Trump administration is scrapping $1.8B fund meant to compensate
president's allies, Blanche says
[June 03, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8
billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican
president, the Justice Department's top official said Tuesday in
retreating from a program that faced a fierce political backlash that
had threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Acting Attorney
General Todd Blanche said in response to questions at a House hearing on
the Justice Department budget.
"Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.
“Correct,” Blanche answered.
The blunt declaration marked an extraordinary, and rare, Trump
administration turnabout in the face of mounting political opposition to
a fund that officials said was meant to compensate people who believe
they have been improperly targeted by the criminal justice system. Since
the establishment of the fund two weeks ago, it’s been paused by a judge
and lambasted by Democrats and Republicans alike who said they were
troubled by a lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to
participants in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The fund drew concerns even from Republicans
The furor especially complicated matters in the Senate, where
Republicans defiantly left town nearly two weeks ago without passing
legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement
agencies after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or
scale back the compensation fund.
Furious, Senate Republicans jettisoned White House security money from
the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all
unless the administration made major changes to the plan. They had
sought reassurances from Blanche before moving forward.
The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” was established last month
to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the
leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department had said it was an
appropriate measure to correct what officials have insisted was the
weaponization of federal law enforcement during the Biden
administration, when Trump faced criminal charges and several of his
allies were investigated and prosecuted.
The administration had said that anyone who felt unfairly persecuted
could apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation, but
Blanche's refusal to publicly foreclose the possibility that people
convicted of crimes of violence in the Jan. 6 riot could get payouts
alarmed lawmakers. A five-member commission was to have been responsible
for deciding on the payouts, though no commissioners had yet been named
and the criteria for eligibility remained unclear.
Blanche made clear Tuesday that he stood behind the rationale for the
fund even as he was abandoning its implementation, saying: “This
Department of Justice, unfortunately, was weaponized against many, many
Americans, and we’re trying every day to to fix it. And we’ve made a lot
of progress, but we have a lot more to do.”
Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, has
denied allegations of politicization and said his decisions followed the
facts, the evidence and the law. The Justice Department under his
leadership investigated prominent Democrats too, most notably by
appointing a special counsel to investigate Biden's handling of
classified information and another special counsel who brought tax and
gun charges against Biden's son Hunter.
[to top of second column]
|
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before the House
Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP
Photo/Allison Robbert)
As part of the same deal to resolve the tax lawsuit, the IRS agreed
to drop any pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair
share of taxes. Pressed over whether it was also abandoning that
part of the deal, Blanche said “nothing has changed with that,” and
said the administration was only backing away from plans to create
the $1.8 billion fund.
The administration had earlier hinted at a retreat
Signs of the retreat surfaced Monday when a person familiar with the
matter told The Associated Press that the Republican president was
reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund. The Justice
Department said separately it would comply with a Virginia court
temporarily blocking the fund, effectively agreeing to pause the
plan for at least several weeks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he hoped the
White House would move to drop the fund, telling reporters, “I do
think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to
shut it down themselves."
The hearing Tuesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee was
scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department's budget, but
lawmakers quickly focused their questioning on the fund.
“This administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen
acts of flagrant corruption I’ve ever seen,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a
Democrat from Connecticut, said before Blanche announced the
abandonment of the fund. “And you are at the center of many of them,
Mr. Blanche.”
She called the fund “a corrupt payout scheme for the president and
his political allies. It is shameful.”
Courts reacted coolly to the fund
The Justice Department’s efforts to move forward with the fund were
also facing headwinds in the courts after several lawsuits filed by
Trump critics, including a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor and two police
officers who helped defend the Capitol.
On Friday, a federal judge in Virginia halted the fund’s formation
and any potential payouts for at least two weeks and scheduled a
June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order.
Separately, the judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against
the IRS ordered the president’s attorneys to respond to “grievous
allegations” by settlement critics that Trump abandoned his claims
to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward — which
brought one of the lawsuits — said of Blanche’s comments Tuesday,
“If you can say it on TV, you should say it in court.”
___
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington
contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
