The Justice Department said it would obey a court order pausing the nearly $1.8 billion fund, potentially signaling a broader pullback.
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The Trump administration Monday signaled that its nearly $1.8 billion payout fund was on shaky ground, as Republican lawmakers pushed the White House to abandon an idea that had prompted resistance from members of both parties as an inappropriate way to reward the president’s supporters.
The Justice Department announced that it would abide by a judge’s order Friday to temporarily halt the fund, which the administration said would provide payouts to those who claim they were unfairly targeted by the agency. The department has little choice but to obey a court order, so the unprompted announcement was seen by many lawmakers as a signal the administration was backing away from the fund.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said he had been making it clear to the White House for several days that it should abandon plans for the fund, which has proved deeply unpopular.
Senators left Washington last month without passing one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities — legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies, which Trump wanted on his desk by Monday — after the administration failed to allay Senate Republicans’ concerns about the fund.
“I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters. Ideally, Thune added, the administration would simultaneously make clear that it will not try to resurrect the fund.
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The Justice Department statement followed a three-hour meeting between House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Trump that included a discussion of the fund, according to a person familiar with the meeting, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Trump and Johnson met for three hours Monday in a previously unannounced meeting at the White House.
Democrats immediately decried the fund after its emergence May 18, saying it amounted to Trump taking money from taxpayers to reward his most militant followers who falsely claimed that President Joe Biden’s administration had “weaponized” the Justice Department against them.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said Monday morning that Democrats were launching a “coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door,” forcing Republicans to vote repeatedly on the unpopular measure.
But many in the GOP were deeply uneasy, as well, and backlash to the fund within the president’s own party has stalled efforts to advance a budget package that would primarily fund the immigration enforcement agencies.
Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in raising concerns that people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could benefit from the fund, and they also worried it could create new political risks for the party ahead of the midterm elections.
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Perry Stein, Jarrell Dillard and Salvador Rizzo contributed to this report.
