The Trump administration has set up a $1.776 billion fund to pay out money to people who say they were wrongly targeted by the Biden administration’s Justice Department. The fund could also benefit the roughly 1,600 people who were charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brian Morrissey, the Treasury Department’s top lawyer and general counsel, resigned just hours after the fund was announced. He had been confirmed by the Senate only seven months earlier. The Treasury Department did not explain why he left, but a spokesman told the New York Times: “Mr. Morrissey has served the United States Treasury with both honor and integrity. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.”
The fund was created as part of a settlement tied to Trump’s now-dropped $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Trump had sued the agency after a contractor leaked his tax return information to the media. He withdrew the lawsuit after a judge raised questions about whether a sitting president could legally sue a federal agency that he himself controls.
The ‘anti-weaponization fund’ has drawn sharp criticism from both parties over its lack of oversight
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, announced the so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” Under the arrangement, the Treasury must deposit the money into an account controlled by a five-member commission.
Blanche will personally appoint every member of that commission and has the power to remove any of them without cause. Critics have pointed out that this is part of a broader pattern of Trump handing key roles to allies and family members rather than independent officials.
Trump denied any personal involvement in setting up the fund during a White House event on Monday, saying the arrangement had been “very well received.” Morrissey, in his resignation letter, thanked Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for the opportunity to serve.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon called the deal the “most brazen theft and abuse of taxpayer dollars by any president in American history.” Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin called it “pure fraud and highway robbery,” and nearly 100 House Democrats filed a legal brief seeking to block the settlement.
The Justice Department pointed to a previous case, Keepseagle v. Vilsack, in which the Obama administration set up a $760 million fund to address claims of racial discrimination by the federal government against Native American farmers and ranchers.
Joseph Sellers, one of the attorneys in that case, said that the two situations are not comparable. “That really is the critical issue,” Sellers said. “You have to serve the same community whose interests were at stake in the litigation that was brought.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, also described the new fund as a “slush fund” and questioned who would be eligible and “where the money’s coming from.” The growing backlash within his own party comes at a time when Marjorie Taylor Greene is openly threatening Trump with a political revolt, suggesting cracks are forming inside the MAGA base.
According to The Hill, a group of 93 House Democrats filed a legal brief arguing that the U.S. Constitution’s Article III requires the court to dismiss the settlement, since Trump was leading the federal government when he sued the IRS.
“This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election stealing scheme,” Raskin said.
Published: May 19, 2026 02:38 pm