Republicans called Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing to go after the Southern Poverty Law Center, but Jamie Raskin showed up to talk about something far bigger.
Armed with the Constitution and a list of names he wanted subpoenaed, the Maryland Democrat turned his opening remarks into a full-scale takedown of what he called one of the most corrupt financial schemes the Trump administration has pulled off yet — a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that Raskin argued was nothing more than a taxpayer-funded reward for Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers.
He laid out exactly where the money came from and who he believed was responsible.
“The Trump administration is perpetuating a fraud against America by taking nearly $1.8 billion of our money from the U.S. Judgment Fund and without any legal authorization from Congress, purporting to use it to pay off his once and future private militia,” Raskin said.
Raskin pointed to a damning detail that he said exposed just how legally indefensible the arrangement was — the Treasury Department’s own top lawyer walked out the door the moment the deal went public.
Career IRS attorneys, he noted, had already drafted a memo calling Trump’s underlying lawsuit deeply flawed and urging the DOJ to fight it in court.
Instead, the DOJ handed over $1.8 billion.
He then reached for the 14th Amendment, reading directly from Section 4 to make the constitutional case against every dollar of the fund.
“The United States shall not assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States. All such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”
The warning for Jan. 6 insurrectionists expecting a million-dollar payout was delivered without hesitation.
“Everybody who thinks they’re getting a big payoff this week should understand this — this payment is illegal and void. The money belongs only to the taxpayers of America. And we will get that money back,” Raskin said.
Raskin closed by formally moving to subpoena Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, IRS chief Frank Bisignano, and other officials he said were at the center of what he described as Trump’s self-dealing scheme.
However, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and other Republicans on the committee shut it down.
