President Donald Trump’s plan to create a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded pool through the IRS will have little oversight, a new report alleges.
The so-called “Truth and Justice Commission” will be under no obligation to disclose how it is spent, and the identities of recipients can be kept private, sources tell ABC News.
The funds will reportedly be used to pay Trump’s allies who claim to be victims of government “weaponization” by the Biden administration, including Jan. 6 insurrectionists that the president has already pardoned
Trump will also have the power to remove any of the five commission members without cause, ABC reported.
The commission is being made after the president shelved his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, an agency that his government oversees. The proposed settlement also states that the IRS will apologize to Trump.
The commission is likely to face legal challenges, and Democrats have already been highly critical of it, with some lawmakers referring to it as a Trump’s personal “slush fund.”
“First, Trump essentially sues the IRS for taxpayer dollars for himself, and then he says he’ll drop the lawsuit if he gets his $1.7 billion slush fund for the January 6th insurrectionists that he pardoned,” Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal told MeidasTouch.
“It is an outrage that taxpayers are having to pay for this and that we have a president who is exercising such open corruption and expecting us to go along with it,” she added.
“It’s outright corruption. What we’re seeing here is outright corruption,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. “We’re looking at a billion dollars for a ballroom; $1.7 billion for a slush fund for the president’s friends.”
Some Republicans have even been critical of the so-called“slush fund, including Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who told ABC, “I don’t even know how that’s allowable to happen.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment on the lack of oversight.
The new commission comes as a federal judge this week questioned the legality of the president suing agencies he oversees.
Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida wrote that Trump’s “named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction,” explaining that no one is truly arguing on behalf of the public.
“Moreover, although President Trump avers that he is bringing this lawsuit in his personal capacity, he is the sitting president and his named adversaries are entities whose decisions are subject to his direction,” she wrote. “Indeed, President Trump’s own remarks about this matter acknowledge the unique dynamic of this litigation.”
