Trump’s $1.7b for allies prosecuted under Biden is branded a corrupt ‘slush fund’

President Donald Trump's likeness hangs from the Department of Justice, which has just announced a large fund that will benefit Trump's allies. Photo / Getty Images

The Department of Justice has announced the creation of a US$1.7 billion fund to compensate political allies prosecuted under the Biden administration.

The move was quickly labelled a corrupt “slush fund” by Democrats, with lawmakers and watchdog groups immediately attacking the plan as a brazen reward for Trump loyalists - using taxpayer money.

In exchange for the Anti-Weaponisation Fund, the DoJ said Trump would drop a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for a leak of his tax returns.

Trump filed suit against the IRS in January seeking US$10b ($17b) in damages over the leak.

A former IRS contractor pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the tax returns of Trump and other wealthy Americans to the media and received a five-year prison sentence.

The Justice Department, headed by Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, said the Anti-Weaponisation Fund was being created as part of a settlement in the IRS case.

“The machinery of government should never be weaponised 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.”

After leaving the White House in 2021, Trump was accused by special counsel Jack Smith of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and of mishandling classified documents.

Both cases were dropped after the Republican won the 2024 presidential election.

While Trump will receive no payments, the compensation fund could be tapped by others who believe they were unfairly pursued by the Biden administration.

This could include, for example, the hundreds of Trump supporters who were prosecuted for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol. Trump issued a mass pardon to January 6 defendants on his first day in office last year.

The compensation plan for Trump’s political allies prompted fierce criticism from Democratic lawmakers.

Criticism was swift, with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying: “Donald Trump sued his own government. Trump’s DOJ settled with Trump. And now Trump gets a nearly US$2billion slush fund to reward his own allies, loyalists, and insurrectionists.

“Of all the corrupt things he has done, this is one of the most depraved.”

Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, called it a “monstrous theft of taxpayer resources”. It urged Congress to block the fund from doling out any payments.

Hillary Clinton, whom Trump beat in the 2016 election, said: “Trump didn’t just pardon his followers who stormed the US Capitol. He’s now set them up for payments through a slush fund he created to reward his allies - out of your tax dollars. You could not make this up.”

Since taking office for a second time, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies.

He has pushed for criminal cases against political opponents, purged government officials he deems disloyal, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.

- AFP