CREW sues to block Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund

The Trump administration’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund is unconstitutional and violates multiple federal laws, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The suit looks to block the fund by suing the Department of Justice, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Treasury Department, the IRS and the Fund itself, among others.

On May 18th, President Trump and the Department of Justice executed a collusive settlement of the meritless lawsuit he filed against the IRS, designed to create a slush fund for the administration to hand out nearly two billion dollars of taxpayer money to the president’s allies in a jaw dropping act of presidential corruption.

“While countless Americans are struggling through an affordability crisis exacerbated by his war with Iran, President Trump is attempting to illegally divert nearly $2 billion of taxpayer money into the hands of his friends and supporters, including potentially the violent insurrectionists he already pardoned,” said CREW President Donald K. Sherman. “Paying criminals who claim to have been victims of government ‘weaponization’ could embolden them to commit new crimes including acts of political violence.”

Unlike prior victim compensation funds, Trump’s fund was not authorized by Congress, nor was it the product of any judicially-approved, arms-length legal settlement. The president’s slush fund is unlawfully structured to evade transparency laws including the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Records Act and usurps Congress’s authority to spend taxpayer money.

“The public deserves a voice in how their taxes should be spent, and they are entitled to information on where their money goes. President Trump is hoping to avoid all of this, bypass Congress and enrich his cronies,” Sherman said. “If that weren’t bad enough, millions of taxpayer dollars could now go to the insurrectionists—later pardoned by President Trump—who brutally attacked police officers and stormed the U.S. Capitol to halt the peaceful transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021. This corrupt action has to be stopped.”