Rep. Fitzpatrick Vows To ‘Kill’ $1.8 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

Hours after President Donald Trump warned Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick that it “doesn’t work out well” for people who break from his agenda, the congressman spoke out about a taxpayer-funded nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” for allies of the president.

Fitzpatrick, a Republican, sent a letter Wednesday to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche questioning what the lawmaker described as a “massive discretionary fund, with no oversight or approval from Congress.”

Politico reported Thursday afternoon that Fitzpatrick was worknig with Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat, to draft legislation to stop the fund.

The pushback from Fitzpatrick, a former FBI special agent and prosecutor, was among the first about the fund from within the president’s own party.

“We’re going to try to kill it,” Fitzpatrick told reporters at the U.S. Capitol, according to The Hill. “We’re trying to unpack exactly, you know, what the legal machinations are, but can’t do that.”

On Wednesday morning, Trump appeared to target the congressman after receiving a question from Fox News Channel White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who is engaged to Fitzpatrick.

“Her husband votes against me all the time. Can you imagine? I don’t know what’s with him,” Trump said, mistakenly identifying the engaged couple as married. “Her husband — she’s married to a certain congressman — he likes voting against Trump.”

The president added: “You know what happens with that? Doesn’t work out well. I don’t know why he does.”

The multi-billion-dollar fund stems from a settlement between the Trump administration and the president himself over the leaking of his tax records by a former IRS contractor, who was arrested and sentenced to federal prison.

Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney, told reporters earlier this week that the settlement establishes “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”

According to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Trump defended the payouts to reporters earlier this week.

“These were people that were weaponized and really treated brutally by a system that was so corrupt, with corrupt people running it, and they’re getting reimbursed for their legal fees and the other things that they had to suffer,” Trump said.

Legal experts have raised concerns that the fund may be illegal and could be used to financially reward Trump allies and supporters, including individuals involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump controversially pardoned Jan. 6 participants, including those convicted of or who admitted to violent actions.

In his letter to Blanche, Fitzpatrick said Congress controls government appropriations. He requested information on the source of the funding, its exact purpose, whether individuals convicted of federal crimes would receive payouts, and if there are prior examples of “discretionary compensation programs that are not authorized by Congress and do not have court approval or judicial oversight.”

Fitzpatrick has requested a response by June 1.

Fitzpatrick said in a Wednesday night CNN interview that his background as an FBI special agent and prosecutor led to his concern over the fund.

PennLive.com reported that U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told a journalist he does not “support that kind of a weird thing,” while a spokesperson for Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

According to Axios, the fund will be overseen by a group of five people picked by the attorney general, who is appointed by Trump, and does not require public release of payouts.

The fund is part of a federal Judgement Fund authorized by Congress in the 1950s, which has previously drawn concern over lack of oversight.

Paul Figley, a former U.S. Department of Justice official who is considered an expert on the Judgment Fund, told Axios that Congress needs to close loopholes on the fund and future administrations could use the fund to pay allies without changes.

Several Democratic lawmakers and government transparency groups have criticized the fund and raised worry over a provision that “forever” stops the government from looking into or prosecuting tax claims against Trump, his family members, and businesses.

Trump is the first president in more than 50 years not to release his tax returns or a tax summary as he sought the highest office in the country.

Democrats have leveled criticism against the fund and how it came to be created.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, called the situation “corruption happening in broad daylight.”

“Donald Trump sued his own government. Trump’s DOJ settled with Trump. And now Trump gets a nearly $2 billion slush fund to reward his own allies, loyalists, and insurrectionists,” Schumer said earlier this week.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, characterized the account as a “slush fund for Trump’s hand-picked stooges,” calling it an “insane level of corruption – even for Trump.”

A campaign spokesperson for Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, Fitzpatrick’s Democratic challenger, was not immediately available.