The Trump administration’s newly-announced $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who claim that the government weaponized the legal system against them has attorneys and communications professionals scrambling to position their clients for a handout, CBS News has learned.
Legal groups and public relations offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City have been abuzz ever since the Justice Department’s announcement on Monday of the extraordinary “anti-weaponization fund.” It was rolled out as part of the Justice Department’s settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit President Trump had filed earlier this year against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.
“Anyone targeted by the Department of Justice will want to submit, which is many of our clients,” said Juda Engelmayer, a publicist who has represented Sean “Diddy” Combs, convicted fraudster Anna Delvey and Brady Knowlton — one of the more than 1,500 Capitol riot defendants pardoned by Mr. Trump upon his return to the White House.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously worked as a criminal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, signed a memo this week that said the Treasury Department will move the money into the fund within 60 days. The memo said that a commission of five members appointed by the attorney general will oversee the fund, which will last until December 2028.
There is a loose criteria for compensation claims outlined in the settlement agreement, which said the commission would consider the “totality of the circumstances” for applicants, such as legal and prison costs. A Trump administration official told CBS News that, as the commission is assembled, “they will determine specifics and be transparent.”
Karin Sweigart, a lawyer who previously represented Mr. Trump in a defamation lawsuit, told CBS News that conversations about submitting claims are “percolating.” Dan Backer, another Republican lawyer, said he is “already fielding inquiries” about the fund.
“We’re going to be helping a lot of people to be made whole after the Biden administration’s unconscionable treatment of American citizens,” Backer told CBS News. “President Trump has done a great thing here.”
Because the claim criteria is loose so far, it is not clear who may be eligible. Trump allies are still seeking more information. “Waiting to see the details,” John Eastman, a former attorney for Mr Trump who was disbarred in California over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, told CBS News.
Still, past settlements and actions by Mr. Trump’s Justice Department could indicate that the fund will reward his allies and supporters.
The DOJ reached a $1.1 million settlement earlier this year with Mark Houck, an anti-abortion activist who was acquitted of assault. It also recently reached a $1.25 million settlement with Michael Flynn, the former Trump administration official who pleaded guilty to a felony count of making false statements to the FBI, and was pardoned in 2020.
And upon taking office, Mr. Trump granted sweeping clemency for people charged or convicted for their role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jenny Cudd, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor trespass charge related to her involvement that day, told CBS News that “all J6ers will apply for restitution” from the Justice Department’s fund.
“All of us,” Cudd said — adding that news of the administration’s fund is widely circulating among Jan. 6 defendants. “It’s all over Twitter [and] our group chats.”
Joseph McBride, a lawyer who represented Jan. 6 defendants, said he is certain that some of his clients would apply to the fund. But he also is skeptical about the administration carrying it out.
“Do I think any of this is real? I’ll believe it when I see it,” McBride told CBS News.
Some former federal officials and ethics groups in Washington have questioned the legality of the fund, including the lack of independent oversight or public input about potential awards, CBS News has reported.
The progressive nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington issued a statement blasting it as “the most brazen act of self-dealing in the history of the presidency.”
Some Republicans have sounded unenthusiastic, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said on Tuesday that he was “not a big fan” of the fund and did not see its purpose. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who Mr. Trump helped defeat in his recent primary, warned that voters “are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting the slush fund together without a legal precedent.”
One Republican lawyer close to the administration, granted anonymity to speak freely, told CBS News that they would expect the DOJ’s fund to face court challenges even though “a lot of people in MAGA world are already counting their money.”
On Tuesday, Blanche did not rule out that Jan. 6 defendants could be eligible for payments from the fund, telling senators that “anybody in this country can apply.”
Mike Howell, the president of the Oversight Project, a conservative nonprofit that investigates alleged weaponization of government, told CBS News that his organization “will figure out a way to help people” benefit from the fund.
“Obviously there are a lot of people interested in this fund,” Howell said. “From the Oversight Project’s perspective, we want as much to go to the victims as reasonably possible. We are looking at ways to not only help support the fund but to also be as helpful to it living up to its intended purpose.”
