Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic attempt to ensure that the Trump administration can’t create a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to get unanimous consent to pass a measure prohibiting the “anti-weaponization” fund and nullifying a deal that shields President Trump from IRS audits of past tax filings, but Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee blocked the request.
Schumer argued that Trump still intends to create the fund and that a legislative ban is the only way to ensure that doesn’t happen and that the Justice Department’s settlement deal barring further scrutiny of Trump’s past tax filings is voided. He slammed Republicans for passing up multiple chances to formally block the payout fund and prevent rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6 from getting compensation.
“Republicans need to stop playing dumb and realize Trump has absolutely zero intention to table his slush fund,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. He cited the president’s recent comments calling the fund a “great idea” and “a beautiful thing” and his claims that other Republicans also support it.
“I invite Republicans to prove Trump wrong,” Schumer said. “Support this bill, outlaw this corruption, say it is a terrible idea on the floor so we can eliminate it permanently once and for all.”
Schumer also criticized Republicans for accepting the word of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who told a congressional panel early this month that the Justice Department was not and would not be moving forward with the fund. “Republicans seem to think that a promise from Todd Blanche, who built his career on bending the truth in service to Trump, and a hope and prayer that Trump will suddenly find a conscience are enough to stop the slush fund,” he said. “Makes no sense.”
In blocking Schumer’s request, Hagerty argued that Blanche had testified that the Justice Department is not moving forward with the fund.
“Why is that not enough for my colleagues from across the aisle?” Hagerty asked. “Because they have a deeper and much darker motive. They want to erase the Biden Justice Department’s unprecedented weaponization by abolishing every means of holding it accountable. I’m not going to stand for it.”
Hagerty added that he won’t seek any compensation from the anti-weaponization fund after having his phone records subpoenaed by the Biden administration and that Trump has made clear that he would not seek money from the fund either.
In one of the lawsuits seeking to block the fund, a federal judge has given Justice Department officials until Friday to demonstrate that the legal challenge is moot by declaring under penalty of perjury “that they will not take any action to create or operate the Anti-Weaponization Fund, and that the Anti-Weaponization Fund will not proceed in any manner, or under any name.”
The bottom line: The fight over the fund continues. Democrats scored a political point with Schumer’s request, but the ongoing backlash to the fund could present an obstacle for Blanche as he seeks Senate confirmation to head the Justice Department on a permanent basis. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who opposes the fund, has said that uncertainty over its status could lead him to oppose Blanche’s confirmation, which would be enough to block it. “It will be an issue if the weaponization fund isn’t effectively dead by the confirmation hearing, because I’ve still got a real problem with it being out there,” Tillis told reporters.