Trump’s Shady $1.77 Billion Fund for Allies, January 6’ers Demands Oversight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Public Citizen launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s proposed slush fund to protect his allies, submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the IRS, Department of Treasury, and Department of Justice to force transparency surrounding President Trump’s new $1.77 billion dollar fund of taxpayer money to make payments to his allies, created by a settlement the President dropping his unprecedented case against the IRS.
This fund is intended to compensate people who claim to have been wrongfully targeted by the Biden Administration’s DOJ. The idea is plainly to reward Trump allies, the more than 1600 people that have been charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the capitol, and other entities connected to the President.
“Donald Trump and his compromised Department of Justice have created a slush fund to make pay outs to Trump supporters and cronies,” said Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman. “This scheme amounts to the creation of a January 6 payment fund.”
“At a time when the Trump administration has illegally slashed appropriated government funding for lifesaving programs around the world, for education, and to move the world away from climate catastrophe, a scheme to make direct payments to those who sought to block the legal transfer of power is particularly abhorrent.
“The public needs to know the details of this scheme immediately. To achieve that, we have filed an expedited public records requests to make public the terms of Trump’s crooked deal as soon as possible. Congress has the authority to block this fund from making any payments, and it should act immediately to do so. Every member of Congress should be forced to go on record as to whether they will permit this monstrous theft of taxpayer resources.”