Sen. Thom Tillis called the Trump administration’s proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” “stupid on stilts,” saying advisers behind it should be fired because convicted Jan. 6 rioters could qualify for payouts.
Tillis said compensation would make sense only for people wrongly targeted and later cleared, not for defendants who assaulted Capitol police, pleaded guilty, or were convicted by juries.
A Republican Senate meeting Thursday already showed heavy resistance when Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to build support, with Tillis saying colleagues saw the plan as a distraction from affordability, Iran and Russia.
The fund would let claimants and payout amounts remain anonymous, and Tillis warned that structure could look like self-dealing as Trump allies including Michael Cohen and Rep. Andrew Clyde eye claims.
Blanche defended the program as a way to remedy past Justice Department “weaponization,” but the proposal is drawing widening Republican and bipartisan criticism.
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