Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has condemned President Donald Trump’s “rotten” agreement with the Department of Justice to create a taxpayer-funded $1.8 billion slush fund for MAGA loyalists.
Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization family business sued the IRS for $10 billion in January over tax returns that were leaked to the press by an independent contractor during the president’s first term in office.
But given that Trump oversees the IRS, the judge in the case had expressed doubts that Trump and the IRS were really on opposing sides of a genuine conflict. Rather than respond to the judge’s inquires, Trump withdrew the suit.
The DOJ then announced a $1.776 billion fund that will make secret payments to Jan. 6 defendants and other Trump allies who say they were wrongly prosecuted by the Biden administration, without any legal or congressional oversight.
The DOJ, which is run by Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche, described the fund as a “settlement agreement,” even though it was never filed in court as part of a valid legal case.
“Mr. Trump’s settlement fund is an astounding precedent, and if it proceeds it is sure to become a highlight reel of Trump Administration payments to Mr. Trump’s friends and allies,” The Wall Street Journal’s opinion editors wrote.
They noted that the administration has repeatedly claimed it’s following in the footsteps of the Obama administration’s $680 million settlement in Keepseagle v. Vilsack, a case brought by Native American farmers alleging discrimination against the Agriculture Department.
“But it went through a judge,” the editors wrote of the Keepseagle settlement. “Also, Mr. Obama isn’t a Native American farmer, and it wasn’t Obama v. Vilsack.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
According to the terms of the new “anti-weaponization fund,” Blanche will appoint a five-member commission that will decide unilaterally who gets paid by the fund. The recipients will remain anonymous, along with the amounts they receive.
Trump can remove any of the five commission members without cause.
During grilling Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Blanche refused to rule out funds being handed to violent offenders or Trump’s own allies or political donors.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland pointed out during one tense exchange that one of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was pardoned by Trump and then convicted of molesting two children—and tried to buy their silence by promising to pay them from the forthcoming Jan. 6 “victims” fund.
Instead of guaranteeing that the sex offender in question wouldn’t be eligible for the fund, Blanche falsely accused Van Hollen of “lying.”
Within a day of the fund’s announcement, Trump’s former lackeys were already lining up to demand millions of dollars in compensation for investigations into their alleged wrongdoing.
“Imagine the fun Democrats will have documenting it all between now and 2028 as the worst kind of Washington political payoff,” the Journal’s opinions editors warned.
