Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outlined on Monday a coordinated campaign Democrats are launching to stop President Donald Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund. Trump said the $1.8 billion fund from the Justice Department was lawfully created as part of a settlement agreement he reached with the IRS to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the agency. The fund seeks to compensate individuals whom Trump said the Justice Department has wrongly targeted. Democrats believe the fund has no lawful basis, with Schumer writing in a “Dear Colleague” letter this week that it is “the most brazen act of self-dealing yet and one of the most corrupt schemes ever launched by a president.” Schumer revealed his party will seek to shut down the fund during the Senate’s budget process and to force Republicans in the upper chamber to vote on the matter, with “no fake guardrails or backroom promises to hide behind.”
“This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door,” Schumer wrote. “If Republicans return to reconciliation, we will be ready with amendments to shut the fund down. If they try to bury the issue, we will force them to the Senate floor. If they try to sneak behind appropriations, we will fight them there too.”
