Recommendations of the Editorial team
A few days after a federal judge temporarily halted US President Donald Trump’s controversial $1.776 billion fund to pay out taxpayer money to “victims of lawfare and weaponization,” the government agreed to comply with the court order.
In a statement, the Justice Department said it “strongly disagrees with the decision of the federal district judge in the Eastern District of Virginia regarding the anti-weaponization fund” but will “abide by the court’s order.” It was left open whether the White House wanted to revise the fund or abandon it entirely.
The fund, intended to compensate Trump allies who he believes were unfairly treated by previous administrations – particularly that of former President Joe Biden – is now on hold for at least two weeks. The plan also faced opposition from Republican senators, who rejected possible payments to those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6th.
Bipartisan resistance in the Senate
Facing bipartisan headwinds, Republicans postponed a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and the Border Patrol until June and threatened to join Democrats in opposing the fund. Senators reportedly came down hard on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a confidential meeting last month. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas called the meeting one of the “toughest meetings I have experienced in my entire time in the Senate.”
“Fiery doesn’t even come close,” Cruz said. “I guess there were about 45 senators in the room, at least half of them folded the attorney general — and they were pissed.”
Last month, hours before the fund’s announcement, Trump withdrew a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his 2019 tax returns. The week before, ABC News and CNN had reported on internal discussions in the White House that the president wanted to drop the lawsuit in return for the billion-dollar fund. According to CNN, the settlement would also end ongoing IRS audits of Trump, members of his family or affiliates.
Lawsuit against the fund
The court’s ruling on the fund came after a former Justice Department prosecutor and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit calling the fund illegal and unconstitutional. “The fund instead rewards and encourages unlawful behavior and enables appalling misuse of taxpayer dollars,” the lawsuit says.
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Why does Campino think that sometimes it’s good to just keep your mouth shut? Why does he sometimes feel like a drinks delivery man? He provides the answer in our cover story about the Toten Hosen’s big farewell, exclusively in issue 06/26. And that’s not all: the magazine includes the world exclusive 7-inch single “Always just loved” – on which Sven Regener from Element of Crime also contributed. You can easily order the ROLLING STONE edition here.