WASHINGTON (CN) - House Republicans on Wednesday halted an effort to force top administration officials to testify about President Donald Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" settlement fund, which Democrats have derided as a "political slush fund" for the president's allies.
The move comes as Democratic lawmakers unveiled new legislation aimed at blocking the use of federal funds for the Justice Department program and restricting who can seek restitution for what the White House has long framed as government "lawfare" against political opponents.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 18-17 to scuttle a motion from Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin to authorize subpoenas against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others. The officials would have been summoned to Congress to explain the government fund, the result of a settlement between the Internal Revenue Service and Trump in a case over the leak of his tax returns.
Raising his motion during a committee hearing Wednesday morning, Raskin blasted the proposed fund as 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, Raskin moved to issue subpoenas to Assistant Attorney General Stanley Woodward and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. And he 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.
The panel's GOP majority just narrowly defeated the Democratic motion, thanks in part to absences and one notable defection. California Representative Kevin Kiley, formerly a Republican who recently left the party, voted against his colleagues' push to torpedo the subpoenas.
Meanwhile, Raskin opened another front in his war on the Justice Department's settlement fund Wednesday afternoon, unveiling a bill that would bar the use of federal funds to bankroll the new program.
The proposed measure would also set restrictions on who is eligible to receive payments from the government under the settlement scheme, explicitly ruling out Trump, his family members or his businesses as possible beneficiaries. The vice president, cabinet secretaries and political appointees would similarly be ineligible to seek restitution.
And Raskin's proposed measure would further block anyone from submitting claims "alleging harm resulting from an investigation, prosecution or conviction for an offense" related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot or the federal investigation into 2016 election interference. Some critics of the Justice Department settlement fund worried that the program could be used to issue payments to Capitol rioters convicted of violent crimes and later pardoned by the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Bessent and IRS director Frank Bisignano, House Democrats demanded information on how the $1.8 billion settlement fund was negotiated. Lawmakers 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. seek financial restitution using the "anti-weaponization" settlement fund.
Source: Courthouse News Service
