WASHINGTON (CN) - House Democrats on Wednesday stepped up their attacks on President Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" settlement fund, demanding that members of Congress force top administration officials to testify about what critics are calling a "political slush fund" for the president's allies.

The move comes as Democratic lawmakers are also probing the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service for more information on the fund, announced this week as part of a settlement between the government tax agency and Trump in a case over the leak of his tax returns.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday morning, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin offered a motion to authorize subpoenas against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others, compelling them to speak to lawmakers about what he called a "blatantly unconstitutional" effort to secure financial restitution for the president's "friends and foot soldiers."

"This is lawless to begin with," said Raskin, the top Democrat on the judicial affairs panel. "Trump doesn't establish federal programs and appropriate money for them. We do that. That's the power of the purse, which belongs exclusively to Congress."

In addition to Blanche and Bessent, the congressman moved to issue subpoenas to Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. And Raskin also said the Judiciary Committee should compel testimony from Brian Morrissey, general counsel for the Treasury Department who resigned after the Trump administration reached its billion-dollar settlement with the IRS.

"These individuals all possess critical insights into Trump's self-dealing scheme with his own agencies to create this fund and reward his supporters and friends," the Maryland Democrat argued.

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refused to hold a vote right away on Raskin's proposed subpoenas, punting them to the end of Wednesday's hearing on the Justice Department's recent prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As of Wednesday morning, the hearing was still underway and lawmakers on the panel had yet to hold a subpoena vote. It's unlikely the GOP-controlled committee would vote to authorize the set of legal summonses.

Meanwhile, Raskin joined Massachusetts Representative Richard Neal in a letter to Bessent and Bisignano demanding information on how the $1.8 billion settlement fund was negotiated. The lawmakers also asked for details on whether amounts paid out from the fund will be reported - and why the agreement announced with the Justice Department contains no provisions barring "elected leaders" or Trump-affiliated businesses from seeking restitution from the government.

"Never in American history has a president pursued corruption this brazenly or on such a colossal scale," they wrote in the letter.

The proposed settlement fund, announced by the Justice Department earlier this week, sets up what the agency called a "systematic process" for issuing payments and other relief to people the Trump administration has long said were victimized by government "weaponization" and "lawfare." The roughly $1.776 billion reserve will be bankrolled by the Justice Department's judgment fund.

A five-member commission, appointed by the attorney general, will adjudicate claims and hand out payments from the "anti-weaponization" fund.

Though Blanche insisted before members of Congress on Tuesday that the Justice Department program was "unusual" but not unprecedented, even some Republicans have been skeptical of how the Trump administration will pay purported victims of government legal malfeasance, and who will be eligible to apply for relief.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he was "not a big fan" of the settlement fund and told reporters during a news conference this week he thought the plan would be subject to a "full vetting" by congressional appropriators, who are in the process of setting the Justice Department's budget.

Blanche and the White House so far have not ruled out that people convicted of violent crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot will be able to seek financial restitution using the "anti-weaponization" settlement fund.

Source: Courthouse News Service