Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said President Trump’s continued defense of a $1.776 billion fund created to compensate people the administration considers victims of political prosecution shows the fund remains active, undercutting assurances that it had been shut down.
“The President made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it,” Tillis wrote on X. “While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation’s Capitol are not ‘great American patriots’ who are ‘victims of government abuse.’ Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government.”
Tillis was responding to a Truth Social post from Trump earlier that morning defending the fund and criticizing Sen. John Cornyn. “John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called ‘Fund,’ which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote. “I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!”
The Justice Department formally announced the Anti-Weaponization Fund on May 18 as part of a settlement resolving Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, a lawsuit Trump and his sons filed over the leak of their tax returns. Under the settlement, Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and the Trump Organization received a formal apology but no monetary payment, and agreed to drop the lawsuit and withdraw separate administrative claims related to the Mar-a-Lago search and alleged Russia-collusion investigation. In exchange, the department established the fund “to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the official announcement. The fund draws $1.776 billion from the Judgment Fund, a permanent government appropriation used to pay settlements and judgments, and is overseen by five members appointed by the attorney general, with claims processing set to end no later than Dec. 1, 2028, after which any remaining money reverts to the federal government.
The fund drew immediate bipartisan concern, including over whether Jan. 6 defendants convicted of assaulting police officers could qualify for compensation. Tillis and Cornyn have since worked directly with Blanche to formally terminate the fund, a process complicated by the underlying settlement agreement, which states it “may be modified only with the written agreement of the Parties.”
Tillis praised Blanche’s role in those negotiations while blaming a separate Trump adviser for holding up a resolution. “Senator Cornyn and I have been working with Acting AG Todd Blanche to end the Anti Weaponization Fund, and he has been forthright, thoughtful and patient,” Tillis wrote. “It’s a shame his confirmation has hit a snag only because an incompetent personal advisor to the President refuses to amend the bogus settlement. I will continue working in good faith to put an end this legal and political albatross and prevent any potential misallocation of taxpayer dollars.”
Blanche’s nomination for Attorney General is pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on his confirmation July 15 and 16, according to the nomination’s official Congress.gov record. Blanche has served as Acting Attorney General and previously as Trump’s personal defense attorney and deputy attorney general.
Trump’s Truth Social post also credited himself with forgoing compensation despite what he described as a wrongful search of his Mar-a-Lago residence. “I gave up any payments for myself, which would have been substantial, including for the illegal and unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, my home in Florida, even though many legal experts, and others, including John Cornyn, said it was a shocking and disgusting display of ‘weaponization’ against me,” Trump wrote, adding that Todd Blanche “should be immediately approved as U.S. Attorney General.”
Trump’s post referenced Cornyn’s Texas Senate primary, in which Trump endorsed Cornyn’s opponent, who went on to win the Republican nomination. Trump suggested Cornyn only began raising concerns about the fund after that endorsement.
The Justice Department has cited the Obama-era Keepseagle settlement, which used $680 million from the Judgment Fund to compensate Native American farmers and ranchers over discrimination claims, as legal precedent for the new fund’s structure, according to the DOJ’s official announcement.
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department has issued additional public comment addressing whether a written amendment terminating the fund has been finalized.