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Posted on 05/21/2026 6:20:19 PM PDT by Red Badger
Congressional Republicans are lashing out over a nearly $1.8 billion fund created by the Department of Justice (DOJ) this week to give payouts to those who claim to have been the target of a “weaponized” government.
Discontent over the fund contributed to senators abruptly deciding to leave town for the Memorial Day weekend rather than passing a party-line budget reconciliation bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol — blowing past the June 1 deadline that President Trump set for the bill. Some Republicans are openly eyeing ways to “kill” the fund.
On Monday, the DOJ created the $1.776 billion fund as part of a settlement after Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leaking of his tax returns. Individuals who believe they were wrongfully targeted by the government can request payouts from the fund and “formal apologies.”
That quickly led to speculation that those convicted in connection with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could get taxpayer-funded payouts, enraging Republicans who had never been happy with Trump dismissing the rioters’ actions and granting them a mass pardon.
On Wednesday, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) told MeidasTouch that he and some other Republicans are “going to try to kill” the fund and promptly sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. On Wednesday, he introduced a bill along with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) to prohibit federal dollars from being used to pay any claims submitted to the fund.
“Taxpayer dollars will not become a discretionary payout fund. Transparency is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said that he’d “be willing to consider” using congressional action to block the funds.
“It looks inappropriate,” Bacon said. “When you negotiate with yourself over taxpayer money, it doesn’t look right.”
The biggest show of fury, though, came in the upper chamber — which was set to start a lengthy floor consideration of the ICE and Border Patrol funding bill on Thursday.
Republican Senators were already peeved with the bill initially including $1 billion in security funding related to Trump’s White House ballroom, and the timing of the “anti-weaponization” fund further inflamed the Senate GOP conference’s tensions with Trump.
“So, the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said she did not want anyone who assaulted police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to receive compensation, a possibility that Trump administration officials have refused to take off the table.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was knocked out of his reelection race this weekend after Trump backed challenger Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), called the pot of money a “slush fund.”
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” Cassidy posted on social platform X.
“This is adding to our national debt. If there needs to be a settlement, the administration should bring it to Congress to decide,” he said.
Blanche met with Republican senators on Thursday to talk about the fund as Republicans sought to put guardrails around it. After the meeting, Republican senators emerged saying that the chamber would leave town and not proceed to vote on the ICE and Border Patrol funding bill.
But while the outrage helped derail a major Trump legislative priority, many other Republicans have demurred on the prospect of Jan. 6 rioters getting payouts.
“It’ll be on a case-by-case basis, so if they were targeted, it should be reviewed,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said of the possibility of Jan. 6 rioters requesting money from the fund.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a press conference on Wednesday that leaders “don’t know any of the details of that settlement fund,” deferring to Blanche on the specifics.
“He said they are setting up a fund to compensate all Americans who have been the subject, the target, of weaponization of the federal government. Again, that’s not a partisan proposition, either. Everyone should support that,” Johnson said. “He did not say who will be eligible. There’s many details to be filled out on that.”
Still, the Republican scrutiny of the fund is unlikely to go away when lawmakers return after a Memorial Day break and as must-pass legislation hangs in the balance.
“I don’t know why anyone is receiving money from this fund,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), who caucuses with Republicans, told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s not the way we typically adjudicate claims if anyone has claims.”
Kiley said he thinks there needs to be Congressional oversight into how the fund came about and if there will be any criteria outlined for distributions.
Fitzpatrick said that he hopes Republicans will not bow to pressure on the fund.
“I would just encourage my, you know, my colleagues to call balls and strikes fairly here. Don’t let pressure, anything like that, get in the way of doing what everyone knows is right,” Fitzpatrick said.
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With Repukes like this, who needs Democrats?
It’s the usual gang of fake republicans, Bitch, Casey, some clown from Nebraska...
I’m fine with them getting rid of this fund, on one condition: they pass a law allowing citizens to sue employees of the federal government as individuals with the trial outside of DC, no taxpayer funds go toward defending the government workers. and the workers pay any awards out of their own personal funds.
The problem with all of this is that Congress has done a piss-poor job of “oversight”, and the immunities for government workers along with the taxpayers footing the whole bill for any damages make the government a den of corruption.
Sundance points out they set up their own slush fund for Senators’ lines tapped by Jack Smith
Got Link?..............
They don’t like the Paxton endorsement so Repukes want to defund the police and stop their feet. Greg endorsement! Trump gets nothing from the Repukes anyways. They’ve done virtually nothing for 2 years. The only thing they do well is not impeach Trump every weekend.
Have the rinos ever complained about the payouts antifa, blm received for destroying cities all summer back in 2020?
One little thing I’d like to add to the bill, Majority Leader.
And I have something too, Majority Leader.
And....
Majority Leader, instead of giving Trump all that new power, how about we just let him pay out the money?
Repukes being repukes!
DemoRATS love em, not so much freedom
Loving traditional conservative Americans!
“they pass a law allowing citizens to sue employees of the federal government as individuals with the trial outside of DC, no taxpayer funds go toward defending the government workers. and the workers pay any awards out of their own personal funds.”
That would put ICE on ice.
These DB’s had no clue about probably 100’s of billions of dollars of fraud recently found, but they’re having a canary over 1.7 billion?😱
And used for a good cause. Righting wrongs of Biden DOJ!!
I suppose you’d have to have some kind of immunity for government workers who were obeying the law.
This is only part of the story of what really happened today in the Senate.
Trump tied to tack on two new funding items pretty much out of the blue to the ICE funding package, which has been under work for months, just before the vote today. Unfortunately, both of those two new items have a lot of political baggage.
The first one is the $1 billion in taxpayer money now needed for the ballroom, which was supposed to only cost $200 - $400 million and all be provided by donations.
