The Trump administration has renounced its “anti-instrumentalization” of justice compensation fund, which had just been created and decried by its adversaries as a “slush fund,” said an influential Republican senator, John Thune, on Tuesday, June 2.
Asked in Congress by journalists whether this fund “would no longer be on the table,” Mr. Thune replied: “That’s correct,” noting discussions on this subject with the acting Minister of Justice, Todd Blanche. The senator said he hoped that the minister would confirm this “in a very clear way” during a hearing in the afternoon before a parliamentary committee.
A controversial “slush fund”
The Trump administration took note on Monday of a legal decision temporarily freezing this fund with nearly $1.8 billion, indicating that it could give it up. Many media outlets, including Bloomberg and Axios, believe the Trump administration intends to reverse course, in the face of opposition from Democrats, but also from elected Republicans.
“This fund was open to anyone who was the victim of an instrumentalization of justice, targeted or persecuted, whether Democrat, Republican, conservative, independent or other,” the Ministry of Justice said Monday in a press release on X. It expressed its “deep disagreement” with the court decision, but assured that it would “respect” it.
The ministry announced on May 18 the creation of this fund intended to repair what the Trump administration presents as an instrumentalization of justice against the supporters of Donald Trump under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. Democrats denounced a “slush fund” intended to pay supporters of Donald Trump, including people convicted of the assault on the Capitol, the sanctuary of American democracy, on January 6, 2021.
The creation of this fund is being challenged in court, in particular by a former federal prosecutor who investigated cases against participants in January 6, 2021, police officers who defended the Capitol, a local community or organizations. A judge in a court in Alexandria, near Washington, gave them partial satisfaction on Friday.
Judicial blockage and procedures
She thus prohibited until further notice the government from any action concerning this fund, including financially feeding it or withdrawing money from it, or examining requests for compensation, in order to ensure that no sum is “irreversibly paid” before it has made a decision.
The judge set a new hearing for June 12 on a possible extension of this freeze. This fund was created under an agreement between the Department of Justice and the American president, as well as his two eldest sons, in a dispute opposing them to the tax authorities.
In exchange for withdrawing his complaint against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), from which he claimed $10 billion for leaks on his tax returns, Donald Trump also obtained that he, his family and his businesses benefit from retroactive tax immunity, that is to say that the IRS cannot challenge their past tax returns.
