WASHINGTON (TNND) — Former Vice President Mike Pence called the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund a “bad idea,” and encouraged the Trump administration “to drop it.”
Pence criticized the fund on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, which the DOJ launched last month as part of a settlement between the IRS and President Trump for a $10 billion lawsuit over the leak of his tax returns. The fund is intended to compensate people victimized by lawfare and government weaponization.
“The weaponization fund is a bad idea from the start, and I would encourage the administration just to drop it,” Pence said, the Washington Examiner reported. “Let’s get rid of this fund. I mean, it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
Pence said that he believed his view was “broadly held by most Republicans and most Americans.”
He added that the DOJ already has the authority to resolve legitimate claims without creating a separate fund. Pence noted a recent settlement involving a pro-life family that alleged mistreatment by the Biden administration, possibly referring to Mark Houck’s case, saying such instances can be handled individually.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund on Friday.
Vice President JD Vance said last month during a White House press briefing, when asked whether people who assaulted police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot should be eligible for compensation, that “every single case has its own details.”
“We’re not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer,” Vance said. “We’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them. They were mistreated by the legal system.”
Pence presided over Congress’s certification of the 2020 presidential election during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. During the riot, Pence, his family, and aides were rushed to a secure location.