WASHINGTON \u2014 Applications are already rolling into the Justice Department from hopefuls aiming for some of the nearly $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund, even though the process can\u2019t officially begin until commissioners are chosen to decide how the money is doled out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fund was announced this week, part of an unprecedented settlement between President Donald Trump, two of his sons and the Trump Organization and the government he oversees over the leak of his tax returns. He agreed to drop legal claims in exchange for creating the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not clear yet how people are expected to formally apply. The pool of possible applicants is substantial, according to a Justice Department overview that was sent to GOP Senate offices Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLiterally tens of millions of Americans were subjected to improper and unlawful government targeting, including extensive government censorship and aggressive lawfare,\u201d according to the overview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Department officials said the five commissioners will be chosen in the coming weeks \u2014 the appointments must be made within 30 days from when the settlement was signed Monday. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will make the decisions, though Congress members will get input on one of them. The president can fire the commissioners at will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The department is working under a deadline, in part because the money pool \u2014 if it isn\u2019t blocked by Congress or courts \u2014 would have to be distributed by the end of Trump\u2019s term in 2028. Legal challenges have already begun, and disbursements could be tied up in the courts until well after the deadline, or it could be declared unlawful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized the fund. Opponents have labeled it a massive \u201cslush fund\u201d for Trump\u2019s allies. Its existence has alarmed some legal experts, in part because there will be very little public oversight over how it is managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Thursday it was a \u201cpayout pot for punks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese people don\u2019t deserve restitution,\u201d he said of the people who stand to get payments. \u201cThey \u2014 many of them \u2014 deserve to be in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Objections to the fund prompted Senate Republicans to put off a vote to fund ICE and the Border Patrol, according to two GOP sources familiar with the discussions, as reported by NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an insane cash grab\u201d benefiting people who were willing to commit crimes on Trump\u2019s behalf, said Chris Mattei, an attorney who represents FBI employees fired by the Trump administration, who are separately pursuing lawsuits against the administration over claims their dismissals were political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are no names for commissioners officially on the board yet at the Justice Department, according to an administration official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those making pitches is Mike Howell, the head of the Oversight Project, which grew out of the conservative Heritage Foundation and says it seeks to root out fraud. Howell wrote Blanche in a letter Wednesday that he was already steeped in the work the fund will do and that if is named he would help destroy the \u201cmythology\u201d created by the \u201cradical left\u201d around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese victims are my friends, colleagues, and fellow patriots,\u201d Howell wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Howell\u2019s employees, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, has already said the fund could \u201cmake me whole.\u201d The D.C. bar has recommended that Clark be disbarred after he pushed election conspiracy theories in the days after Trump\u2019s 2020 election loss. The Trump administration is seeking to nullify the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Justice Department overview to the GOP senators, the idea is to offer accountability for \u201cmillions of Americans whose online speech was censored at the behest of the government, parents silenced at schoolboards, senators whose records were secretly subpoenaed, churchgoers targeted by the FBI, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The examples cited are all MAGA arguments, but the fact sheet states: \u201cThere is no partisan restriction: Democrats can submit claims, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidelines for filing claims will be outlined after the commissioners are named, according to a fact sheet sent to GOP senators. The five-person group will award money case by case and must consider \u201ca claimant\u2019s personal conduct and character when making a determination,\u201d the fact sheet reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commissioners will create a quarterly report listing who has been paid, which will be shared with Congress. It can be audited, according to the handout to GOP senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Applicants aren\u2019t waiting for the official process. On Thursday, Trump\u2019s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other charges and then later testified for the prosecution in Trump\u2019s New York hush money trial, said he planned to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNobody told me or called me up to say, \u2018Hey, you should do this,\u2019\u201d he told NBC News. He said he saw on television that Michael Caputo, a Trump ally, had put a request out publicly in a letter. \u201cMy understanding is that no formal application exists. It is done via letter to the Department of Justice. I have drafted that letter \u2014 and am currently on my third iteration of it. I want it to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two lawyers who say they represent more than 400 participants in the Jan. 6 riot who are already suing the Justice Department said this week that they expected their clients to apply through the fund, rather than continue with litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One woman, whose husband admitted assaulting law enforcement in the melee, posted on X that Jan. 6 defendants deserved payouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere must be accountability for what was done to so many American families. Until justice is truly served, we will never fully be home again \u2014 and our nation will never fully heal,\u201d Kari Hoffman wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though anyone can apply, Blanche said applications don\u2019t guarantee payment. He told CNN on Wednesday that an applicant\u2019s record of violent behavior would be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 140 police officers were injured in the Jan. 6 riot as protesters violently attacked law enforcement, smashed windows and broke into the Capitol in the failed effort to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden\u2019s win. Two of those officers sued to block the fund this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caputo, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services during Trump\u2019s first term, asked for $2.7 million, telling Blanche in a letter posted on X that \u201cthe machinery of government was clearly politically weaponized against my family from July 2016 to December 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caputo, who was never charged criminally, said he was targeted in two investigations, one involving Russian interference in the 2016 election and the other into an anti-Biden documentary he hosted that was linked to Russian intelligence, according to a 2021 intelligence report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of the primary reasons I came forward is so that all of the other deserving people do it, too, Democrat or Republican,\u201d Caputo said in an interview. He said the figure was preliminary because it\u2019s hard to count intangibles like lost business or revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caputo said he had been working on the idea of something like the fund since 2023, through Trump\u2019s presidential campaign. He said there were discussions over whether Democrats would be included. Caputo, Blanche and other Republicans have specifically pointed to Hunter Biden, the son of the former president, who was convicted of a gun charge he has decried as political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPolitical weaponization isn\u2019t just one party,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are people on both sides who suffered through political weaponization who can be shown mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Progressive podcaster Allison Gill \u2014 a former Department of Veterans Affairs employee forced out of her job over her \u201cMueller, She Wrote\u201d podcast \u2014 said she filed a claim to Blanche this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She asked for $8.647 million, a seeming reference to the \u201c8647\u201d seashells Instagram photo that the Trump administration used to charge former FBI Director James Comey because, the Trump administration asserts, \u201c8647\u201d is a threat against Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comey joked this week on CNN that he guessed he\u2019d be in line for a payout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hope I\u2019ll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the Capitol,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n