President Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS on Monday. In return, his administration established “The Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a $1.8 billion reserve to support his friends for any supposed unfair investigation and prosecution by the government.
There is little to no oversight over how the fund works. But it looks like Trump loyalists will manage it. According to the Justice Department, four of the five members who will manage the fund will be appointed by the attorney general, while the last member will be chosen “in consultation with congressional leadership.” These five members will then report how they've distributed money to the attorney general, and Trump can also fire and replace any of them. In other words, we may never know who received the funds.
As Mother Jones senior editor Michael Mechanic wrote on Saturday, the money could be used to reward perpetrators of right-wing violence, like January 6 insurrectionists:
Even by the standards of the Trump administration, a federal agency funneling cash into the president’s pocket indeed seems stunningly corrupt. Yet using public money to reward the perpetrators of right-wing violence seems potentially far worse.
An explainer document on Monday from Attorney General Todd Blanche states that once the funds are sent, “the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguard of those funds…or any other fraud or misuse.”
It’s theft with some bonus ominousness.
—Alex Nguyen
