Announcing President Donald Trump’s new $1.776 billion fund for people targeted through “lawfare” in the nation’s courts, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said “the machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American.”
Three days later, a federal judge in Chicago revealed that an indictment against six Operation Midway Blitz protesters was the result of alleged misconduct by prosecutors — conduct she said had left her “incredibly shocked.”
The defendants, known as the “Broadview Six,” are largely involved in Democratic politics in Chicago. But now their lawyers say they might apply for relief under Trump’s new “anti-weaponization fund” after the case was dismissed.
“You want an example of weaponization?” Christopher Parente, one of their defense attorneys, told reporters after the charges were dropped on May 21. “You’ve got prosecutors going into the grand jury targeting political candidates and political figures improperly. These guys should be Exhibit 1.”
It’s highly unlikely the six protesters, including progressive Democratic former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, are the intended targets of what critics are calling a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies.
Still, their application could serve as a test of the fund’s purportedly nonpartisan nature.
It’s also possible that, if they accept money from the Trump fund, they’d be giving up any relief they might secure in a federal courtroom down the road. Anyone who chooses to do so “must forgo all other relief, including judicial relief.”
Claims of wrongdoing
The fund was created May 18 in exchange for Trump and two of his sons dropping their $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of their tax returns. The Trumps also agreed to drop two other claims against the federal government.
The fund will be overseen by five commissioners appointed by Blanche, one who will be selected in consultation with congressional leadership. Trump will have the authority to fire any of them.
“The use of government power to target individuals or entities for improper and unlawful political, personal, or ideological reasons should not be tolerated by any administration,” Trent McCotter, a Justice Department official, wrote in announcing the fund.
Federal authorities have provided few details on how the fund will operate or who will be eligible for compensation. Blanche told a Senate subcommittee anyone can apply regardless of political affiliation.
Michael Caputo, a Trump ally who was a spokesperson for the federal Department of Health and Human Services during the president’s first term, appears to have submitted the first known claim to the fund.
Caputo said he and his family were targeted in the “illegal” Crossfire Hurricane investigation into potential Russian interference in the 2016 election. He’s seeking $2.7 million in restitution and reimbursement from the fund.
Another prominent ally, Mike Lindell, the chief executive officer of MyPillow, also said he plans to file a claim. And former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, convicted for his role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said he would seek millions.
The fund is facing political and legal challenges.
A law professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents during an immigration protest and a fired federal prosecutor who helped lead the investigation of the Capitol riot have sued to block the fund. So have two Capitol police officers who defended the building, calling the fund the “most brazen act of presidential corruption this century.”
“President Donald J. Trump has created a $1.776 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund to finance the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name,” the lawsuit says.
What this means for ‘Broadview Six’
The Broadview defendants are far from Trump allies. The group was charged in the midst of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s deportation campaign in the Chicago area last year. They were accused of joining with others who surrounded a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent’s vehicle and pushed, scratched and otherwise damaged it outside an ICE facility in Broadview.
Charged along with Abughazaleh were Oak Park village Trustee Brian Straw, then-Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic Party committeeperson Michael Rabbitt, musician Joselyn Walsh and Andre Martin, a member of Abughazaleh’s campaign staff.
A grand jury indictment accused them of a conspiracy to impede a federal agent, and each initially could have faced a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars.
The charges against Sharp and Walsh were dropped in March.
Then, on May 21, Chicago U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros made a rare courtroom appearance and acknowledged apparent misconduct by his staff before a grand jury last fall. He announced that his office would dismiss all charges against the remaining protesters.
U.S. District Judge April Perry told lawyers in the case that she was “incredibly shocked” by what she saw in grand jury transcripts.
“I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts,” Perry said.
Worst, Perry said, the problematic behavior had been redacted from the transcripts she was given. Defense lawyers called the accusations of prosecutorial misconduct “unheard of.”
“I think our clients have been dragged through the mud repeatedly by this [U.S. attorney’s] office,” said Parente, Straw’s lawyer. “And knowing … that they were sitting on this the whole time is just infuriating.
“Things are happening in this country every minute. There is a weaponization fund that I think we are now eligible for, and I think people need to see what this DOJ is doing.”
At a hearing Tuesday, defense lawyers said Boutros might have had contact with the grand jury.
Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who’s now a University of Michigan Law School professor, said that, based on the judge’s findings, the protesters appear to qualify for the Anti-Weaponization Fund. But she said they’d probably be unlikely to get any money from the fund.
“Because the panel members will be selected by Blanche and fireable by Trump, I would not expect their claims to prevail,” McQuade said. “But denial of a claim would give them standing to file a lawsuit challenging not only the denial of their claims but the unlawful creation of the entire apparatus.”
Other more prominent Trump opponents appear to be mulling over applications — or at least joking about it.
Former FBI Director James Comey told CNN he thought news of the fund was a “piece from ‘The Onion,’ ” the satirical newspaper and website.
“I’m guessing I’ll be in line,” Comey said. “I hope I’ll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the Capitol.”