'This is corruption': Elizabeth Warren slams Donald Trump's $1.7 billion 'slush fund'

Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the Trump administration on Tuesday, as she spoke about the Department of Justice's (DOJ) $1.7 billion settlement package. The Massachusetts Senator said that corruption on display from the government's side was "eye-popping, unbelievable." She said the settlement fund would be used to assist those who assaulted police officers and rioters involved in the January 6, 2020, insurgency.

"The whole idea that your taxpayer dollars are going to do what? Fund the guys that beat up police officers? Fund the guys who rioted to stop the peaceful transfer of power? Fund anybody that Donald Trump wants…This is corruption with capital letters and flashing lights and fireworks going off," Warren said in an interview with the Meidas Touch Network. Government officials have maintained that any American was eligible to apply for compensation under the DOJ's 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'.

However, the criticism from Democrats, like Warren, has not ceased. The 76-year-old shared a news report that stated that the DOJ had expanded the settlement to cover President Trump's tax audits. Taking to X, Warren claimed that the President had forced the government to drop all tax audits of him, his family members, and his businesses. "What is Trump hiding from the American people? Congress must step up and stop this corruption," she added.

Warren is not the only Senator to have criticised the settlement fund. Among more recent critics is Rep. Jamie Raskin, who had earlier introduced a bill to assess Trump's fitness under the 25th Amendment. In a post on X, Raskin claimed that the DOJ settlement included provisions that would clear Trump and his family of any tax crimes committed. "How much grifting and scamming will it take to get the fiscal conservatives of the GOP to join us and put a stop to this presidential plundering of taxpayer dollars?" he asked.

A lot of the criticism has fallen on Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had to testify in front of the Senate about the bill. He had several heated debates with Democratic senators, some of whom accused him of acting like President Trump's personal lawyers. On Wednesday, House Judiciary Democrats moved to subpoena Blanche, Scott Bessent, and other Treasury officials about Trump's $1.7 billion fund. However, the Republican Party has enough votes to block it.

While the settlement has been criticised by Democrats, high-ranking officials in the GOP have been expressing their support for it. On Tuesday, Vice President J.D. Vance said that anyone who might have attacked a police officer would not be getting money from the fund. "We're not trying to give money to anybody who attacked a police officer... we're trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system," he said. "We do have…in this country, innocent until proven guilty. We do have people who were accused of attacking law enforcement officers, but that doesn't mean we are going to completely ignore some of the claims that they are going to make."