A $1.8B ‘slush fund’ for Jan. 6 rioters? Where do Missouri, Kansas senators stand? | Opinion
A slush fund for election deniers and insurrectionists? Say it isn’t so.
That was my initial reaction when I first read that acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche had proposed — with marching orders from President Donald Trump — a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that would compensate Jan. 6 rioters and others allegedly aggrieved by the federal government under former President Joe Biden. Then, I imagined the pushback former presidents Biden and Barack Obama would have gotten had they concocted the same plan to pay billions of dollars to reward criminals who attempted to overthrow a free and fair election.
Or could you imagine the response had either of them shelled out almost $2 billion to Muslim people in America who were indirectly and sometimes falsely tied to the 9/11 hijackers? Arrest them for treason, I’m almost certain critics of both former leaders would say.
So how is this proposed fund for Jan. 6 rioters any different? And how do our U.S. senators stand?
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said he backs the U.S. Department of Justice’s anti-weaponization fund. Last week, Hawley told Spectrum News that the Justice Department should lean into its experience managing other compensation funds such as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to administer funds to insurrectionists and others who believed they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted by the government.
“You want to make sure that folks are truly valid claimants and have a real claim,” Hawley told the outlet.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, said he is concerned about the purported fund — and rightfully so. Every tax-paying American here or elsewhere should frown upon any fund that would award insurrectionists responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
In a statement sent to me before the Senate broke for a weeklong Memorial Day recess, Moran said he and other senators must have a say in this attempt to pay anyone with a grievance against the federal government.
“I have serious concerns with the DOJ’s anti-weaponization fund, and I joined my Senate colleagues in voicing those concerns,” he said in the statement. “Congress must conduct oversight of this use of taxpayer dollars and fully review, alter or eliminate the anti-weaponization fund.”
I’ll give Moran credit here, as he is the only one of the four U.S. senators from Kansas and Missouri who spoke with me. Messages sent to Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, and Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, were not returned. A staffer in Hawley’s office referred me to the Spectrum News article when asked about Hawley’s stance.
Last week, Marshall told reporters that he has concerns about the fund — created as part of Trump’s settlement with the IRS after he sued the agency for $10 billion over leaked tax returns — but did not call out the preposterous nature of the proposal.
“This is going to be a leadership call,” Marshall said.
Anything short of outright condemnation of the government-sponsored shakedown of taxpayers is unacceptable and unbecoming of any public official.
No matter how hard Trump, his allies and cronies try to rewrite or erase history, they can’t. Besides, most of us have viewed video footage of the mayhem or read court records of the assailants’ criminal cases.
Thousands of people who ran afoul of the law that day were later arrested, tried, and either convicted or pleaded guilty to various crimes ranging from assault on a police officer to demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building to seditious conspiracy.
All were pardoned by Trump — not for legal reasons but purely political ones — and now some even want restitution for their crimes. The irony of that scenario is outrageous.
A House Select Committee report concluded that Trump coordinated a campaign to overturn the 2020 election. And a report from a bipartisian Senate panel stated: “On January 6th, 2021, the world witnessed a violent and unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Vice President, Members of Congress, and the democratic process. Rioters, intent on obstructing the Joint Session of Congress, broke into the Capitol building, vandalized and stole property, and ransacked offices. They attacked members of law enforcement and threatened the safety and lives of our nation’s elected leaders.”
Tragically, “seven individuals, including three law enforcement officers, ultimately lost their lives,” the report continued.
Jan. 6 will go down in history as a direct attack on our democracy. And no amount of spin from the Trump administration could ever justify using taxpayers’ money to pay those responsible.
