Donald Trump has approved the creation of a $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund in Washington as part of a settlement reached on Monday with the US Department of Justice over his leaked tax returns, prompting critics to brand it a $1.7 billion MAGA slush fund because taxpayer-funded payouts will go to anonymous claimants whose identities and awards will be kept from public view.
The fund is the centrepiece of a deal ending Trump's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, which stemmed from the release of his tax records during Joe Biden's presidency. According to documents cited by The Daily Beast, the fund will compensate people who say they were 'persecuted' by the Biden administration and will sit under the control of a handpicked commission reporting privately to the attorney general rather than to Congress or the wider public.
