Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch testifies during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Nathan Posner | Anadolu | getty images
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is meeting with Republican senators Thursday morning Department of JusticeThe controversial “Lawfare” fund comes as opposition grows in Congress over the idea of paying people who attacked police during the 2021 US Capitol riot.
“I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told spectrum news In an interview about the $1.8 billion fund that was created to settle an unrelated lawsuit by President Donald Trump against the Internal Revenue Service.
The fund will reportedly compensate people who allege they were victims of prosecutorial overreach or worse by the DOJ during the Biden administration, including hundreds of people convicted or charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
“This would certainly put us in a situation where your taxpayers’ dollars and my taxpayers’ dollars could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, pleaded guilty, was found guilty, pardoned, and now we’re going to make them pay for it?” Tillis said.
“This is absurd,” he said. “The American people are going to reject it outright.”
US Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) speaks to reporters after the weekly Senate Republican Caucus policy luncheon at the US Capitol on January 28, 2026 in Washington, DC, US.
Nathan Howard | reuters
Blanch’s meeting with GOP senators came a day after Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., introduced a bill that would block federal funds from being used for the DOJ. “Anti-Weapons Fund,” And on January 6, two police officers who defended the Capitol filed a lawsuit seeking to declare the funds illegal.
Democrats in Congress have called the fund a corrupt “slush fund.”
On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced legislation that would impose a 100% tax on any payments from the fund.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D. “Right now we want to hear from the attorney general about his thoughts on this and what he intends to do with it,” he told reporters Thursday.
“But obviously, our members have very legitimate questions about it,” Thune said, adding that his caucus has had conversations about “how we can make sure this is addressed appropriately.”
in one Interview with CNN On Wednesday, Blanch said the commissioners who will be appointed to manage the fund will be responsible for considering the conduct of claimants in applications for compensation.
“One of the factors the commissioners have to consider is what the claimant did – the claimant’s conduct,” Blanch told CNN. “The claimant has to say, ‘I attacked a policeman, and I want the money.'”
“Whether the Commissioner will award the money to that person – that claimant – is up to him,” the Attorney General said. “But it is one of the factors they have to consider.
Blanch will appoint all five commissioners to the fund.
Blanch, who is Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, also said the president is “not in favor of attacking law enforcement.”
Blanch’s interview came after several Senate Republicans questioned the appropriateness of the funds.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told now ms He saw “no legal precedent” for the fund.
“People are concerned about getting their needs met, not about creating a worthless fund without legal precedent,” Cassidy said.
According to MS Now, Thune himself said he was “not a big fan” of the fund idea.
“I don’t see any purpose in it,” he said.
“Even by Trump’s lowly standards, the announcement of this slush fund was shockingly corrupt,” Wyden said in a statement Thursday.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.