By Ellis Kim, Annie Grayer, CNN
(CNN) — One Republican congressman says he is exploring ways to end the Trump Justice Department’s move to establish a tax-payer fueled “anti-weaponization” fund, a move likely to draw the ire of President Donald Trump.
Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told reporters he “100%” wants to prevent the nearly $1.8 billion fund that could compensate Trump’s allies from moving forward.
“Once we get to the bottom of the source of the funding, we’re going to put legislative text together. We got to figure out what we have jurisdiction over. That’s the first question,” he said Wednesday, later sending a letter to the Justice Department demanding answers about the fund.
Fitzpatrick, a moderate who represents a district that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, was the first in his party to publicly reject the fund outright and vow to stop it. He has recently bucked some of Trump’s other priorities – like funding for his East Wing ballroom – and provoked the president’s threat of backing a primary opponent against him.
A number of Republicans across the Capitol, however, were scrambling behind the scenes to learn more about the fund and what oversight role they can play, underscoring how lawmakers in the president’s own party are often left in the dark about key administration moves.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that he expects scrutiny over the fund to occur through the appropriations process for the next fiscal year.
“My assumption is that, based on some of the blowback that’s come since this was announced, that there would be a significant amount of attention paid to it,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins pressed acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for more details in a Senate hearing on Tuesday, asking how much will be paid for each claim, the legal basis for those decisions and whether the information related to the claims will be publicly available.
Blanche acknowledged that the creation of the fund “is unusual” but argued that “it is not unprecedented.”
The DOJ’s announcement earlier this week outlines that the money to enact these settlements will come from a permanent appropriation already established for the department to settle cases, called the judgment fund. According to the department, the attorney general will appoint five board members to oversee the fund, one of whom will be chosen “in consultation” with congressional leadership.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that “we don’t know any of the details of that settlement fund.”
Still, most Republicans are trying to learn the basics about the fund given they were not consulted ahead of time.
House Oversight Chair James Comer said he did not know anything about the fund until he read news reports about it.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole, meanwhile, told CNN he was not consulted or given any heads up about the administration’s creation of this fund or how it would be used and said he was looking into whether any legislative action is required.
“I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t seen it yet. I don’t know what it is legislatively. So I really don’t have anything to say,” Cole said.
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