Way harder than it should be: Why Congress may balk on $1.7B compensation fund
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had never appeared before a congressional panel asking for money to run his department until Tuesday morning.And even though cabinet secretaries routinely make their budget...
By Fox News · Fox News
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had never appeared before a congressional panel asking for money to run his department until Tuesday morning. And even though cabinet secretaries routinely make their budget requests to Congress, it appears that Blanche apparently didn’t even need to ask lawmakers for the most-controversial batch of federal funds in years. It was already approved. Somehow. Blanche’s Justice Department announced the creation of a billion compensation fund to pay people who Republicans say are victims of government weaponization. Who gets the money isn’t clear. And what’s murkier still is how the stash of cash came about. APOLOGIES AND CASH HEADED TO ALLEGED ‘WEAPONIZATION’ VICTIMS IN BILLION-DOLLAR TRUMP SETTLEMENT In short, President Donald Trump sued his own IRS for leaking his tax returns – along with the filings of several hundred other Americans. Then, Blanche’s own Department of Justice announced that the president essentially settled with himself. "Per the settlement, plaintiffs will receive a formal apology but no monetary payment or damages of any kind. They 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," read the DoJ statement. The fund is worth $1.776 billion. Get it? 1776. REPUBLICANS RECOIL AS TRUMP'S BILLION-DOLLAR DOJ 'SLUSH FUND' FOR ALLIES THREATENS ICE, BORDER PATROL PLAN So while the president couldn’t receive money from this fund, his political allies and donors could. All without congressional input. "I realize it's a lot of money," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. "I want to understand where the money comes from. Do we find it in the budget? Do we have to borrow it? There's just a lot of unanswered questions." DAVID MARCUS: HE BARELY SURVIVED BIDEN LAWFARE, AND NOW HE DESERVES TO GET PAID "What I want to know is how the fund is cr…