Republicans in Congress are preparing for legislative action to end or at least place guardrails around the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.
The Justice Department announced the fund last week as part of a settlement with President Trump in his lawsuit over the IRS’ leak of his tax returns.
The idea is to let others seek damages if they think they were targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department via overzealous prosecutions or surveillance on political grounds.
The announcement’s timing disrupted Senate Republicans’ plan to pass a filibuster-proof immigration and law enforcement funding bill before Memorial Day.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks during …
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Democrats warned they would use the open amendment process to put GOP senators on record over whether they backed the president’s “slush fund.”
“It’s horrible politics. It’s horrible timing,” Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, said, also calling the fund “stupid on stilts” and warning it “may look like self-dealing.”
Mr. Tillis, speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said his colleagues are discussing how to address the matter when they return to the funding package next month.
“I wouldn’t at all doubt that there will be amendments to rescind the agreement and to defund it, to do whatever they can,” he said.
Republican senators voiced their concerns about the Anti-Weaponization Fund in a Thursday meeting with Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Capitol.
“There were fireworks at an epic level, and I got to say it’s one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said on his podcast last week.
Acting U.S. attorney general Todd Blanche …
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He said of the roughly 45 Republican senators who attended the meeting, “at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were p——-.”
“There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying, ‘This feels like self-dealing. This feels like Trump cut a deal with himself,’” Mr. Cruz said.
Mr. Blanche told senators that Mr. Trump and his family were not eligible to receive compensation and provided a legal rationale for the fund, according to Mr. Cruz, who said he is a “big supporter” of providing relief to U.S. citizens targeted by the Biden administration’s weaponization.
But Mr. Cruz said there were 20-some other Republicans who were prepared to support Democratic amendments dismantling the fund that would sink the filibuster-proof funding package.
“There’s going to be some change to this judgment fund. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but it will be something that the White House and the Department of Justice agree on,” he said. “They’re going to announce it, because if nothing changes, we don’t have the votes to secure our border, and it is unacceptable.”
Mr. Tillis suggested that modifications alone would not be enough, saying, “There’s no way you’re going to make it better in its current form.”
He and Mr. Cruz both confirmed that one of the main concerns Republican senators raised was that rioters who assaulted police officers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would qualify for compensation.
“I call it a payout pot for punks,” Mr. Tillis said.
Mr. Cruz said Mr. Blanche was “adamant” that anyone who assaulted law enforcement or committed an act of violence would not be eligible.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and a fund supporter, said the GOP will hopefully unify around an amendment that addresses the concerns and ensures people who committed acts of violence cannot access the fund.
“We’ll probably come up with some kind of guardrails,” Mr. Johnson said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Guardrails are not enough for some Republicans, such as Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
He has teamed up with his fellow Problem Solvers Caucus co-chair, Tom Suozzi, New York Democrat, on legislation to block any money from being spent on the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Suozzi spoke about their bill in a joint interview on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
The measure would amend a 1956 law that set up a permanent appropriation called the Judgement Fund, which is what the Justice Department is tapping to create the $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund.
Mr. Fitzpatrick said the law was intended to ensure money existed to pay judicially approved judgments and settlements in cases brought against the U.S. government.
Throughout the 1960s, the intent of the statute was watered down and the appropriation turned into “a pre-populated fund that the attorney general has broad discretion to pay out of,” he said.
The bill Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Suozzi introduced would restore the original intent of the statute. They are eying a discharge petition on the measure, which would require 218 signatures to force a floor vote.
“It’s our job in the Congress, in the Senate and the House to hold the executive branch accountable,” Mr. Suozzi said. “I think the dam is finally starting to break the closer we get to the elections and the more people see that they’re going to be held accountable to the voters.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick said a lot of Republicans have told him they support his legislation.
“We’ll see how many actually join us in the effort by putting pen to paper and putting their name on it,” he said.
