An eager Republican lawyer swiftly raised his hand to join the exclusive board dispensing taxpayer money as part of President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund.
On Monday, Trump’s Justice Department announced the establishment of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” to compensate MAGA allies he claims were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration.
The Justice Department said the fund would provide a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”
On Wednesday evening, right-wing lawyer Mike Howell contacted acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to declare his candidacy for one of the five vacant and unpaid positions on the board to distribute taxpayer funds.
Howell runs the Oversight Project, a conservative group that investigates claims of weaponized lawfare, and is a visiting fellow at the far-right Heritage Foundation. He is also a close ally of U.S Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, who was stripped of his role leading the Justice Department’s “weaponization” working group in February.
Martin advocated for Trump’s pardons of over 1,500 people charged or convicted for their roles in the violent Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin initially told sources earlier this year he predicted the Justice Department would dole out around $40 million to people charged, then pardoned, after the riots. The fund announced this week is $1.776 billion.
Howell’s lengthy, fawning letter to Blanche, obtained by CBS, claimed that the “Radical Left used the events of January 6, 2021 and their hatred of President Trump as an immoral justification to enact a sustained campaign of vengeance to trample on the civil rights of their political, ideological, and religious (namely Christian) opponents.”
Howell said it was “deeply wrong” and claimed the “evil effects” still linger today. “Families have been torn apart, lives lost, careers ruined, and finances destroyed. These victims are my friends, colleagues and fellow patriots.”
The lawyer claimed the Jan. 6 rioters were “left to largely fend for themselves, ignored by prestige lawyers and institutions, only to be picked apart by the government, left-wing destruction operations, and a captured media.
He signs off his letter by claiming the fund is “already under attack and will remain under attack. My colleagues and I are steeled for this fight. We have already chosen to run into the fire time and time again.”
Howell states that he has “written, sued, defended, and advocated every single day to this end” and is “not planning on stopping any time soon.”
Trump will be able to fire any member of the board at any time, and payments from the fund will operate until the end of 2028.
The Daily Beast has contacted the DOJ for comment.
Blanche told CNN on Wednesday he was “not sure” about whether political affiliation will play a part in choosing applicants for the five positions.
“I would be open, to a point,” Blanche said after being asked if a Democrat would be considered for the board.
“They’re going to be smart people. They’re going to be people that understand the political sensitivities that you’re raising,” he said.
“We’ve had a bunch of people apply since we announced this, but that’s something that when we’re ready to announce who the commissioners are, we will let you know,” he added.
In his letter, Howell says that if he is selected for the panel he will organize a “national gathering of the thousands of victims of weaponization” in Washington, D.C.
“These victims will include those who had to pay legal fees because of their support for President Trump, those who were sent to prison, including those involved with January 6th, 2021,” he wrote. “At this gathering, victims will be offered the time and space to share their stories.”
Speaking on CNN on Wednesday, Blanche defended the fund, insisting it was legal and claiming of Americans, “I think they want their tax dollars spent on things like that.”
The first request for compensation from the fund was former Trump adviser and administration official Michael Caputo. CNN reported on Tuesday he asked for $2.7 million in “restitution and reimbursement,” arguing he was targeted by the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
A number of Jan. 6 rioters told CNN on Wednesday they would be attempting to access the fund.
Brandon Fellows, a convicted Capitol rioter pardoned by Trump, said he wanted $30 million. “$21.5 million is for the wrongful imprisonment,” Fellows said.
Another pardoned rioter, Rachel Powell, claimed, “We endured a lot. Our lives are still not the same. I don’t know what kind of price you can put on that.”
Powell was seen repeatedly ramming a window of the Capitol building with a cylindrical object. She was “one of the first rioters to break through onto Capitol grounds near the Peace Circle,” a 2023 DOJ statement claimed.
Blanche insisted the behavior of Jan. 6 rioters attempting to access the fund will be taken into account by commissioners who have yet to be installed to assess payouts.
“One of the factors the commissioners have to consider is what the claimant did—the claimant’s conduct,” Blanche told CNN’s Paula Reid on Wednesday. “The claimant would have to say, ‘I assaulted a cop and I want money.’”
“Whether the commissioners will give that person money—that claimant—it’s up to them. But that’s one of the factors they have to consider,” he continued, adding that Trump “does not stand for assaulting law enforcement.”
