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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sharply criticized President Donald Trump on Monday after the Justice Department announced the creation of a controversial $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" linked to Trump's decision to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

"Trump didn't just pardon his followers who stormed the U.S. Capitol," Clinton wrote on X. "He's now set them up for payments through a slush fund he created to reward his allies, out of your tax dollars. You could not make this up."

The DOJ fund was announced as part of a settlement resolving Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns by former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn, who was sentenced to prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to unlawfully disclosing confidential tax information tied to Trump and thousands of wealthy Americans.

Under the agreement, Trump will dismiss the lawsuit in exchange for a formal apology and the creation of the federal compensation fund, which administration officials say is intended to help people who believe they were politically targeted or "weaponized against" by the federal government during the Biden administration.

Critics immediately seized on one detail: the fund could potentially be used by Trump allies, including some people prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump already pardoned more than 1,000 Jan. 6 defendants after returning to office, and Democrats argue the new fund effectively creates a second layer of restitution using taxpayer money.

The symbolic amount of the fund, $1.776 billion, appears to reference the year 1776 and the American Revolution. According to The Wall Street Journal, the program will be overseen by a five-member commission tied to the Justice Department, with four members appointed by Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former defense attorney.

Trump and the Trump Organization will not personally receive payments from the fund, according to the DOJ. However, the settlement also resolves additional claims Trump had tied to the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search and investigations connected to Russia and the 2020 election.

The announcement triggered an immediate political backlash. Rep. Jamie Raskin called the initiative a "political grievance fund," while Sen. Ron Wyden described it as "the most brazen theft of taxpayer dollars by any president in history."

The White House and DOJ rejected accusations that the fund is partisan. In a statement quoted by AP, officials said the initiative is meant to address alleged government abuses regardless of political affiliation and insisted anyone who believes they were improperly targeted could theoretically apply.

Still, Clinton's comments quickly became one of the most shared reactions online because they connected the new compensation program directly to Jan. 6 defendants and Trump's broader effort to recast prosecutions tied to him and his supporters as political persecution.

The dispute also revives the long-running feud between Clinton and Trump nearly a decade after the 2016 presidential election. Trump has repeatedly accused Clinton and Democrats of orchestrating investigations into his campaign's Russia ties, allegations that intelligence reviews and Justice Department investigations never conclusively proved.

Originally published on Latin Times