Vice President JD Vance has struggled to explain a $1.8 billion slush fund that could be used to pay violent offenders who attacked police during the January 6 Capitol riots four years ago.
One day after the so-called “Anti-Weaponization fund” was announced, Vance was confronted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about the details of the controversial initiative as he stood in for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a press briefing on Tuesday.
The fund was created as part of a settlement resolving President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.
Under the deal, Trump and his family agreed to drop multiple claims against the federal government in exchange for a pool of money that would compensate people who claim they were politically targeted by prior federal investigations or prosecutions.
But the initiative is contentious because eligible claimants could include Trump supporters who attacked police officers during the January 6 Capitol riot—a group of people that Vance previously suggested should not receive taxpayer-funded compensation.
“You previously told me that anyone who assaulted a police officer on January 6 should go to prison, so why not rule out giving them taxpayer-funded money?” asked Collins.
“Well, Kaitlan, what I said is we’re going to look at everything case by case, because Kaitlan, there are people who I don’t know their individual circumstances, and I don’t rule things out categorically when I know nothing about a person’s individual circumstances,” the vice president tried to explain.
“Let’s say hypothetically a person is accused of doing something that they never actually did, that they got a kangaroo court, that they had a judge who mistreated them. I think that we should look at those things case by case. We’re not making commitments to give anybody money, we’re just making commitments to look at things case by case.”
The comments came hours after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche came under scrutiny for the fund during a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill.
Asked how the scheme could work, he could not rule out money being doled out to violent offenders or Trump’s own allies and political donors.
“Anybody can apply,” Blanche said, noting that commissioners, most of whom would be appointed by the attorney general, would set the rules.
“That’s not for me to set. That’s for the commissioners… Anybody in this country can apply.”
Vance also tried to make a similar justification, even bizarrely invoking former President Joe Biden’s eldest son, Hunter, as an example.
“This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration,” the vice president said.
“And by the way, anybody can apply for it. Democrats can apply for it… I mean, if Hunter Biden wants to apply for this particular fund, he is welcome to.”
Such a move would be bizarre and unlikely to result in a payout, given Republicans have spent years accusing Hunter of leveraging his family name to secure lucrative overseas business deals, particularly with Ukrainian energy company Burisma and Chinese-linked ventures.
The former drug addict was separately charged with failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes, as well as possessing firearms illegally.
