Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the Trump administration will abandon an $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund that faced mounting criticism from Senate Republicans and legal challenges. The decision removes a major obstacle to passing a $72 billion legislative package.
"We are not moving forward with the fund. Period," Blanche told House members, signaling the administration's reversal on the controversial initiative.
The fund, announced last month as part of a settlement in Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns, was designed to compensate what the administration described as victims of politicized prosecutions. However, the proposal quickly drew fire from multiple directions. The fund lacked clear disclosure requirements about how money would be distributed and to whom, raising transparency concerns among Republicans who worried about potential political favoritism.
Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune, expressed particular alarm over the fund's structure and lack of oversight. Some GOP lawmakers pressed the White House to commit to abandoning the effort entirely. "I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut the fund down themselves," Thune told reporters.
A significant source of Republican concern was the possibility that pardoned January 6 Capitol rioters could receive payments from the fund. Vice President Mike Pence called this prospect "deeply offensive" and said the sentiment was widely shared among Republicans and Americans generally.
The political backlash extended across the political spectrum. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the fund as "corruption in broad daylight" and vowed Democrats would force Senate Republicans to vote on measures to block payments. Several Democratic-led states, including California, Illinois, New York, and Connecticut, proposed measures to tax or block any distributions to their residents.
The administration also faced legal challenges. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia temporarily blocked the administration from transferring money from the fund after Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve it.
Some reports indicated the Justice Department had paused the program to comply with court orders, while Trump may have been reconsidering whether to continue pursuing the fund, multiple news outlets reported.
The reversal represents one of the few instances where Trump has yielded to pressure from Senate Republicans on a significant policy matter. The decision to abandon the fund removes a key barrier to advancing the broader legislative package, which Senate GOP leaders had indicated could not move forward with the fund included.
The episode illustrates ongoing tensions between the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans over spending priorities and executive authority, even as the party controls both branches of government. Senate Republicans have demonstrated willingness to challenge administration proposals they view as overreaching, particularly mechanisms involving discretionary funding that could bypass traditional appropriations oversight.