The second is the new $2 billion fund for people who were pardoned by Trump from their criminal convictions. Embedded in that request is also a prohibition of Trump or his businesses ever being audited by the IRS, ever again. You read that right.
People can be mad at the Republican Senate for refusing to agree to these questionable new items being added to the ICE funding package at the last possible minute, but neither of them has been debated before, so it’s simple procedure to not be included at this point in the process.
So the ICE package vote simply got delayed until they fully debate these new items being included in it. They will still have a better chance of passing then, as part of the ICE bill, than if they were broken out separately, which is why Trump tried to add them at the last minute.
How long did the Senate debate the $500,000 APIECE slush fund that they approved for themselves?
Or the banging interns slush fund.
Republicans in both the House and Senate are quickly moving to stop the DOJ/IRS settlement with President Trump that establishes a $1.776 billion victim’s compensation fund for those targeted by corrupt government conduct.
The move in the Senate is particularly Machiavellian considering they recently established a $500,000 system of penalties for government conduct after they found out the Jack Smith investigation had subpoenaed their private phone records.
Buried on page 217 of the 2025 Senate Continuing Resolution Bill [TEXT HERE], Republican Senators inserted legislation to “retroactively” pay themselves $500,000 each for every line of communication, telephone record, email or other electronic communication, subpoenaed by the Jack Smith Special Counsel during the Arctic Frost investigation. The targeting of Republican senators was too much for the Republican Senators to bear.
Now consider:
WASHINGTON DC – Senate Republicans have canceled plans to begin voting this week on a budget reconciliation package that would provide approximately $70 billion to fund immigration enforcement operations through 2029 amid a furious disagreement within their conference over the Trump administration’s proposal to establish a $1.8 billion compensation fund for MAGA allies.
Senate Republicans emerging from a lengthy meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said they expect to leave Washington for the Memorial Day recess without voting on the budget reconciliation package that has stalled over disagreements among Republicans over how to put guardrails on the so-called anti-weaponization fund. (more)
A grandmother silently praying outside an abortion clinic encounters the full weight of the Dept of Justice and FBI costing her tens of thousands of dollars to defend herself. Hundreds of conservatives have been targeted by a politicized and weaponized IRS. Dozens of Trump officials were targeted, prosecuted and spent millions of dollars during their judicial defense – many going bankrupt. Thousands of people who peacefully attended the January 6, 2021, protest were targeted by the FBI and had to hire lawyers. Thousands more received ridiculous subpoenas and investigative inquiries that required them to pay lawyers who provided legal responses.
Yet, only when the weaponization targets a Republican Senator personally does the issue warrant compensation. Think about it.
Additionally, it was only just yesterday when President Trump pointed out to Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich’s that her fiancé, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), was at risk for attention from Trump after voting against Trump all MAGA policy in Congress. Trump warned Ms. Heinrich that typically “doesn’t work out well” for conservative lawmakers.
Fitzpatrick previously voted against Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” last year, making him one of only two GOP lawmakers to do so, along with Rep.Thomas Massie (R-KY). That’s who Trump seemed to be referencing Wednesday morning when he said it doesn’t go “well” for Republicans who oppose him.
Then today:
WASHINGTON DC – A bipartisan House effort is afoot to kill the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund created by the Justice Department that could pay allies of President Donald Trump, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the effort ahead of a formal announcement.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) have drafted text and are taking steps to unveil the legislation soon, the people said. (more)
The Republicans just unveiled the legislation {SEE HERE}.
This is why I have often said, “I fully support Donald Trump because the alternative is to support a republican.”
When the Tea Party surfaced in 2010, the grassroots voter base (unvoiced in DC) did not have a figurehead. So, the UniParty apparatus weaponized the DOJ, IRS and regulatory agencies to target, divide and destroy us.
When the Tea Party reassembled in 2016, the grassroots voter base (unvoiced in DC) now had Donald Trump. So, the same UniParty weaponized the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community to target, divide and destroy him first (Spygate, Russiagate, Impeachments etc.), until they could get back to targeting us (Arctic Frost).
The difference between the Tea Party targeting in 2010, and MAGA targeting 2016-through today, is the pesky impediment called Donald Trump.
Review the 15-year history and you will see these commonalities, including DC’s use of Main Justice and the FBI.
The McConnell-minded Republicans were happy to see the Tea Party targeted in 2011/2012. The same is true for the targeting of MAGA in later years.
This core reality is why I support President Trump; indeed, I actually cherish his fighting for us, because the alternative is reliance on our Republican abusers.
In my opinion, the strongest, most based and unflinching MAGA-minded America-First supporters, are the people who bear the visible scars from the extreme Tea Party targeting.
Those of us who went through the furnace of frustration are forged with a unique type of resolve that will never stop supporting Donald Trump.
We can see through the UniParty tricks, schemes and Machiavellian constructs, and we trust nothing.
The DC guards weaponized virtue as an attack strategy. They use our love of country against us. However, one glance at the scars and that approach doesn’t work any longer….
….. and they hate us even more because of that.
That outlook brings me to a place of thankfulness.
I think most of us here realize we have a few years with a political leader in our corner; that means advocacy for our specific interests is on a diminishing timeline.
If we, well, really, he, does not get that thing accomplished in the next three years, well, it’s unlikely to happen. That clock ticking raises the stakes for us and makes policy issues sensitive and urgent. This is an entirely understandable sentiment.
I fully support Donald Trump, because the alternative is dependency on a Republican.
Don’t forget to pray.
You talking about that boneheaded idea from Lindsey Graham that he and a couple others be given special compensation for their calls to Trump being traced during January 6? I don’t think that ever even reached the floor for debate, much less a vote.
Thanks. What a bunch of GREEDY hypocrites!..................
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