American President Trump has abandoned a plan for a $1.8 billion legal fund, various American media report, including a news site. Axios and The New York Times. They rely on anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. The money was intended for victims of alleged ‘weaponisation’ by the government. Trump was referring to legal decisions and prosecutions that he believed were politically motivated.
The plan for the fund met with great political resistance, including from his own Republican Party. Critics alleged, among other things, that the fund, which was derisively called a “pot”, was intended to reward Trump’s political allies with public resources. These critics included police officers who responded during the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021. They feared that convicted rioters would also be compensated by the fund.
Legal headwinds
Trump’s legal fund also faced legal resistance. Last week, a federal judge temporarily banned the government from taking steps to implement the fund while it considered a longer-term freeze. The Justice Ministry said on Monday that it “strongly disagrees” with the decision, but at the same time stated that it “will comply with the court’s ruling.”
The Trump administration established the fund as part of a settlement to resolve the president’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) following the leak of his tax information to The New York Times in 2019. The fund was also unprecedented in that respect; Typically, the Justice Department defends federal agencies, such as the IRS, in court—rather than settlements with them for billions of dollars, which would then be distributed to “victims” of “weaponization” by that same government.
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