Blanche reiterates that 'anti-weaponization' fund 'is dead'
The Hill · C · trust 45/100
Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 08/16/26 11:31 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 08/16/26 11:31 AM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday reiterated that the “ anti-weaponization ” fund he proposed to compensate those who say they were politically persecuted “is dead.”
Blanche told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream that President Trump knows that there is no fund, even if Democrats say there are, as Bream suggested, “other funds and other measures within DOJ [that] you’re using to do the same thing.”
“No, the fund is dead or whatever word you want to use,” Blanche said. “It never started. So, it’s not as if the fund is coming back.”
Blanche asserted that Trump “believes the Justice Department was weaponized against a lot of Americans, not just Jan. 6ers,” referring to rioters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, “but a lot of Americans that had the Justice Department used against them, and it really hurt them financially.”
“He’s talked about that on the campaign trail and up to this very recently,” Blanche continued. “He will not stop saying that, and guess what? I agree with him.”
Blanche added that Trump and his family have not received “a dime” from the settlement instigated by Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS .
Blanche, who officially took on the full-time attorney general mantle on Monday, also noted he rescinded his initial May order authorizing the formation of the $1.776 billion fund. He did so in exchange for GOP Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) supporting his nomination — which passed the Senate via a 50-49 vote.
The attorney general previously backed off the fund after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern that individuals convicted for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol could seek taxpayer money.
Blanche also previously said on Tuesday that “there were never commissioners” in charge of the “payout pot,” nor did any money go toward claimants.
But Senate Democrats argued that there was a “loophole” or other avenues for Trump to seek to resurrect the fund in court, previously a point of concern for Cornyn.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said it was “all hat and no cattle.”
“It’s hard for me to say this as a plant-based guy, but where’s the beef?” he said last week, continuing the rancher metaphor. “Where’s the beef? This is ridiculous. We got nothing — no guarantees whatsoever that this slush fund still can’t go forward. We got nothing that the president of the United States can’t cheat on his taxes and have no accountability.”
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