{"id":652505,"date":"2026-05-19T14:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652505\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:32:13","slug":"blanche-faces-scrutiny-over-a-nearly-1-8b-fund-to-repay-trump-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652505\/","title":{"rendered":"Blanche faces scrutiny over a nearly $1.8B fund to repay Trump allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended the Trump administration\u2019s plans to create a $1.776 billion fund that could pay allies<\/a> of the Republican president who believe they were targeted politically as he faced questions from lawmakers in his congressional appearance since taking the reins of the Justice Department. <\/p>\n

Blanche acknowledged that the \u201cunusual\u201d nature of the \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund,\u201d which critics have called an illegal abuse of power designed to line the pockets of Trump supporters with taxpayer dollars. But the fund is not unprecedented, Blanche said, adding that those who benefit will not be limited to Republicans or to people who were investigated or prosecuted by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

Blanche also left open the possibility that people charged with committing violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol will be eligible for compensation. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were a victim of weaponization,\u201d Blanche told a Senate appropriations subcommittee. The decisions on payouts will be made a five-member commission appointed by the attorney general.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing is meant to address the Trump administration\u2019s budget request for the Justice Department but quickly turned to other controversies that have escalated concerns about the erosion of the law enforcement agency\u2019s<\/a> tradition of independence from the White House. It comes a day after the administration announced the creation of the fund to resolve Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service<\/a> over the leak of his tax returns. <\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the subcommittee holding the hearing, blasted the move as a \u201cpure theft of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRewarding individuals who committed crimes is obscene,\u201d the Maryland Democrat said. \u201cEvery American can see through this illegal, corrupt, self-dealing scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the weeks since assuming control of the Justice Department<\/a>, Blanche has moved aggressively to advance the president\u2019s priorities \u2014 pushing forward cases<\/a> against Trump\u2019s political foes, cracking down on leaks to media outlets and establishing the new fund to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department.<\/p>\n

Blanche said Monday the fund will allow for people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes to apply for payouts, creating what he described as \u201ca lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fund is a further demonstration of the administration\u2019s eagerness to reward allies who before Trump came to power were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted. Most notably, the president on his first day back in office pardoned or commuted<\/a> the sentences of supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His Justice Department since then has approved payouts to supporters entangled<\/a> in the Trump-Russia investigation and investigated and prosecuted<\/a> some of his perceived adversaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended the Trump administration\u2019s plans to create a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,1927,31673,1340,12,793,2221,3,111,116294,8638,10585,21,792,9291,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-652505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ap-top-news","tag-chris-van-hollen","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-todd-blanche","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}