{"id":131592,"date":"2026-06-02T19:12:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blanche-says-trump-administration-is-scrapping-1-8b-fund-meant-to-compensate-presidents-allies\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T22:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:12:20","slug":"trump-administration-is-scrapping-1-8b-fund-meant-to-compensate-presidents-allies-blanche-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trump-administration-is-scrapping-1-8b-fund-meant-to-compensate-presidents-allies-blanche-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration is scrapping $1.8B fund meant to compensate president’s allies, Blanche says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Acting
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8 billion fund<\/a> that would have compensated allies of the Republican president, the Justice Department’s top official said Tuesday in retreating from a program that faced a fierce political backlash<\/a> that had threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not moving forward with the fund, period,\u201d Blanche said in response to questions at a House hearing on the Justice Department budget.<\/p>\n

“Not moving forward ever?\u201d asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrect,\u201d Blanche answered.<\/p>\n

The blunt declaration marked an extraordinary, and rare, Trump administration turnabout in the face of mounting political opposition to a fund that officials said was meant to compensate people who believe they have been improperly targeted by the criminal justice system. Since the establishment of the fund two weeks ago, it\u2019s been paused by a judge and lambasted by Democrats and Republicans alike who said they were troubled by a lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to participants in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fund drew concerns even from Republicans<\/strong><\/p>\n

The furor especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town nearly two weeks ago<\/a> without passing legislation to fund President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement agencies after Democrats said they would offer amendments to scrap or scale back the compensation fund.<\/p>\n

Furious, Senate Republicans jettisoned White House security money from the bill and made clear they would not pass the legislation at all unless the administration made major changes to the plan. They had sought reassurances from Blanche before moving forward.<\/p>\n

The $1.776 billion \u201cAnti-Weaponization Fund\u201d was established last month to resolve Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department had said it was an appropriate measure to correct what officials have insisted was the weaponization of federal law enforcement during the Biden administration, when Trump faced criminal charges<\/a> and several of his allies were investigated and prosecuted.<\/p>\n

The administration had said that anyone who felt unfairly persecuted could apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation, but Blanche’s refusal to publicly foreclose the possibility that people convicted of crimes of violence in the Jan. 6 riot could get payouts alarmed lawmakers. A five-member commission was to have been responsible for deciding on the payouts, though no commissioners had yet been named and the criteria for eligibility remained unclear.<\/p>\n

Blanche made clear Tuesday that he stood behind the rationale for the fund even as he was abandoning its implementation, saying: \u201cThis Department of Justice, unfortunately, was weaponized against many, many Americans, and we\u2019re trying every day to to fix it. And we\u2019ve made a lot of progress, but we have a lot more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merrick Garland, the attorney general under President Joe Biden, has denied allegations of politicization and said his decisions followed the facts, the evidence and the law. The Justice Department under his leadership investigated prominent Democrats too, most notably by appointing a special counsel to investigate Biden’s handling of classified information<\/a> and another special counsel who brought tax and gun charges against Biden’s son Hunter.<\/a><\/p>\n

As part of the same deal to resolve the tax lawsuit, the IRS agreed to drop any pending probes of Trump<\/a> over whether he\u2019s paid his fair share of taxes. Pressed over whether it was also abandoning that part of the deal, Blanche said \u201cnothing has changed with that,\u201d and said the administration was only backing away from plans to create the $1.8 billion fund.<\/p>\n

The administration had earlier hinted at a retreat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Signs of the retreat surfaced Monday when a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the Republican president was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund. The Justice Department said separately it would comply with a Virginia court temporarily blocking the fund, effectively agreeing to pause the plan for at least several weeks.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that he hoped the White House would move to drop the fund, telling reporters, \u201cI do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves.”<\/p>\n

The hearing Tuesday before a House Appropriations subcommittee was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department’s budget, but lawmakers quickly focused their questioning on the fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration has engaged in what are perhaps the most brazen acts of flagrant corruption I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said before Blanche announced the abandonment of the fund. \u201cAnd you are at the center of many of them, Mr. Blanche.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called the fund \u201ca corrupt payout scheme for the president and his political allies. It is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courts reacted coolly to the fund<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s efforts to move forward with the fund were also facing headwinds in the courts after several lawsuits filed by Trump critics, including a fired Jan. 6 prosecutor and two police officers who helped defend the Capitol.<\/p>\n

On Friday, a federal judge in Virginia halted the fund\u2019s formation and any potential payouts for at least two weeks and scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order. Separately, the judge in Florida overseeing Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS ordered the president\u2019s attorneys to respond to \u201cgrievous allegations\u201d by settlement critics that Trump abandoned his claims to avoid the court\u2019s scrutiny of an illegal deal.<\/p>\n

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward \u2014 which brought one of the lawsuits \u2014 said of Blanche\u2019s comments Tuesday, \u201cIf you can say it on TV, you should say it in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

\"Acting
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rep.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro attends Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rep.
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., asks questions following Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Acting
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives to testify before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span>(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies before the House Appropriations Committee, Tuesday, June 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)(AP Photo\/Allison Robbert) WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president, the Justice Department’s top official said Tuesday in retreating from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131617,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131592\/revisions\/131617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131592"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}