Blanche will face questions from lawmakers over a nearly $1.8B fund to compensate Trump allies

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday for his first congressional testimony since taking the reins at the Justice Department as the law enforcement agency faces intense scrutiny over its plans to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay allies of the Republican president who believe they were targeted politically.

Blanche’s testimony before a Senate appropriations subcommittee follows Monday’s announcement about the creation of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which critics decried as an illegal abuse of power designed to line the pockets of Trump supporters with taxpayer dollars.

In the weeks since assuming control of the Justice Department, Blanche has moved aggressively to advance the president’s priorities — pushing forward cases against Trump’s political foes, cracking down on leaks to media outlets and establishing the new fund to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by the Biden administration Justice Department.

Tuesday’s hearing is meant to address the Trump administration’s budget request for the Justice Department but is likely to delve into other controversies that have escalated concerns about the erosion of the law enforcement agency’s tradition of independence from the White House.

Blanche is expected to face tough questions from lawmakers about the fund designed to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Nearly 100 Democrats in the House of Representatives signed onto a legal brief urging a judge to block what they described as an unprecedented resolution that they said would unjustly enrich people close to the president and open the door to meritless claims of political persecution.

“Let’s call this what it is: a billion-dollar slush fund for Trump to reward felons, insurrectionists, and cronies, paid for by YOUR taxpayer dollars,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the subcommittee from Delaware, wrote on X. “It’s bad enough that this DOJ believes it works for Donald Trump. Now, it’s giving him its budget to use as his piggy bank.”

Blanche said Monday the fund will allow for people who believe they were targeted for prosecution for political purposes to apply for payouts, creating what he described as “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said in a statement.

The fund is a further demonstration of the administration’s eagerness to reward allies who before Trump came to power were investigated and in some cases charged and convicted. Most notably, the president on his first day back in office pardoned or commuted the sentences of supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His Justice Department since then has approved payouts to supporters entangled in the Trump-Russia investigation and investigated and prosecuted some of his perceived adversaries.