Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Justice Department is not proceeding with its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
“We’re not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, vowing that would remain true even after a federal court order pausing the fund expires.
The Justice Department announced Monday that it would comply with the recent court ruling temporarily blocking the fund, which has faced widespread backlash on both sides of the aisle.
The fund stemmed from a settlement announced last month between the IRS and President Donald Trump, along with two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.
Trump agreed to drop his $10 billion suit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns in exchange for creating a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were unfairly targeted by the federal government. Since then, a slew of people — including some pardoned Jan. 6 defendants and ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen — have said they intended to file a claim.
The fund prompted bipartisan criticism, some of it from allies of Trump. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., called it a “billion-dollar-plus slush fund” Monday and said it was “not the answer” to weaponization.
The fund has also undermined Senate Republicans’ efforts to secure funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday that Democrats would force Republicans to vote on the fund as they try to use budget reconciliation to advance GOP spending priorities.
Before Blanche’s testimony Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that he expected Blanche to say the fund was “off the table,” clearing the path for the reconciliation process that would fund ICE and CBP.
Following Blanche’s remarks Tuesday afternoon, Schumer said his congressional testimony was insufficient for Democrats, calling his and Trump’s words “worthless.”
“The only way to stop Trump’s nearly $2 billion MAGA slush fund and his blank check to commit tax fraud is to abolish it by law — permanently. Senate Democrats will force a vote on the floor to end Trump’s corrupt scheme for good,” Schumer said on X.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee pressed Blanche at Tuesday’s hearing about whether he would commit to put his promise to drop the fund in writing, which Blanche refused to do, saying that he “didn’t know” what the purpose of putting it in writing would be and that there would be a transcript of the hearing.
“I’m just concerned because you’re not under oath. And I want to trust you — and I want to believe you, we all do — but putting it in writing would settle that issue,” Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., told Blanche.
Skye Perryman, the head of Democracy Forward, which filed the suit that led to the pause on the fund, called for Blanche to stand by his word in court.
“If you can say it on TV, you should say it in court,” Perryman said in a statement following Blanche’s testimony.
The Trump-IRS settlement has also come under scrutiny over a provision that permanently bars the IRS from auditing Trump, his family or his business.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked Blanche whether that section of the settlement would still stand.
He said that the only part of the settlement the Justice Department would not enforce was the creation of the fund and that the rest of the settlement stood.
