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  "path": "/post/210782/worst-people-applying-donald-trump-slush-fund",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T14:43:35.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "January 6",
    "Capitol Riot",
    "insurrection",
    "Election 2020",
    "Election Deniers",
    "Slush fund",
    "Mike Lindell",
    "Enrique tarrio",
    "proud boys",
    "$1.8 billion slush fund",
    "millions of dollars",
    "$400 million",
    "Miami New Times",
    "Reuters",
    "bear-sprayed cops",
    "convicted child molester",
    "$30 million",
    "introduced",
    "CNN"
  ],
  "textContent": "The MAGA-verse is lining up for the Justice Department’s taxpayer-funded “anti-weaponization” payouts.\n\nThe DOJ launched its $1.8 billion slush fund earlier this week, offering compensation to virtually any right-winger who felt targeted by the previous presidential administration. To no one’s surprise, the free-for-all has already attracted quite a crowd, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio.\n\nLindell lost practically everything he had defending Donald Trump’s 2020 faux election claims. The former millionaire spent months using every platform at his disposal to promote the conspiracy, railing against Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic and claiming the electronic voting companies were complicit in a scheme to keep Trump from retaking the White House.\n\nDoing so ultimately cost him millions of dollars in legal fees and penalties, and nearly decimated his infomercial-based business—all of which Lindell now claims is the basis for him to recoup some $400 million from the Trump administration.\n\nTarrio faced 22 years in prison for his role in orchestrating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, before he was pardoned by the president last year. Tarrio told the Miami New Times that he would “definitely” be applying for compensation. Reuters reported that Tarrio estimates his claim to be somewhere between $2 million and $5 million.\n\n“I’m not greedy,” Tarrio told Reuters. “But my life was all fucked up because of this.”\n\nHundreds of other pardoned January 6ers are also in the queue, including a sex offender who bear-sprayed cops and a convicted child molester who told his victims he would give them money from the slush fund in exchange for their silence.\n\nAt least one pardoned riot participant is seeking $30 million in restitution for the alleged governmental weaponization.\n\nDemocrats attempted to stave off such payments in January, when California Senator Alex Padilla introduced the “No Rewards for January 6 Rioters Act,” but the bill has made no progress since.\n\nThe DOJ chief, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, doesn’t see anything wrong with forcing the American people to foot the bill for Trump’s aggrieved allies.\n\n“What American would say, ‘Oh my gosh, that is terrible’? I very much disagree with the idea that the American taxpayer is indignant that a victim of weaponization—a victim who suffered, whether it was legal fees, loss of job, they had their life turned upside down that was not appropriate,” Blanche told CNN Wednesday. “I do think the American people have an issue with that. To the contrary, I think they do want their taxpayer dollars spent on things like that.”",
  "title": "Worst People You Know Are Already Applying to Trump’s Slush Fund"
}