WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump has settled his private lawsuit seeking $10 billion in damages from his own administration over its alleged mistreatment of him. In exchange for dropping his lawsuit, the Justice Department has agreed to set up a billion-dollar “anti-weaponization fund” to create what the department called “a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”Trump himself won’t receive any compensation, the Justice Department said.“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a press release. The fund will receive $1.776 billion from an existing fund for paying administrative claims. The number is a nod to the nation’s declaration of independence from Great Britain 250 years ago. On the first day of his second term, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who’d been charged with crimes for rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It’s possible many of them could now get payback for their prosecution. “President Trump dropped a $10 billion lawsuit against his own government in exchange for a $1.776 billion slush fund to steer our tax dollars to election deniers and insurrectionists,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Monday on social media. “Of all the corrupt things he has done, this is one of the most depraved,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an emailed statement. “No president should be able to use the Department of Justice as a personal rewards program for the people who helped him attack our democracy.”Trump filed a lawsuit earlier this year in his capacity as a private citizen against the IRS over an illegal leak of his private tax information in 2020. In addition to dropping the suit, Trump is also withdrawing administrative claims for damages related to the Justice Department’s criminal cases against him over his attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and his hoarding of classified documents after leaving the White House. The president has insisted that he was merely the victim of a “witch hunt” targeting the political opponents of then-President Joe Biden. He has continued to falsely insist he won the 2020 election and to lament the weaponization of the federal government, even as he publicly directs the Justice Department to target his own political foes. The White House declined to comment on Monday, instead deferring to the Justice Department’s release. Neither the press release nor the settlement agreement document specifies who will be eligible for claims. Mark McCloskey, an attorney who has filed administrative claims for hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters, told HuffPost last week he’d advocated for the administration to set up such a fund to pay his clients. “It’s very similar to what we had suggested over a year ago,” McCloskey told HuffPost on Monday, adding he would see about converting his clients’ prior administrative claims against the Justice Department into anti-weaponization claims. “Maybe it’ll restore people’s faith in the government.”Democrats have described the proposal as a “slush fund” for Trump to pay off his political allies, and they’ve said Trump’s lawsuit itself presented an obvious conflict of interest, since the president was suing a government he controlled. On Monday, dozens of Democrats filed a motion to intervene in the case. “President Trump’s action against the federal government he currently leads is a collusive lawsuit that undermines the separation of powers, frustrates Congress’ lawmaking prerogative, and ― unless rightfully dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction ― could siphon billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of the President, his family, and his allies,” the Democrats said in their filing. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams had questioned whether she should dismiss the case and set a deadline for Wednesday for the parties to respond. Trump’s legal team moved to dismiss the case on Monday, likely to stop Williams from throwing the case out and preventing the settlement. “By settling his absurd $10 billion lawsuit against his own administration, Trump and the Justice Department just engaged in the most brazen act of self-dealing in the history of the presidency, and did so quickly in order to avoid the scrutiny of the judicial process,” Donald Sherman, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement. “This is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history.”