Americas
Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies at a House oversight committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 2, 2026.
(AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
The Justice Department on Tuesday dropped a contentious plan to create a US$1.8 billion compensation program that critics had denounced as a "slush fund" for President Donald Trump's political allies."We are not moving forward with the fund. Period," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee.
It's an about-face for one of Trump's most divisive second-term initiatives, which had drawn criticism from Democrats, legal experts and even some members of Congress in the president's own Republican Party.
