Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said President Donald Trump seeks to fund his own "private militia" with the $1.8 billion from a settlement with the IRS that is aimed at compensating people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.
Speaking on MS NOW, Raskin was asked if there was any precedent of the development. "Nothing like it," he claimed.
"It's thoroughly illegal and unconstitutional. Of course, Congress never voted to set up a $1.776 billion political slush fund for the president, and we never would pass such a thing. So it's a complete violation of Congressional appropriations powers."
The lawmaker went on to say that "even if Congress wanted to do such a thing, which we never would, it would be unconstitutional, because the 14th Amendment says that money cannot be spent out of the federal fisc for the purposes of repaying people for insurrection or rebellion against the United States."
The fund in question was agreed as part of a deal that ended Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
The Justice Department described the new pool of money as an "Anti-Weaponization Fund," saying it would provide a way for people who allege they were harmed by government "weaponization and lawfare" to seek compensation. Trump reportedly agreed to dismiss the IRS lawsuit in exchange for the fund, which will be used to settle legal claims by people who say they were politically targeted by the federal government.
"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 a statement. Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Trump, will appoint four of the five commissioners who will decide the merits of claims.
The settlement closes a case Trump filed in January against the IRS and the Treasury Department. Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization alleged that the government failed to safeguard confidential tax records later leaked to the media. Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to disclosing tax records and was sentenced to five years in prison.
The leaked records became the basis for major reporting on Trump's finances, including a 2020 New York Times investigation that found he paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he entered the White House and no federal income tax in some other years. Trump's lawsuit claimed the leak caused reputational and financial harm, public embarrassment, and damage to the plaintiffs' business reputation.
