On May 18, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche unabashedly announced that he would be establishing a 1.7 billion dollar “Anti-Weaponization Fund” with taxpayer money.

The fund is the result of settling a bogus $10 billion lawsuit brought by President Trump against the federal government. Trump claimed that the government failed to protect the confidentiality of his tax records after an IRS contractor leaked them to the media. He also alleged that investigations into links between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials to interfere on his behalf in the election was politically motivated, as was the 2022 search for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump agreed to drop his lawsuit in exchange for the fund and the guarantee of sweeping protections from IRS audits and tax enforcement actions concerning past filings. According to Blanche, the fund will provide “redress” for Americans who were unfairly targeted by government investigations or prosecutions, including perhaps January 6 insurrectionists.

Was Trump unfairly targeted by government investigations or prosecutions? Although the government bore some responsibility for not safeguarding Trump’s tax returns from exposure, public records show the IRS examinations and inquiries into Trump’s taxes were conducted under ordinary IRS legal authority. No court has ruled that the audits were unlawful.

Trump probably had a potentially valid claim for some damages because the disclosure of his tax returns was clearly illegal. But it is highly unlikely that Trump would have been able to prove direct causation by the IRS, massive financial damages and/or legal entitlement to punitive-scale compensation against the government.

Investigations by the FBI, the Senate Intelligence Committee, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Special Counsel John Durham (appointed by Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr) concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election in Trump’s favor through hacking, leaks and social media. If such interference was politically motivated, it served Trump well and doesn’t need “redress.”

We are well aware that Trump took over 400 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago. Initially, approximately 180 documents were returned to the National Archives and Records Administration. But after unanswered subpoenas and dubious assurances from Trump representatives that all the documents had been returned, Federal investigators still believed classified material was being stored at Mar-a-Lago.

After presenting probable-cause evidence that classified documents remained at Mar-a-Lago, might be unlawfully retained and obstruction of justice might have occurred, the FBI obtained a search warrant from a U.S. Magistrate Judge. The warrant authorized searches related to violations of the Espionage Act, concealment or removal of government records and obstruction statutes. The search recovered more than 100 additional classified documents, including some marked Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information. Courts that reviewed the matter have determined the search was judicially authorized and legal.

There is little, if any, evidence supporting Trump’s lawsuit claims that he and/or his family were unfairly targeted by government investigations or prosecutions. Their claims are built on lies. But the bigger lie, one that Blanche repeats every chance he gets and that has become the moniker for the fund, is that it is based on the alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice and FBI. What hypocrisy! Government officials’ adherence to the rule-of-law and due process stands in stark contrast to establishing an “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” that legal experts argue is unconstitutional and improperly bypasses Congress’ “power of the purse.” What hypocrisy!

In addition to being pardoned, January 6 rioters who were found guilty of attacking police officers and attempting to thwart the peaceful transition of power may now apply for and be compensated for their crimes while legal immigrants and their children are detained, separated, treated inhumanely in detention centers and deported without due process — or worse, murdered like protesters Nicole Good and Alex Pretti while ICE and Border Patrol perpetrators aren’t even charged. There are so many other examples. You, me and every taxpayer pay the costs for the lies.

Ronald Rubin
Middlebury