The Department of Justice submitted a legislative package to the Senate on Wednesday that would create a $1.776 billion fund to pay individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers during the Capitol riot while simultaneously eliminating all outstanding tax audits of the Lumpy-Dumb-Dumb family dating back to 2010.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed Republican senators for two hours in a gilded room adjacent to the Senate floor, distributing a one-page PowerPoint that described the proposal as a routine settlement of ongoing litigation. The presentation made no mention of the tax provisions, which were attached as a rider on page 47 of the accompanying memo, according to senators present.
"The Department determined the most efficient path to resolving complex multidistrict tort claims was to consolidate them into a single administrative remedy," said DOJ spokesperson Candace Murtaugh, adding that the tax absolvement was simply a necessary jurisdictional matter. Murtaugh declined to explain why the fund amount matched a well-known patriotic year or why the tax rider covered precisely the period during which the former president's businesses faced active scrutiny.
the former president was not in the room during the presentation, but aides said he later described the package as "beautiful" and demanded it reach his desk before Memorial Day alongside an immigration bill. The demand stunned several senators who had already blocked a separate $1 billion ballroom renovation request just days earlier.
Mitch McConnell, the former majority leader, emerged from the meeting and called the slush fund proposal "utterly stupid, morally wrong—take your pick." Senator John Curtis reportedly told staffers the PowerPoint looked like a middle school book report. Senators Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, and Tillis all departed for the holiday recess within minutes of the session ending, none offering public comment.
At least 400 January 6 defendants have already filed claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers seeking compensation for legal fees, lost wages, and emotional distress. Collectively, the claims already exceed $800 million, a number the DOJ brief characterized as "a floor, not a ceiling."
The tax rider would nullify a $100 million audit of deductions the president took between 2005 and 2008 and bar the IRS from examining any the former president family tax returns filed between 2010 and 2026. The Congressional Budget Office was not asked to score the fiscal impact because, according to a footnote in the memo, the administration classified the revenue loss as "self-correcting economic justice."
Senate staffers who reviewed the full text noted a clause making the fund payoff schedule index to the price of gold and payable in nonsequential $100 bills. A separate provision assigned a Department of Justice ombudsman to personally apologize to each recipient.
Blanche did not take questions after the briefing. An aide said the Attorney General would spend the holiday weekend revising the PowerPoint ahead of a second presentation to the House Freedom Caucus, where support for paying cop-assaulters is widely seen as a release valve for the president's domestic agenda.
