The Justice Department announced $1.8 billion in funding as part of a settlement of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, which Mr. Bessent oversaw.
Could the January 6th rioters benefit from President Trump’s Justice Department funding?
Who will benefit from President Trump’s $1.776 billion Justice Department fund? Let’s take a closer look at the legal, ethical, and political issues.
WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal to fully tax payments from President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion litigation fund as “stupid.”
President Trump has proposed distributing settlements from lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service to people deemed to be victims of unfair Justice Department investigations.
But Democrats and some public interest groups denounced the proposed anti-weaponization fund as a slush fund meant to reward the president’s political allies. Newsom proposed taxing Californians 100% of the payments they receive from the fund.
“There is no cure for stupidity,” Bessent told reporters at the White House when asked about Newsom’s proposal.
The Justice Department announced on May 18 that it would provide $1.776 billion to “victims of legal battles and weapons charges” as part of a $10 billion settlement of a lawsuit filed by Trump and his family against the Internal Revenue Service.
Some criticism of the fund is that it could benefit people who were convicted or charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and later pardoned by President Trump.
President Trump said a five-person committee overseen by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would decide how to allocate the funds.
Reporters asked Bessent, who oversees the IRS, how the IRS reached the settlement. But he referred the question to Blanche.
“Due to the ongoing litigation, it would be inappropriate for me to comment,” he said.
But Bessent said Trump had endured a decade of weaponization by state and federal authorities, including leaking his tax returns, which triggered the lawsuit.
“No American should be targeted for political reasons,” Bessent said. “All citizens are entitled to equal treatment and the full protection of the law.”
Newsom said the goal is to ensure recipients don’t receive the benefits of the payments.
“If you get a payment from President Trump’s slush fund on January 6th, California will tax it 100%,” Newsom said. “People who attack police officers and subvert democracy do not deserve to receive taxpayer-funded salaries.”
