The unprecedented lawsuit President Donald Trump brought against the Internal Revenue Service over the unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns years ago has led to an unprecedented arrangement that will make nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds available to allies of the president who say they were unfairly investigated by the government in the past.
The announcement of the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” by the Justice Department on Monday immediately drew criticism from Democrats, public interest groups and former government officials who argued that Trump was using the levers of the government he controls to set up a vast piggybank for his supporters.
“It’s highly unusual. It seems to me that it’s a fairly thinly veiled attempt to funnel federal money to people that are sympathetic to the president’s cause and points of view without following the kind of usual procedures,” said retired Judge William Smith, who was appointed to the federal bench in Rhode Island by former President George W. Bush.
Later Monday, the federal judge in Miami who had been overseeing the case agreed to fully close the matter – scrambling hopes from some corners of the legal community for her to scrutinize the behavior of the Trump Justice Department attorneys and Trump’s personal lawyers who were involved in the lawsuit.
