to block or defund the so-called Weaponization Fund.
The Justice Department announced the creation of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” last month as part of an agreement to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records.
It set up a $1.776 billion fund overseen by a five-member commission to dole out payments to those who show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” terms Trump and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from setting up the fund while the court hears additional legal arguments. Friday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group that said it was targeted “by the Trump-Vance administration as ideological or political opponents” and alleged they would be ineligible for payouts from the fund.
“We will not allow the policy preferences of judges to interfere with our efforts to provide restitution to victims of lawfare,” the DOJ spokesperson said.
The fund has sparked pushback even from some Republican lawmakers who are displeased that people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 could receive taxpayer-funded payouts. Critics have attacked the settlement agreement as a “slush fund” that would reward Trump’s political allies.
mburke@detroitnews.com
Reuters contributed.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Slotkin seeks to block Trump’s $1.8B ‘weaponization’ fund
Reporting by Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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