Trump defends DOJ fund after Senate Republicans push back

President Donald Trump defended the controversial new decision on Friday Ministry of Justice He authorized the creation of the “Anti-Arms Fund,” saying, “I gave up a lot of money.”

Trump’s comments on social media came a day after the fund was harshly rejected by Senate Republicans and some lawmakers supported legislation that would ban taxpayer money from being used for the $1.8 billion payment pool.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, said earlier this week that Trump had created a “legal fund” as part of his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump has no money in this deal. But the fund is intended to compensate many of his supporters who claim they were victims of prosecutorial overreach by the Justice Department under the Biden administration.

And Trump and his family members will receive immunity from IRS enforcement actions on their tax returns under the agreement.

“I gave up a lot of money to allow the just-announced Anti-Proliferation Fund to move forward,” Trump wrote. Real Social post.

“I could have settled my case for an absolute fortune, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal BREAKING of Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said. “Instead, I am helping others who have been so badly abused by the evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration finally get JUSTICE!”

Critics of the fund have called it a “secret fund” and have challenged the idea that the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and were prosecuted for their actions, could have received payments from the fund even if they had attacked police officers that day.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. and Tom Suozzi, DY, introduced a bill Thursday that would prohibit federal money from being used to pay any claims submitted to the Justice Department fund.

On Thursday, Blanche met with Republican senators to defend the plan, but some expressed concerns about it.

After the meeting, in a sign of discord among the group, GOP leadership abandoned plans to hold a series of votes on a package that would fund immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) told reporters after meeting with Blanche on Thursday that the White House “needs help on this because we have a lot of members who are concerned.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who for years was the leader of the Republican caucus, blasted the fund on Thursday.

“So the country’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who attack cops?” McConnell said in a statement. “Totally stupid, morally wrong – Take your pick.”

But earlier Friday, several House Republican lawmakers defended the funding in interviews on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said when asked about the funding that Trump was “one of the biggest victims of the proliferation” and that he saw it as “an appropriate approach and use of tax dollars as long as guardrails exist.”

But Arrington also said: “We need to have accountability measures and safeguards so that there is no quote, slush fund where you’re handing out money to political allies who have no legitimate claims.”

“It needs to be fair and objective … so I think the Senate will find a path forward,” he said.

Arrington suggested those guardrails could come as part of the next congressional budget reconciliation package or “they could come to an agreement.”

“I think there’s a need for it,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said of the fund.

Comer claimed that Trump was a victim of “rule of law.”

“I wasn’t in the room, so I don’t know what the details were,” House Majority Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said when asked about the lawsuit settlement that led to the creation of the fund.

“Nobody [knows] Emmer said it’s better for the government to arm itself against him and his family than Donald Trump. “I suspect that the deal that was made was fair to both parties.”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., criticized Trump and Republicans over DOJ funding and the president’s pet projects, including a new White House ballroom and a new arch near Arlington National Cemetery.

“You won’t see what’s on display here this week, where you have a Republican Party and a president who are offering a billion dollars for a ballroom, a $2 billion slush fund for the president, and $75 billion to provide additional funding to ICE, which doesn’t need more funding and not a penny to the American people,” Clark said on “Squawk Box.”

Clark said the Trump administration “almost belittled them by building ballrooms and arches.”