WashingtonA $1.8B Justice Department fund has no statutory payout criteria.
The attorney general appoints 5 of 6 commissioners, Trump can remove any at will, and Jan. 6 defendants remain eligible, Attorney General Blanche told the Senate.
Senate Republicans signalled opposition; no legal authority or congressional oversight has been cited.
Sources: The New York Times, Mirror, NBC News
THE PURSE STRINGS
Article I §9 of the US Constitution forbids any money leaving the Treasury except through a law passed by Congress. The executive branch can spend only what the legislature authorizes — this is the single oldest check in the constitutional structure, predating the Bill of Rights.
THE IMPOUNDMENT FIGHT
Nixon tried to refuse spending Congress had ordered; Congress responded with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which forces the president to spend appropriated funds unless Congress agrees to rescind. The reverse problem — spending without an appropriation — is governed by the Antideficiency Act, which makes it a federal crime.
THE SLUSH-FUND PATTERN
A discretionary fund with vague criteria, hand-picked commissioners, and an at-will removal power is the textbook structure that the post-Watergate reforms were designed to prevent. Iran-Contra, the Nixon White House Special Investigations Unit, and the Teapot Dome scandal all turned on the same mechanic: money or favors routed outside the normal appropriations and oversight chain.
PARDON VS PAYMENT
A pardon erases criminal liability; it cannot order the Treasury to pay the pardoned person. Compensation for wrongful federal conviction exists under the Unjust Conviction Act of 1948, but requires a court finding of actual innocence — not a presidential declaration. Paying Jan. 6 defendants without that finding would route around the statute.
WHY THE SENATE MATTERS
Even a Republican-controlled Senate has structural reasons to defend appropriations authority — the power of the purse is the legislative branch's leverage over every future executive, regardless of party. Senators who acquiesce to one administration's slush fund hand the same tool to the next administration that may use it against their own coalition.