The U.S. Department of Justice announced a new fund to help plaintiffs who can’t afford legal fees for challenging government lawfare to move ahead with those cases.
The fund has to do with the case President Donald J. Trump v. Internal Revenue Service. The settlement agreement includes “The Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which established a “systematic process” for helping right the wrongs suffered by individuals previously and unjustly targeted under biased lawfare. The only catch for the plaintiffs — that is, the Trump family and the Trump Organization — is that they will not receive any monetary payment or damages. Instead, the plaintiffs will receive a formal apology. They prioritized Americans' search for justice.
After the Trump family tax returns leak, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, LLC sued both the IRS and the Treasury Department. On May 18, the DOJ announced the settlement.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “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. As part of this settlement, we are setting up a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
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Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter more briefly commented, “The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any Administration.”
The DOJ press release explained:
[The plaintiffs] have agreed, in exchange for the creation of this fund, to drop their pending lawsuit with prejudice, and also withdraw two administrative claims including for damages resulting from the unlawful raid of Mar-a-Lago and the Russia-collusion hoax…The Fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants. Submission of a claim is voluntary. There are no partisan requirements to file a claim. Any money left when the Fund ceases operations will revert to the Federal Government.
It will be interesting to see how many people take advantage of this fund in the coming months. The Biden administration targeted thousands of people unfairly, from the Jan. 6ers to pro-lifers to traditional Catholics to Trump allies.
To give just one example, former FBI Director Chris Wray admitted to the House Judiciary Committee in July 2023 that the Biden-era spying on and targeting of concerned parents at school board meetings was not based on evidence. Rep. Kevin Kiley asked Wray if there had been "an increase in harassment and threats of violence” spurring the investigation into dissatisfied parents who objected to radically woke and sexualized curricula. Wray confessed, “I’m not aware of any such evidence.” When Kiley then asked if it were true there’s been no observable increase in threats against school officials, Wray openly stated: “Yes, sir.” In other words, that weaponization was purely based on Democrats' ideological opposition to parental rights, not on evidence of violence.
Now victims of such injustice have a way of seeking redress.
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