Here is a sentence that should stop you cold: the President of the United States negotiated a settlement with his own administration, worth nearly $1.8 billion of public money, and a big share of it is meant to go to people who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

That's not an opponent's characterization. It's Trump's own description of it. On July 31, as the Ohio Capital Journal's Washington bureau reported, he defended the "anti-weaponization" fund on Truth Social by saying it would benefit:

"the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration"

He went on: "Perhaps there has never been a group of people treated so badly in our Nation's history. They are suffering still, many ruined, and I felt that they should be given compensation for what has been done to them."

The people he's describing are the roughly 1,500 people charged after the Capitol attack — including the ones who beat police officers.

How this deal actually works

This is the part that gets lost in the shouting, so let's go slowly.

Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion over a 2019 leak of his tax information by a government contractor. That contractor was prosecuted and sentenced to jail in 2024.

Trump then settled that lawsuit — against the federal government — with officials he appointed. The settlement was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and Frank Bisignano, the IRS chief executive officer, a position Trump created. Woodward had previously represented Walt Nauta, Trump's co-defendant in the 2023 classified-documents case.

In exchange for dropping the $10 billion claim, the government set up a nearly $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund.

The settlement also grants immunity from tax audits and enforcement to Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the private Trump Organization, connected to that leaked tax information.

So: the president sued the government, settled with himself, and the terms include a fund for his supporters and audit protection for his family business.

A federal judge in Florida wasn't impressed. In a July 13 order, the judge handling the IRS case said the settlement amounted to using the presidency to "manipulate" the courts. The judge has barred Trump's lawyers from even calling it a "settlement" as evidence in the case. They're appealing.

Former Justice Department officials told Senate Democrats at a July 22 forum that the settlement language was "mind-boggling."

Two Republicans said no. Look at which two.

The fund has now stalled the confirmation of Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal defense lawyer — as attorney general.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both on the Judiciary Committee, are refusing to advance Blanche until he formally ends the fund in writing. Committee Chair Chuck Grassley had to postpone the vote.

Tillis was blunt:

"While I never disagreed that the Biden Administration pursued a number of vindictive prosecutions related to January 6, the criminals who assaulted police officers and defiled our nation's Capitol are not 'great American patriots' who are 'victims of government abuse.' Anyone who attacked law enforcement should still be in prison, not getting a check from the federal government."

He called the whole thing a "legal and political albatross."

Cornyn added that Trump is "mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis."

Now here's the part worth sitting with. Both of these men are on their way out.

Cornyn lost a May runoff to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump endorsed. Tillis announced last year he wouldn't seek reelection, after Trump threatened to primary him for refusing to back the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.

The only two Senate Republicans willing to say out loud that people who assaulted police shouldn't get federal checks are the two who no longer have to worry about a primary.

Trump's response was to threaten to pull Blanche's nomination entirely and leave him running the Justice Department in an acting capacity until Cornyn and Tillis leave office at the end of the year.

"It's dead." "But I wish it weren't."

Asked about the fund at a Cabinet meeting at Camp David the same day, Trump said Blanche should be confirmed "forthwith" and that the fund is "dead."

Then he added:

"But you know, I wish it weren't. To be honest with you, I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. … and I'd like to see them compensated for the pain."

Tillis had already anticipated exactly this, saying earlier that day that Trump "made it clear today that the so-called Anti Weaponization Fund is still alive, which is exactly why we are attempting to formally end it."

Blanche's position is that comments he made to a House Appropriations subcommittee in June already ended the fund. Cornyn and Tillis want it in writing. Given that the president spent Friday saying he wishes it were still alive, you can see why.

What January 6 actually was

It's been more than five years, and the language keeps getting softer, so it's worth restating the facts.

On January 6, 2021, a mob attacked the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes. Police officers were beaten with flagpoles, fire extinguishers, and their own equipment. Roughly 1,500 people were charged.

On the first day of his second term, Trump commuted the sentences of 14 ringleaders and members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, and issued a "full, complete and unconditional pardon" to everyone else charged.

Now he wants them paid.

Where the rest of the party is

The fund was announced by the Justice Department in May and drew immediate criticism from both parties over the possibility that people who assaulted police could be compensated. Republican objections have been serious enough to gum up an unrelated immigration enforcement package.

But "serious enough to slow things down" is not the same as stopping it. Two retiring senators are holding the line. The rest of the Senate Republican conference is largely quiet, and the White House spent Friday circulating a press release full of endorsements for Blanche.

Every Republican in Congress has a choice here that is about as simple as choices get: is taxpayer money going to people who beat police officers at the Capitol, or isn't it?

Most of them haven't answered. We deserve better.

Source

Ashley Murray, "Trump defends massive settlement for 'great American Patriots' of Jan. 6, attacks GOP senators," Ohio Capital Journal / States Newsroom Washington Bureau, August 3, 2026, with contributions from Amelia Twyman. Photo: Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.