Trump fund to compensate government weaponization victims

The nearly $1.8 billion fund will provide redress for people unjustly targeted by government powers or lawfare, according to the Justice Department. The initiative resulted from a settlement agreement that President Donald Trump signed Monday with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. As part of the agreement, the president dropped a lawsuit he’d previously filed against the agency.

Trump initially brought his $10 billion claim against the IRS earlier this year over the leak of his tax returns by a former IRS contractor. The contractor in question was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to leaking the tax documents.

How does a weaponization payout fund come out of this agreement? As a condition for Trump dropping the claim, the U.S. departments of Justice and Treasury had to set up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate U.S. citizens against whom the levers of government had been unfairly weaponized, according to a statement by acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about the IRS removing a roadblock against preachers’ sharing their political opinions in the pulpit.