Senate GOP to face major test on Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund with immigration vote

By Sarah Ferris, Aileen Graef, Alison Main, Manu Raju, CNN

(CNN) — Senate GOP leaders are powering ahead with plans to pass $70 billion in new immigration enforcement funding — despite sharp disagreements that still exist in the party over how to handle President Donald Trump’s contentious settlement fund.

Success is not yet guaranteed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his team are still working to quell internal GOP tensions over Trump’s push for a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who believe they were victimized by the government. The administration has sought to convince lawmakers that the fund is dead, with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche telling lawmakers Tuesday that the administration is “not moving forward with the fund, period.”

Trump himself, though, has been less clear, and appears to have publicly contradicted his own advisers about its fate. Asked by the New York Post in a podcast interview whether he had dropped the fund, Trump said: “No, a court ruled against” it. (The podcast, which aired Wednesday, was taped the day before.)

And there’s another major headache for Trump in the bill: Senate Republicans formally stripped out nearly $1 billion in security funds, including for his East Wing ballroom project, in the latest version of the legislative text released Wednesday.

Even with questions remaining over the status of the “anti-weaponization” fund, Senate GOP leaders now hope to kick off a marathon overnight voting session to pass that massive pot of immigration enforcement funding. The bill — which some Republicans predict will be Trump’s last major legislative victory before the midterms — has been stalled for weeks by the ongoing GOP rebellion over the fund.

But GOP leaders are still looking to defuse a potential revolt by a small gang of Republicans who have concerns about backing the immigration funding package without explicitly killing the fund in writing. GOP leaders are not yet sure how many of those Republican defectors would back an amendment by Sen. Thom Tillis to formally nix the fund –– language that could jeopardize the rest of the measure.

Tillis said Wednesday that he “100%” supports eliminating Trump’s fund through legislation and plans to introduce his own amendment to do so, as Republican leaders are poised to advance an immigration enforcement funding framework.

“I think even DOJ knows that this was a bad idea, and what we need to do is provide finality,” Tillis said. “I’ve made it very clear what I intend to do.”

Another GOP skeptic, Sen. John Curtis of Utah, told CNN that he is “certainly” interested in trying to make sure the fund is fully eliminated in the bill and said he’s in talks with Senate officials about how to do so. Asked if he’s concerned whether Trump could still compensate January 6 rioters even if the fund is nixed, Curtis said: “Who wouldn’t, right?”

That January 6 focus has frustrated some Trump allies who were targeted in earlier federal investigations into Russian meddling and Trump and Ukraine. Those allies argued that the original idea for the fund was meant primarily to aid low-level staffers and others in Trump’s orbit who were caught up in earlier investigations and forced to pay hefty legal fees as a result, according to two sources familiar with the discussions about the fund.

Instead, initial coverage of the fund was quickly overtaken by January 6 rioters’ vows to seek taxpayer-funded compensation — and Trump officials’ subsequent refusals to disqualify those who assaulted Capitol police officers from seeking paydays.

That likely contributed significantly to backlash on the Hill, where many lawmakers are not eager to see January 6 defendants compensated. Sen. Bill Cassidy, another Republican who’s been vocal about his anger over the fund, suggested he supports Tillis’s push to add clearer language to the bill.

“I want to make sure it’s not mostly dead, that it is truly dead,” Cassidy said.

Senate GOP leaders, including Thune, have not said how they would handle a potential Tillis amendment, if he chooses to offer it during the overnight voting session — and if it passes procedural muster.

“No, a court ruled against (the fund),” Trump said when asked if he had dropped the controversial effort on the New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One with Miranda Devine.” The interview was taped on Tuesday.

That same day, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund.

But Trump argues in the podcast interview that people who he claims were targeted by a “crooked government” deserve compensation. “And these were many great people. And I gave them pardons. I’m very proud to have given them pardons. And I think they should be reimbursed for a crooked government,” he said.

Many GOP senators said earlier this week that they could not move ahead with immigration enforcement funding until they knew the “anti-weaponization fund” was dead.

But on Tuesday night, after Blanche’s comments, Senate GOP leaders were pressing for a vote as soon as Wednesday to advance the $70 billion bill to fund the president’s immigration priorities.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Wednesday morning that he believes Blanche’s comments about the fund were “extremely helpful” toward resolving his members’ anger — and ultimately advancing the big GOP immigration funding bill later Wednesday. But it’s still too early to tell for sure.

“I think that most of our members feel pretty satisfied with his comments” but is not yet certain if there are four Republicans still willing to block the GOP immigration bill over DOJ fund concerns. “Whether they are enough with some of our members, we’ll find out.”

Thune said he is “hopeful” to take the next step later today — teeing up a so-called vote-a-rama to pass the immigration money without Democratic votes.

A Republican aide on Wednesday downplayed the notion that Trump’s comments on the podcast would impact Congress.

“I don’t feel concerned about what he said,” the aide said. “Don’t love it, but him saying a court ruled against it is about as close to ‘yes I’m dropping it’ as we will get.”

The aide added that Blanche “was very clear” during the hearing.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche told a House Appropriations subcommittee.

“Not moving forward, ever?” asked Democratic Rep. Grace Meng. “Correct,” Blanche said.

In a post on X, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he appreciated Blanche’s statement but proposed creating “a weaponization fund that will be available to those who can prove their claim against the federal government through the Federal Tort Claims Act.”

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr. responded to Graham’s post saying, “We’re on it.” The post included no explanation and was later deleted.

Last week, a federal judge in Virginia had temporarily blocked the administration from taking steps to set up the fund and barred it from releasing any money from it.

But that ruling was highly technical; it didn’t address the legality of the program but was instead intended to get the court time to review a lawsuit seeking to kill the program in full.

During the podcast interview, Trump also praised the acting attorney general, who replaced Pam Bondi in April, saying that Blanche is “doing a very good job” at DOJ.

When asked if he would try to install Blanche permanently in the attorney general role, Trump said he would.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Devan Cole, Manu Raju, Adam Cancryn, Paula Reid, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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