Trump's weaponization fund is unjust

The huge banner of President Donald Trump's face unfurled February above an iconic entrance to the Justice Department on Pennsylvania Avenue officially branded it as his personal tool for settling vendettas. It foreshadowed the latest effort to protect the president from any consequences of his self-dealing.

This bending of the Justice Department to serve his personal interests further burnishes the brazenness of Trump's leveraging his position to enrich himself and his family. The timing of Trump's excessive stock trading and public boosting of companies in which he holds a stake is suspect. The administration's deregulation of the crypto currency industry the Trumps are heavily invested in may yet prove scandalous. The Trump Organization's many real estate deals in foreign countries which he threatens with tariffs and/or protects with armaments are craven. Since last year Trump's net worth has jumped about $1.4 billion to a total of $6.5 billion, according to Forbes.

None of these cascading conflicts of interest should numb the nation to the latest travesty — the hasty settlement of a seemingly meritless lawsuit. Toward the end of Trump's first term, an Internal Revenue Service contractor illegally leaked his tax filings and those of thousands of others. Subsequently prosecuted by the Biden administration, the employee, Charles Littlejohn, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a maximum prison term of 5 years.

But Trump didn't see justice done. This January, the president and his two sons filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the IRS demanding $10 billion in damages for the leak. Four months later and just days before the Justice Department was required to file its response, and before a judge who had expressed doubts about the case's merits could rule, the plaintiff settled the case with the government he controls. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who should have demanded that the case be dismissed — if only for the likely reason that the statute of limitations for filing it had passed — instead became Trump's enabler.

The two-page document ending the lawsuit requires the government to formally apologize to Trump for the FBI's 2022 search of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into claims Russia influenced the 2016 election. None of these acts had anything to do with the IRS leaker but Trump contends it is evidence of how the Justice Department unfairly targeted him.

More significantly, the settlement creates a nearly $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" controlled by Trump. The attorney general appoints the commission's five directors; there is no criteria for their selection. Trump can fire the directors at will. Applicants only need to claim they were a victim of "lawfare" in a criminal or civil case, with no criteria for how "victimization" is to be determined or what evidence must be provided. It is all done in secret. Only the AG will know who gets how much and for what and is not required to disclose that information. And the last dime must be spent by Dec. 15, 2028, one month before Trump leaves office. While the administration says the fund will be open to all, it defies any understanding of Trump to think that anyone but his loyal supporters will get awards. 

Very unusually, this special pot of money will be transferred from a long-standing fund controlled by the Treasury Department which typically writes the checks to pay judgments against the United States. It a long-used, transparent process that is fully vetted. The top lawyer at Treasury, Brian Morrissey, resigned hours after the settlement creating the fund was announced. The Republican Senate majority was so disgusted after Blanche told them there were no guarantees that "bad actors" would be barred from getting payouts, it abruptly left town without passing the White House's funding bill for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.

As of now, huge sums of money can be paid out to the Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom were convicted or pleaded guilty in the melee that injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. One of those pardoned, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, had been sentenced to 22 years in prison for orchestrating the plot to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. Now Tarrio is boasting that he could reap $2 million to $5 million from the fund.

Former Long Island House member George Santos, whose fraudulent activities led to his resignation from Congress and a federal conviction subsequently erased by Trump's pardon, is lining up for some cash. It's the same for Mike Lindell, a Jan. 6 organizer who claims his pillow business was ruined because he said the 2020 election was stolen. Many others in Trump's inner circle from his first administration who remained loyal are expected to be rewarded. 

While Trump contends he is relinquishing any claim to a cash payment so that others can benefit, he may wind up the biggest beneficiary of all. As part of the scheme, Trump granted immunity to himself, his family and his business organizations from any pending and future IRS audits and penalties tied to those returns. The IRS leak of Trump's returns, long under audit, revealed that he claimed huge losses and paid little in taxes. Based on that data, some experts have said he had as much as $100 million in liability to the IRS.

If that wasn't enough, in a legal swing for the seats, the immunity covers matters that "could have been raised" before the settlement. The language is so broad it arguably can give Trump and his family protection from prosecution for any financial crimes, not just those that are tax-related. 

Whether it's unconstitutional for a president to use his executive authority to create a massive compensation system benefiting political allies without congressional authorization is unclear. Several lawsuits challenging the settlement have been filed and more are likely. On Friday, federal judges in two separate legal challenges to the settlement stopped Trump from accessing any Treasury funds while another questioned whether the administration manipulated the justice system. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Glen Cove has introduced legislation banning the use of any federal money for the weaponization fund.

Emboldened in his second term, Trump continues to exploit weaknesses in our system of governing because he realizes he can get away with it. That may be the real weaponization of government against its citizens.