Last month, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said<\/a> the Justice Department is “not moving forward with” the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” described<\/a> in President Donald Trump’s May 18 “settlement agreement<\/a>” with the IRS. “Period,” Blanche added.<\/p>\n

Sens. John Cornyn (R\u2013Texas) and Thom Tillis (R\u2013N.C.), whose objections<\/a> to that agreement have delayed the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote on Blanche’s nomination as attorney general, want him to put his assurance in writing, which he so far has refused to do. On Friday, Trump himself reinforced the motivation for that condition by saying<\/a> his supporters “should be given compensation for what has been done to them.”<\/p>\n

The Anti-Weaponization Fund was the central feature of the original IRS “settlement,” even though it had nothing to do with Trump’s lawsuit<\/a> against the agency, which alleged damages from an IRS contractor’s illegal disclosure of his tax returns. The fund was designed<\/a>\u00a0to reward Trump’s friends and followers by offering compensation to people who claim they suffered from politically motivated abuses of power during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

That idea provoked a bipartisan backlash<\/a> so intense that Blanche, who approved the fund and repeatedly defended it, abandoned<\/a> the scheme two weeks after announcing it. Republican senators, including Cornyn and Tillis, were especially dismayed by the prospect that the fund’s beneficiaries would include Trump supporters who assaulted police officers during the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. After all, Trump had already pardoned<\/a> 1,600 or so rioters, including people convicted of violent crimes, and he had repeatedly portrayed them as victims of government persecution.<\/p>\n

Even after Blanche said he had nixed the fund, Trump re-upped the idea<\/a> and confirmed the impression that he thought Capitol rioters deserved to receive taxpayer-funded awards. He did not rule out awards for people convicted of assaulting police officers, suggesting they may have pleaded guilty under pressure even though they were innocent.<\/p>\n

Trump was at it again on Friday morning. The Anti-Weaponization Fund “will not benefit me,” he wrote<\/a> on Truth Social, “but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration….Perhaps there has never been a group of people treated so badly in our Nation’s history. They are suffering still, many ruined, and I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them….I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure.”<\/p>\n

Trump “made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it,” Tillis responded<\/a> on X. “While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation’s Capitol are not ‘great American patriots’ who are ‘victims of government abuse.’ Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government.”<\/p>\n

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The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it. While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the… https:\/\/t.co\/Ebe2nsePnl<\/a><\/p>\n

— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) July 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n