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Senate Democrats have introduced legislation to permanently ban Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, hours after the Justice Department abandoned it under mounting legal and political pressure.
Getting into it: Senators Mark Kelly, Adam Schiff, and Elissa Slotkin unveiled the “Drain the Slush Fund Act” on Monday, a bill that would bar taxpayer money from going to Trump, his associates, anyone convicted of a crime, or those involved in January 6, while also blocking any payouts tied to suits filed by a current president or vice president, backdated to the day Trump was sworn in for a second term. The announcement came the same day the DOJ scrapped the fund after federal judges in Virginia and Florida moved Friday to block payouts and reopen Trump’s underlying lawsuit.
The department said it “disagrees strongly” with the ruling but would abide by it, while a senior official told Axios the fund was “dead for now” following a meeting between Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Democrats made clear that a pause isn’t enough. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to “force them to vote,” vowing in a letter to his caucus that there would be “no escape hatch” and that Democrats would attach amendments to kill the fund wherever Republicans tried to move spending bills. “A promise from Trump is worthless,” Schumer said, demanding the fund be banned in law. Democrats didn’t hold back either, with Kelly calling the fund “theft in broad daylight,” Schiff branding it “one of the most brazenly corrupt schemes we’ve ever seen from a U.S. president,” and Senator Dick Durbin saying it “reeks of corruption.”
Notably, all three sponsors have been on the receiving end of the administration themselves. Jeanine Pirro, the US Attorney in DC, failed earlier this year to bring an indictment against Kelly, Slotkin, and four House Democrats over a video that urged military and intelligence officials to reject illegal orders. Kelly, who retired from the Navy as a captain, is now fighting with the Pentagon over its move to knock down his rank in response. Schiff, for his part, drew a Justice Department investigation into alleged mortgage fraud last year.
This all comes as the fund faces no fewer than three lawsuits, one brought by officers wounded in the January 6 riot and another from the watchdog group CREW.
As of now, there’s been no statement from the White House.
