{"id":48856,"date":"2026-06-03T08:47:03","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=48856"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:02:03","slug":"trump-administration-drops-1-8-billion-weaponization-fund-after-republican-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/trump-administration-drops-1-8-billion-weaponization-fund-after-republican-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration drops $1.8 billion ‘weaponization’ fund after Republican backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reuters :\u00a0 The Trump administration is abandoning the president’s nearly $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, U.S. Acting Attorney \u200cGeneral Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday, after a rare backlash from Republican senators.<\/p>\n

“We are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said. “Period.” But Blanche also told lawmakers that an agreement with Trump to bar future audits of his or his family’s past tax records will remain in place.<\/p>\n

The $1.776 billion fund \u200bwas meant to pay people who said they had been the subject of government abuse, and Blanche angered senators last month when he would not commit to excluding people who assaulted police officers during the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.<\/p>\n

White House officials spent much of Monday calling lawmakers to assure them there would be no payouts after the \u200bRepublican revolt, said two sources familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, where \u200ba spokesperson said compensating people who have suffered from government abuse is still a priority for the administration.
\n“The goal of the fund was about continuing the process of \u200cfixing the \u2060wrongs committed by past administrations, but given the extraordinary misunderstanding of this, the DOJ is not proceeding with the fund,” spokesperson Emily Covington said.<\/p>\n

BLANCHE SAYS HE WON’T PUT IT IN WRITING<\/strong><\/p>\n

At a hearing on Tuesday afternoon, Democratic lawmakers pressed for a definitive promise that the fund was dead, but Blanche said he would not put that in writing. “Why do I need to put something in writing?” Blanche said. “I’m not committing to doing anything in writing.”<\/p>\n

Democratic Representative \u200bRosa DeLauro said Blanche should not \u200bhave signed off on the \u2060portion of the agreement that bars future tax audits of Trump and his businesses, noting that he formerly served as Trump’s personal attorney.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just gave the president and his family a tax immunity to the tune of about $100 \u200bmillion,\u201d DeLauro said, referring to reports that Trump could face that amount in an IRS tax penalty. \u201cDo you \u200bnot find that there\u2019s \u2060any conflict of interest in what you doing here as the acting attorney general of the United States?\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche said the agreement did not give Trump \u201cblanket immunity\u201d and rejected DeLauro\u2019s criticism.
\n\u201cWhat are you saying is the conflict?\u201d Blanche responded. \u201cThe fact that I used to have a job and I have a current job?\u201d<\/p>\n

House \u2060Republicans at the \u200bhearing did not criticize the fund. Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January \u200b6 defendants, said he and his clients are not dismayed about the announcement.
\n“They still expect to get paid,” said Ticktin, who has filed claims for 10 defendants requesting up to $3 million. “They \u200btrust Donald Trump.”<\/p>\n

Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Nandita Bose, Richard Cowan and Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Michael Learmonth, Andy Sullivan, Andrea Ricci, Deepa Babington and Cynthia Osterman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters :\u00a0 The Trump administration is abandoning the president’s nearly $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, U.S. Acting Attorney \u200cGeneral Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday, after a rare backlash from Republican senators. “We are not moving forward with the fund,” Blanche said. “Period.” But Blanche also told lawmakers that an agreement with Trump to bar future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48858,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48856\/revisions\/48858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}