President Donald Trump will reportedly abandon plans for a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund designed to pay his allies and alleged “victims” of government “weaponization” after federal judges began firing back at a so-called “settlement” that got him off the hook for tax investigations in exchange for funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to his supporters.
A pending decision, according to Axios and Punchbowl, follows a federal court ruling that temporarily blocks the administration from funding or making any payments from what critics have called a “slush fund” to enrich the president’s aggrieved supporters.
The scheme has also come under heavy fire from members of Congress, where lawmakers abruptly abandoned a series of votes before Memorial Day after hitting an impasse over plans to funnel taxpayer dollars into the fund.
Last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. blocked the administration from “taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund” — including transferring money to it, considering any claims, and mailing any checks while a legal challenge plays out.
Another federal judge is also investigating the so-called “settlement” agreement between the president and the IRS after Trump sued his own administration for $10 billion. The judge will determine whether Trump filed a “frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose of forcing a settlement” to create a fund for his political allies while the president, his family and their businesses escape government scrutiny for tax debts over which they have been under investigation for more than a decade.
This is a developing story
