Senior DOJ official deletes post hinting at alternative plan to compensate alleged ‘weaponization’ victims
A senior Justice Department official suggested late Tuesday that the Trump administration may pursue an alternative approach to compensating individuals it claims were harmed by Biden-era “weaponization,” despite earlier assurances that such plans had been abandoned.
The since-deleted post appeared only hours after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that the Department of Justice was scrapping proposals for an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
That fund had been established as part of a settlement in which President Donald Trump agreed to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, along with two civil claims connected to the Russia investigation during his first term and the 2022 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Stanley Woodward, the associate attorney general who approved the controversial settlement, publicly endorsed a suggestion by Senator Lindsey Graham that alleged victims of Biden-era “weaponization” could still seek compensation through claims filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
“We’re on it,” Woodward wrote on X at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday in response to Graham’s post. The message was deleted by Wednesday morning, and the Justice Department declined to explain why it was removed.
The post surfaced shortly after Blanche testified before House lawmakers that the administration was permanently abandoning the Anti-Weaponization Fund. Under pressure from Democrats, however, Blanche stopped short of committing that position to writing.
Democrats are now weighing whether Woodward’s deleted message indicates the administration is exploring alternative ways to compensate individuals involved in the January 6 Capitol riot.
In a podcast interview recorded Tuesday for Pod Force One, Trump said he had not voluntarily dropped the fund but that a court had “ruled against it.” In the same interview, Trump argued that people he had pardoned — a reference widely understood to include January 6 defendants — should be “reimbursed for a crooked government.”
