Vice president JD Vance has said that Hunter Biden is “welcome to apply” for money from a special $1.8 billion fund to help the victims of “lawfare.”
“This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare they experienced under the last administration,” Vance told reporters, speaking at a White House press briefing Tuesday. “Republicans can apply for it, Democrats can apply for it… If Hunter Biden wants to apply for this particular fund, he’s welcome to.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced a $1.776 billion compensation fund on Monday, aimed at helping individuals who believe they have been targeted for investigation or prosecution.
The compensation fund is being set up as part of a settlement after Trump abandoned his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and U.S. taxpayers will fund it.
Blanche vowed that 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.”
A five-member commission — with members appointed by Blanche — will manage the fund, leading Democrats to denounce it as an “unprecedented slush fund” to help Trump’s allies.
In his briefing, Vance reiterated that “anybody” could apply for compensation, noting that Trump had previously pardoned “a number of Democrats who he felt were actually subject to this lawfare.”
“It’s going to be a normal process where we vet everything to verify if people’s claims are actually legitimate,” the vice president added.
However, Vance dodged a question over whether the money could be used to help individuals who were convicted over their part in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol – the vast majority of whom were pardoned by Trump after he returned to office.
Last month, the Justice Department moved to toss out remaining cases — and most serious convictions — to finish off what the president started. Fielding questions from the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Blanche would not say whether a rioter pardoned by Trump, who was later found guilty of five counts related to sex crimes against children, would be eligible for a payout.
The DOJ’s moves to dismiss the cases marked the latest efforts in the president’s ongoing attempts to rewrite the history of the 2020 election and downplay the violence that was captured on video and admitted by assailants who tried to stop members of Congress from certifying his loss.
Vance also suggested Tuesday that Tina Peters, the former Colorado County clerk and denier of the 2020 election, might also be a beneficiary of the fund. Peters, who was convicted of tampering with election equipment and was sentenced to nine years in prison, was granted clemency from Colorado governor Jared Polis on Friday.
The fund may also see applications from the likes of former FBI Director James Comey – a long-time political enemy of Trump’s
“It’s to compensate people who’ve been targeted by the Justice Department for, they say, personal, political or ideological reasons,” Comey told CNN Tuesday. “So, I’m guessing I’ll be in line. I hope I’ll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the Capitol.”
Comey was indicted for a second time last month and accused of threatening the president’s life with a since-deleted social media post in which he wrote out “86 47” in seashells on a beach.
He added that “maybe” he would apply for the fund, but only to be “humorous about the whole thing.”
