Cashing Out

The President has gotten the Justice Department to agree to an “anti-weaponization” fund that anyone who the government went after abusively can draw money from. The fund will have $1.8 billion in it. The terms and conditions for payout are nebulous. Whether you agree or disagree with it, it is a bit rich to watch senators who demanded they be paid for Jack Smith spying on them now opposed to this fund.

Douglas Mackey was sentenced to seven months in prison for tweeting that Clinton voters could vote by text. He was actually found guilty of a conspiracy for suggesting on Twitter to 58,000 followers that Clinton voters could vote by text in the days before the 2016 election. The people who should have gone to jail were the very, very, very few people who fell for it. They should go to jail for being criminally stupid. Mr. Mackey had the case thrown out on appeal because it was his First Amendment right to say silly things on Twitter.

In June of 2019, my friend Ben Domenech, then the publisher of The Federalist, tweeted this:

Benjamin Domenech@bdomenech

FYI @FDRLST first one of you tries to unionize I swear I'll send you back to the salt mine

3:39 AM · Jun 7, 2019

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584 Replies · 77 Reposts · 762 Likes

Domenech’s tweet came after a few weeks of attempts by progressives to get various digital media properties unionized, many of which did and then went out of business.

A progressive named Joel Fleming used the tweet to get the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) to begin an inquiry into Domenech. The NLRB found that Domenech committed an “unfair labor practice” with his tweet. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonprofit, had to fight the NLRB all the way to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to get the case thrown out. Again, it was on free speech grounds.

Domenech and The Federalist had a prominent nonprofit help. But the point remains the same. The progressive left has embraced a favored tactic of both the Soviet Union and China — drag people through a painful process because the process is the point. An innocent person without the notoriety to get help will be dragged through a burdensome and painfully litigious process to break them. Often, those people are forced to settle.

Jenna Ellis, for example, was dragged through the Fanni Willis RICO case in Georgia. Because she was not sufficiently loyal to the President and did not have the means to fight the case on her own, she ultimately took a settlement that those with means or outside support did not have to take. Those people were able to fight and get the case thrown out long after Ellis had to fold and settle.

Jeffrey Clark served as a Justice Department Attorney for Donald Trump. He has been harassed, prosecuted, and had his law license taken away in California because progressives pursued him over his advice to the President. Whether you agree with his advice or not, he was an attorney for the President advising the President on a legal strategy. But the Left has tried to drive him out of business and into prison.

The government has abused its power to pursue its enemies. The Biden Administration notoriously used the FACE Act to throw pro-lifers in prison.

And therein lies the problem with the anti-weaponization fund, based on what we know so far, and, admittedly, what we know is very nebulous.

The Justice Department has a fund, approved by Congress, from which it can settle cases. Congress created the fund in 1956, called a judgment fund, so that Congress did not have to pass private legislation every time the government settled a case monetarily or had a judgment imposed against it. Before 1956, for example, if a mail carrier ran over someone and the victim was awarded injuries in a lawsuit, Congress had to pass a private law appropriating the money for the victim, even though a lawsuit had resulted in a jury verdict and damages. After 1956, the Justice Department and Treasury Department could jointly pay the damages without an Act of Congress.

Notably, after the fund was announced on Monday, the Treasury Department’s general counsel quit. That is pretty telling.

The Attorney General intends to set up a five person commission to decide who should get paid from the fund, and there will be no court settlements needed. You will be able to file a claim.

I oppose the idea. I understand the intent and understand that the government has inappropriately pursued enemies for partisan reasons.

But I don’t think James Comey should be allowed to cash in under the next Democrat President because of the pending prosecution of James Comey. And I don’t think the non-governmental organizations that have been defunded by the Trump Administration without legislation should be able to get damages because they were targeted with partisan motivation. And I don’t think the progressive deep state employees who have been fired because of their partisanship should be able to get reimbursed.

You know and I know that if Trump opens this door, the next Democratic President will tear the door off its hinges. And before you say they will anyway, neither Obama nor Biden went down this road.

This is a terrible precedent.

But wait, there’s more.

Let’s say you think this is a good idea. It is a fair argument. But why do it now and not on November 4, 2026? That is the day after the midterm elections. The President could get it all set up and ready to go and wait until after the midterms.

Instead, now, Republicans have just one more issue they have to deal with on the campaign trail. It will, like the ballroom, put them on defense. You can’t afford gas and groceries, but the President just created a slush fund to hand your tax dollars over to his political allies. That will be the argument, and it will be a compelling argument, particularly if the January 6 rioters start cashing in after their pardons. Kamala Harris was for they/them, and it turns out Donald Trump is not really for you, unless you’ve shown enough loyalty.

The President has played his political hand badly.

He alienated Thom Tillis, who will not be running again. He alienated Mitch McConnell, who will not be running again. He alienated Bill Cassidy, who just lost his primary. He alienated John Cornyn with the Paxton endorsement. Add in Murkowski and Collins, and suddenly, there are the votes in the Senate to make sure the judgment fund cannot spend money on this project. And this is terrific politics for Susan Collins. Enough House moderates are fighting for their lives that they, too, will want to oppose this.

Don’t look now, but while the President’s base has attacked the Senate as a “do nothing Senate,” they just decided to bail on the reconciliation package the President wanted and have gone home till June. Why? Because of this anti-weaponization fund. They will now not fund Homeland Security as originally planned and, when they come back, will probably restrict the judgment fund.

The President stands to draw so much opposition to this idea from Republicans that his most easily manipulated supporters will probably soon start arguing that this whole thing was a stunt designed to give Republicans an opportunity to run against the President for the midterms.

I think it is a bad idea, and Congress should kill it. Your opinion may vary. But we should be able to agree that doing this right now, at this time, looks terribly out of touch and provides Democrats just another opportunity to go on offense on the corruption issue.