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"path": "/columnists/2026/05/28/anti-weaponization-fund-trump-republicans-irs-jacob-sullum",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-28T11:00:00.000Z",
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"textContent": "<p>Last week, Republican senators grilled acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about the $1.8 billion \"Anti-Weaponization Fund\" created by President Donald Trump's <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://reason.com/2026/05/19/trump-settles-his-own-lawsuit-against-the-irs-for-1-8-billion-of-your-money/\" target=\"_blank\" >settlement</a> of his lawsuit against the IRS. About 45 senators attended the meeting, and \"at least half of them were blasting the attorney general,\" Sen. Ted Cruz, R–Texas, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ted-cruz-senators-screaming-todd-blanche-trump-anti-weaponization-fund-rcna346599\" target=\"_blank\" >reported</a>. \"They were pissed.\"</p><p>It is not hard to see why. The lawsuit that provided the pretext for using taxpayer money to compensate purported victims of \"lawfare and weaponization\" was legally dubious, the fund has nothing to do with Trump's claims against the IRS, and the main beneficiaries are apt to be the president's allies and supporters.</p><p>The <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172.1.0_4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" >lawsuit</a> pitted Trump against agencies he oversees, represented by government lawyers who are forbidden, under an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-14215-ensuring-accountability-for-all-agencies\" target=\"_blank\" >executive order</a> that Trump issued in February 2025, to \"advance an interpretation of the law\" that \"contravenes\" the president's position. That bizarre situation prompted the federal judge overseeing the case to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172/gov.uscourts.flsd.706172.41.0_2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" >question</a> whether it involved a genuine controversy between adverse parties, as required for the lawsuit to proceed.</p><div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement\" data-module data-align-center><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"module-a50000\" name=\"module-a50000\"></a> <div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule-title\">Columnists bug</div> <div class=\"RichTextModule-items RichTextBody\"><h2>Columnists</h2><br><i>In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.</i><br></div> </div><p>The lawsuit was provoked by IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn's <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-irs-contractor-sentenced-disclosing-tax-return-information-news-organizations\" target=\"_blank\" >illegal leaking</a> of Trump's tax returns. But Trump filed his complaint <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7431\" target=\"_blank\" >too late</a>: more than two years after Littlejohn <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/12/trump-tax-leak-guilty-plea/\" target=\"_blank\" >pleaded guilty</a> to what Trump's personal attorney accurately called \"an egregious breach.\"</p><p>According to Trump's May 18 <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28132616-sdfl-settlement-signed/\" target=\"_blank\" >settlement agreement</a> with the IRS, Littlejohn's leaks, which included confidential information about <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/29/trump-tax-leak-charges-littlejohn-irs/\" target=\"_blank\" >thousands</a> of wealthy Americans, epitomized Democrats' use of government power to \"target individuals, groups, and entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, and/or ideological reasons.\" Although that is a counterintuitive way to describe the conduct of a rogue contractor who was prosecuted by the Biden administration, it is the only attempt to justify the Anti-Weaponization Fund as a logical result of Trump's litigation.</p><p>It is <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/us/politics/trump-fund-explainer.html\" target=\"_blank\" >highly unusual</a> for the Justice Department to settle a lawsuit by agreeing to pay people whose grievances are completely unrelated to the plaintiff's claims, which in this case involved the IRS' allegedly lax oversight of its contractors. Such settlements, in fact, are prohibited by a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/16/2020-27189/prohibition-on-settlement-payments-to-non-governmental-third-parties\" target=\"_blank\" >rule</a> that the Justice Department issued during Trump's first term.</p><p>That rule, which Pam Bondi, then the attorney general, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1388536/dl?inline\" target=\"_blank\" >reaffirmed</a> in February 2025, generally prohibits settlement payments to \"a non-governmental person or entity that is not a party to the dispute.\" There are a few limited exceptions, none of which seem to apply in this case.</p><p>Trump's settlement agreement <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://reason.com/2026/05/21/the-1-776-billion-in-trumps-anti-weaponization-fund-fits-a-pattern-of-fanciful-figures/\" target=\"_blank\" >arbitrarily assigns</a> $1.776 billion to the Anti-Weaponization Fund — a reference to the nation's founding year that it preposterously claims is \"based on the projected valuation of future claimants' claims.\" The five members of the board charged with doling out that money will be appointed by the attorney general and can be removed by the president \"without cause\" at any time.</p><p>Although the Justice Department <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-anti-weaponization-fund\" target=\"_blank\" >says</a> \"there are no partisan requirements to file a claim,\" it seems clear the process will favor Trump's friends. The board, the composition of which is completely subject to Trump's control, will \"cease processing claims\" a month and a half before he leaves office, and the settlement agreement describes \"lawfare and weaponization\" as abuses peculiar to Democrats.</p><p>\"I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!\" Trump <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116618545735076530\" target=\"_blank\" >explained</a> Friday. Those \"others\" presumably include the 1,600 or so Trump supporters who were arrested (and later <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://reason.com/2025/01/21/trumps-blanket-clemency-for-capitol-rioters-excuses-political-violence/\" target=\"_blank\" >pardoned</a> by Trump) for participating in the 2021 Capitol riot.</p><p>The prospect that the fund \"could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer\" is \"absurd,\" Sen. Thom Tillis, R–N.C., <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-defiance-over-anti-weaponization-fund-sets-up-confrontation-with-2026-05-23/\" target=\"_blank\" >remarked</a> last week. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R–Ky., likewise <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5892196-senate-house-republican-tension-anti-weaponization-fund/\" target=\"_blank\" >said</a> \"a slush fund to pay people who assault cops\" was \"utterly stupid\" and \"morally wrong.\"</p><p>\"I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself,\" Trump <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-irs-lawsuit-threatens-justice-system-11475643\" target=\"_blank\" >acknowledged</a> a few days after suing the IRS. The upshot of his admitted self-dealing is an arrangement so <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-irs-lawsuit-threatens-justice-system-11475643\" target=\"_blank\" >brazenly corrupt</a> that even Republicans are having trouble accepting it.</p><p><i>Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.</i></p><div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement\" data-module data-align-center><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"module-720000\" name=\"module-720000\"></a> <div class=\"RichTextModule-items RichTextBody\">Send letters to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"mailto:letters@suntimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" >letters@suntimes.com</a>. More about <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/submitting-opinion-and-letters\" >how to submit here</a>.</div> </div><p></p>",
"title": "Republicans also calling out Trump's corrupt 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-28T11:00:32.346Z"
}